agw_01
14th February 2018, 22:45
Hi all,
I've owned my 03 ZT CDTi for 12 months and until very recently, it's been very reliable.
The other week the car wouldn't start with nothing from the starter motor, not even a solenoid click. I only had 8 volts at the solenoid wire which after a bit of Googling, found quite a few people reporting similar issues which were appointed to a wet EWS disrupting the crank signal. I tried to send 12v directly to the solenoid and still had nothing so removed the starter from the car for further investigation.
I wasn't entirely happy with how the starter was performing off the car so decided to replace it. The car sat around for a week before I had chance to fit it giving the EWS time to dry out. New starter fitted, car cranked off the key and started as normal. Everything was fine for a week or two.
Got in the car on Friday, started it and drove it to my destination 10 miles away, the weather was dry. I got back in the car a short while later and once again, I had nothing from the starter. I replaced the solenoid wire with one that I'd made up to allow me to connect the solenoid directly to the battery and the car fired up without issue. I did a 600 mile round trip this weekend and the car ran well, apart from me having to manually trigger the starter solenoid each time.
Drove the car to work on Monday and again, it ran fine. There was quite a lot of rain and spray on the motorway but got to work and parked up. Came back to the car about an hour later, key into position 2, jumped out to trigger the solenoid and it wouldn't start. I got back into the car and noticed an 'engine disabled' message on the cluster display.
A bit of googling later and I guessed that the EWS had got so wet that it was no longer reading the RFID chip in the key and as such, refused to start the car. I located the EWS, removed the end cap and sure enough, water came out of the unit. While I was under the dash, I noticed the sunroof drain directly above the EWS was hanging loose!!
The car is currently sat at work with the battery disconnected while I wait for some 5 star torx bits to remove and assess the EWS, but what are my options here? I'm hoping that allowing the EWS to dry out and giving the PCB a clean/repair any damaged components will restore its functionality. If the unit is past saving can I get a 2nd hand EWS and have it coded to my ECU and keys, or can only new EWS modules be coded?
Apologies for the long post but I figured it'd be useful to get as much information in as possible.
Thanks for any assistance!
I've owned my 03 ZT CDTi for 12 months and until very recently, it's been very reliable.
The other week the car wouldn't start with nothing from the starter motor, not even a solenoid click. I only had 8 volts at the solenoid wire which after a bit of Googling, found quite a few people reporting similar issues which were appointed to a wet EWS disrupting the crank signal. I tried to send 12v directly to the solenoid and still had nothing so removed the starter from the car for further investigation.
I wasn't entirely happy with how the starter was performing off the car so decided to replace it. The car sat around for a week before I had chance to fit it giving the EWS time to dry out. New starter fitted, car cranked off the key and started as normal. Everything was fine for a week or two.
Got in the car on Friday, started it and drove it to my destination 10 miles away, the weather was dry. I got back in the car a short while later and once again, I had nothing from the starter. I replaced the solenoid wire with one that I'd made up to allow me to connect the solenoid directly to the battery and the car fired up without issue. I did a 600 mile round trip this weekend and the car ran well, apart from me having to manually trigger the starter solenoid each time.
Drove the car to work on Monday and again, it ran fine. There was quite a lot of rain and spray on the motorway but got to work and parked up. Came back to the car about an hour later, key into position 2, jumped out to trigger the solenoid and it wouldn't start. I got back into the car and noticed an 'engine disabled' message on the cluster display.
A bit of googling later and I guessed that the EWS had got so wet that it was no longer reading the RFID chip in the key and as such, refused to start the car. I located the EWS, removed the end cap and sure enough, water came out of the unit. While I was under the dash, I noticed the sunroof drain directly above the EWS was hanging loose!!
The car is currently sat at work with the battery disconnected while I wait for some 5 star torx bits to remove and assess the EWS, but what are my options here? I'm hoping that allowing the EWS to dry out and giving the PCB a clean/repair any damaged components will restore its functionality. If the unit is past saving can I get a 2nd hand EWS and have it coded to my ECU and keys, or can only new EWS modules be coded?
Apologies for the long post but I figured it'd be useful to get as much information in as possible.
Thanks for any assistance!