Jimny's Inactive Back Door

[Greynomad]

Our toad, 'Jim' has given marvellous service in nearly 3 years OTR. Never missed a beat, even in creek crossings up to the headlights!
(O'course, he was serviced frequently ... and you can stop laughing down the back!)
Now that he's back home, he has decided to play up.

- The rear door brake light has Failed To Proceed.
- Then the rear wiper decided that its self-parking function was Surplus To Requirements.
- Next, the washer failed to deliver water to the rear window.
- The final straw came t'other day when – in the middle of a Very Wet Thunderstorm – the rear wiper decided it was going on holidays!

Just visited the Suzuki Service Centre in town... $125 for the assessment (generously includes the first hour of labour), plus whatever it costs in parts & labour to fix the problems!

Arrgh, me hearties! There be poirates hereabouts!

[supersparky]

Ray, It sounds like something has become unplugged in the rear door, or perhaps in the wiring loom in the rear area of the vehicle. I can't remember whether the wiring runs through the rear or underneath it.
Did the rogues happen to fix it while they were sizing up your wallet?

[Dot]

Workshop return Ray..

[Kelvin12]

If its been up to its gills in water check the push together cannon plug connection assuming there would be on back there somewhere. Silly question but have you checked the fuses under the dash. They may have blown if its been in water.

Dirk

[T1 Terry]

Hi Ray, I'll take a punt the problem is a failed earth/neg return circuit. probably where the erth/neg wire contacts the body work some rust has developed. the path of failure all points to gradually deteriorating neg return circuit, the loss of wiper park is a common problem associated with a poor earth/neg contact.
look for the colour code of the neg wire in each failed piece of gear, make a nice siny contact on the main body, the door latch is a good one, run a wire with clips from this earth/neg return spot to the neg wire at any of the failed bit of equipment, one with a decent size cable would be best, now see if it all works again. If that works, trace down all the earth/neg return points (a bolt with a heap of the neg coloured wires attached), take the bolt out, clean up the metal to metal contacts, a good dose of electrical contact paste or grease if you don't have any of the contact paste, then bolt it back on. you will need to track down every earth return point and do the same thing or you will be chasing weird elkectrical problems for ever. The door light switches stuffing up the interior light, central locking, thenalarm malfunctioning is a trap for the inexperienced it's just a simple neg contact to the body so it get gunked up quite easily, it only take one crook one to cause all sorts of problems.

[Kooroorinya Kelpie]

We also have a Jimny ( Papa san Chook Chaser ) which cops a bit of a caning regularly. For 40+ years I have been using INOX on anything and everything which is or has been exposed to moisture/water. This stuff proved its worth when I operated fishing trawlers which is probably as tough as it gets for electrics. If I've had the Jimny out for swimming lessons I always give it a good spray paying attention to connectors, plugs and motors. In many cases ,thatwhich has mysteriously ceased to function comes good again. The good part is that it won't harm paint,rubber, etc. but cane toads don't work any better when sprayed. A good preventative maintainence item for lazy buggers like me. I don't have any agenda promoting this product just saying it how it is.Cheers.

[Greynomad]

Thanks for the info, people.
However, as I am physically unable to crawl under Jim these days, I have to pay someone to do such things,
I even gave my heavy-duty ramps to a (younger & fitter) neighbour as a Christmas present... he's been 'minding' them for me since we left on the Big Lap in March 2010. He owns a diesel Landcruiser.

Had Jim booked in with the Suzi dealers for yesterday (Fri), as they were probably most familiar with such probs.
Auto Elec would probably charge as much after spending time chasing down clues...
Total cost: $125.
Took 'em less than an hour to discover a break in the wiring loom & fix it.
Happy chappy now... although wallet feels much lighter for some reason.

[supersparky]

At least it's fixed now Ray. One less thing to worry about. I am beginning to find that when I lay on my back under the vehicle I get vertigo or something. I start to feel cross-eyed and nauseated. Must be start of old-timers disease.

[Kelvin12]

OR the start of heart problems. I had the same feelings and also when I raised my arms above my head they would ache like hell and I would feel faint and fuzzy. Get it checked for sure.

Dirk

[supersparky]

OR the start of heart problems. I had the same feelings and also when I raised my arms above my head they would ache like hell and I would feel faint and fuzzy. Get it checked for sure.

Dirk

I have been to the doc and he reckons it's a vision thing, something to do with focal planes. The ticker is AOK.