Ever have water enter your wire?

[DubNDodge]

A month or two ago I noticed that I had some odd liquid/material building up under neither one of my wires in my trunk which was laying ontop of mdf. I thought nothing of it, as water has dropped off my trunk lid before, and I figured that was the case.

Well now it is much more extensive.

It comes from the 1/0 ground, which goes to frame (outside of car) and then runs down the 4ga which then collects on the mdf board. Everything is soldered. So the only place water could really enter is between the terminal and wire jacket. I'm not sure if water could seep 2 feet through wire, or if I have a battery issue. I have no idea how to test it other than grabbing a piece of the crystallized liquid and putting it to my tongue to see if it is salt (from the roads). Someone mentioned that water should evaporate off the board, but I know how mdf swells and doesn't go back to form.

Anyways, I'll let the pictures explain

How the soldered terminal looks.

I really don't want to bother XS until I determine whether or not it is the battery.

[SnowDrifter]

Easy way to tell if it's the battery: Mix up baking soda and water to the point of saturation, then drip a bit of that solution onto the deposits. If it's acidic it will foam. Battery acid smells a bit like eggs too.

Which wire is it coming from? Can you tell? If it's dribbling down the wire in that amount, you should be able to find some sort of wet spot and trace it from there. Take a hose under the car and spray on the spot where the wire runs into the car. From all angles, you are trying to make it leak to verify if it's the source.

As for water wicking it's way through the wire: I suppose it's possible, but I very highly doubt that. 2ft of wire, through shrink wrap on both ends, in that amount?

[DubNDodge]

Just smells like mdf and fiberglass resin down there right now. first thing I'll do is the baking soda thing.

Even if it did leak through the caulking, I would think that it would just run down the side of the spare tire well and collect under the mdf. Who knows it could be riding around the outside of the jacket through the caulking.

I do believe the majority of it is coming from/on that 1/0 ground. That's why I took the picture of the heat shrink around it. That is the only one that actually has it collecting on the wire itself.

Thanks for chiming in, was hoping you would

[Guest]

That ghost custom water cooling....

Battery acid? I bet you touched this water and if it was battery related you would feel it.

I would add more waterproofing measures to that white sticky hole. (couldnt hurt right? except the price)

It looks a little scarce on the bottom portion in this picture

Unrealated but I would look into resanding this grounding point soon,

I see some rust starting to form at the top of the terminal

As for leaking through the caulking and going down the side wall,

I like to think the water drops would ride the wire but I'm no physics major

goodluck

[Soccerballzs]

Do you have a small pin hole in jacket on the outside? Very interesting!

[kirill007]

What's up with the caulking?

Is there a rubber gromet or any other type of material to stop the wire from rubbing into the sheet metal?

I don't think it's from the battery since it's only on wire, right?

And yes, water can enter wire even though it's (badly) soldered, that's why there are sealing rings inside the (high-voltage) industrial cables.

[soundstream15]

you could buy some flex seal and spray around the caulking, i heard that shit works well

i would take some tape or even a beed of caulking around you wire jacket, i guess to be safe never know.

you sure you dont have a small leak under your MDF?

never heard of this problem grant, i hope you fix it

[DubNDodge]

Semi good news!!! I made up that solution, on the thick side, but still runny. Dropped some on the spot where it looked like it had collected under the 4ga. Nothing happened. Just sat there and still is lol. I also got ballsy/stupid and licked smeared my finger on it, and licked it after. Tasted vaguely of salt. So we have a leak. Where? I'm not sure yet. I'm going to tear that whole damn trunk apart to look for it.

Someone also mentioned condensation. So maybe there was a build up on the batt, and it ran down the battery. but then again, it should just run down the side, and not 90 degrees to ontop the terminal.

gunnem, re-caulking is in order. I'm going to make sure I have the right kind this time as well. The ground it getting re done. I did spray over it, that was a picture right when it was done. I will be using that rubberized under coating to do it.

soccer, no pin hole that I would know of.

kirill, yes there is one there that goes around the hole before the wire goes in. I then caulked the hell out of the hole on the outside and inside. Might not have been the correct caulking for the job, but it's what we had laying around.

Nathan, yeah. Something is in order for sure. I highly doubt there is a leak under the mdf. possible, but not sure how water would ride up the wires. it's all possible I guess.

[DubNDodge]

Figured out the damn problem. So I had techflex on there. Well I shrink wrapped under it, and then put the techflex on, electrical taped it. Heat shrunk over that to make it look nice. Well that electrical tape ended right on the other side of the grommet inside the car. Water was seeping through under the electrical taped techflex.

I said fuck it and started over. Took all the caulking off with a grinder, cleaned my ground again, and had at it.

Cool stuff someone recommended to me. Supposed to be rubbery afterwords, unlike the type of calking I had.

Pictures of everything done.

I even used it to cover the bare metal vs paint.

[SnowDrifter]

Good deal man! Glad you got it figured out