I have a 2004 that's been running flawless up until the 95k mile range. I visited a local car wash (been there dozen or more times before) and about 10 miles or so down the road following the wash the truck died at a stop light. Barely restart and when it did ran incredibly rough then die again. Got the truck off the road and let sit for about 30 mins....fired it right up and drove home w/o any problems.

Truck drove well for another 3k miles or so then one day during heavy rain it happened again. Wait an hour after rain stops and all is good. Now I'm suspected electrical problem..... so I did the 100k service early and had all plugs and a #8 coil replaced.

Month later visited same car wash and problem reappeared. This time worse as 30 min wait didn't resolve the issue. Following a tow to dealership, two things were done; replaced battery and they pulled code P2135. Code caused them to reprogram the PCM. Truck has run ok since but still concerned about driving in rain and hitting a car wash.

Done some research and wondering if the TPS wiring or TPS is faulty. Could it be a bad O2 sensor? Not sure what the problem was/could be but I'd like to do some of my own checking to be sure it's definitely fixed.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

It sounds to me that water is getting into an electrical connection and causing you issue. They problem is tracking down the bad connection. I had this happen to a Honda Civic that I had to run to work and back, everytime it would rain it would run like crap, not die just run very bad. I replaced plug wires, distributor cap, rotor, and it still did it. I ended up tracking it down to a bad O2 sensor connection, I replaced that it ran great until I sold it.

Pull the electrical connections apart that you think are causing the problem and spray some WD40 in the connection. (WD40 displaces water) If it doesn't work with that connection, then try another.

 

Check the 3rd brake light. Water could get in there, run down the channel to the doorsill, to the fuse box. Just my 2 cents.

 

It is most likely your fuel pump modulator.It is mounted under the frame above the spare tire. It gets corroded to the point that water will get inside.

 

my truck did the same thing yesterday. i went though the car wash noticed truck didn't work right. then it was ok after a bit then it poured rain while i drove and hours drive home. parked truck in the yard went out the next day and truck will not start. will whirl over but won't start. though i can't hear the fuel pump running when i first turn on the key. any ideas?

 

3rd brake light is at the rear, the fuse box is at the front of the truck. i dont see how its gonna travel that far and back up to the fuse box. your interior would have to be flooded a 4 or 5 inches for it to hit the fuse box. and "if" it was happening your carpet would be wet.

 

He was right about the 3rd brake lights leaking though. Good to check it anyhow. Water getting in is not good period.

 

I found a product some years back called LPS at the hardware store (also seen it in autoparts stores). There are several types but one is specifically water dispersant and I don't think it contains oil. Used to have a Spitfire that had similar issues and used that on it. Pulled apart every electrical connection and sprayed this into it and reassembled, all my water related no-starts went away.

I saw a demo on it that sold me. They took a 110v open relay with a electrical socket for a lightbulb wired onto it. They sprayed everything up on it then put it into an aquarium plugged in. I checked several times over the next 1/2 hour, it sat under water cycling on and off without a problem. I even tried touching the water to see if there was an electrical bite there, there wasn't.

I even had a brother-in-law that tried to submarine the car to where there was about 1/4" of standing water in the distributor (have no idea how he accomplished that). Mopped up what water I could (didn't get it all and the inside of the distributor was still damp), sprayed the heck out of the inside of the distributor with LPS and drove it about 2 miles home with the remaining water still in the distributor. It wouldn't start till I sprayed the inside of the distributor.

If you can find some, it's worth trying.

Paul

 

got my truck fixed it was the fuel pump modulator.