water in the fusebox/ wet relays

[rosie]

The windscreen has been leaking into the fusebox on my '92 GTII, probably for several months, but I only pinpointed the problem yesterday after ruling out all the other possible leaks. I've tried to dry the worst of the water up, and have been advised to use a hairdryer to get it completely dry again. I took out the relays and noticed that several of them had wet and rusty pins. Do I need to replace them, or will they be ok once they're dry?
Since yesterday the fusebox fizzes when the engine isn't running, and drains the battery, so I've disconnected the battery for now, until I can dry it out.
I've been having issues with my electric windows for a long time (they work intermittently, and always get stuck open) and the blower/heater doesn't work at all, or works for a few seconds and then gradually stops. I'm wondering now if this is due to the leak. I saw another post which said the windows and heater are all linked to the ignition, and it could be a faulty ignition switch. Does that sound likely in this case? How would I test/replace it please?
This car is a labour of love- hope someone can help before I give up!
Thanks

[Nate]

i would suspect your fusebox will be the cause of your problems with the windows and heater.

first off, you need to cure the leak from the windscreen - this may be down to rust or to the rubber being past it. depending on how confidant you are doing it, you could either open, dry and clean you current fusebox or just seek out a like for like replacement.

i have wondered about packing the inside of the fusebox with vaseline or similar to protect against future water ingress, like people do with trailer electrical jucion boxes

[rosie]

I took out all the fuses and relays one by one, sprayed in a bit of wd-40, dried the fuses and put them back, but it's still fizzing. Never thought of vaseline. Would that be better than wd-40?
I think there's a lot of water in there (i've bailed out about 4 inches in total off the floor over the last couple of weeks, all of which dripped through the fusebox initially- I stupidly thought it was coming through the previously leaky sunroof and didn't investigate further)

I've found the leak, right at the bottom corner of the windscreen, and have sealed it temporarily. The bodywork is fine, it's just the seal.

I thought about replacing the fusebox as I'm not sure if a hairdryer will dry it out enough, but then I looked at the back of it and baulked slightly. I'm planning to stick a dehumidifier inside and leave it running for as long as I can dodge the traffic wardens. Maybe that and the hairdryer will do the job.

[stu.gtx]

You can open the relays up by taking the back off them. That's probably the only way you'll dry them out properly.

[scalainj]

From my experience of this - drying out the existing one is just storing up trouble for the future -that fizzing is shorting in the box and to be fir drying it out will just mean corrosion inside and yet more problems

Having had 2 go this way the best bet is too cure the leak which i did with a new seal and then bathroom sealant between glass and rubber and metal and rubber for the entire seal and take you time and it will seal it

Then change the fusebox - you should be able to get another perfectly good one for 5-10 quid max and then change it over - its really simple as the block are all colour coded and fit in one place but easieat wat is let the existing one hang down and then just change over the connections transferring them one by one across to the new one. once all the back is done, then the front

Lastly i fashioned a hat of plastic to go over the fusebox that means if anywaer does come down it rolls off down te bulkhead and it that a fire risk - well yes but only if it shorts which are causd by water and corrossion which the plastic hat i stopping - ive had no electrical issues in the last two years at all since i did this

He says hugging a tree

Andy

[rosie]

Thanks Andy, despite my efforts with the hairdryer the pins on the relays are still wet when I pull them out so I think a new fusebox is the next step. Think I'll wait till I've resealed everything and know it's all watertight. The fusebox has stopped fizzing though so at least I've improved things a bit.