Waterlogged Prodigy Brake Controller
Submitted: Thursday, Dec 16, 2010 at 22:28
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scoots68
In July this year we travelled to NT in a 2007 Kia Grand Carnival towing a Jayco Expanda. Due to the wet weather we had numerous
water crossings from Uluru to Kings Canyon & again at the entry to our caravan
park in Alice. All travel was done on made roads due to the 2WD vehicle. Our Prodigy brake controller which was fitted in 2007 stopped working. Tried to have it fixed in Alice & again in Pt
Augusta, no one could get it going so travelled very carefully home (not a great option I agree). Have just taken it back to the original installer who said it was
water damaged & needed to be replaced along with the rear towing module at a cost of $963. Seems to me that it wasnt installed properly as every other car in the area went through the same
water we did without issues & surely they should be waterproofed anyway as they are the same unit fitted to many 4WD vehicles that would travel through
water regularly. Has anyone had any issues with this & dloes anyone have any advice?
Reply By: Member - Charlie M (SA) - Thursday, Dec 16, 2010 at 22:39
Thursday, Dec 16, 2010 at 22:39
Hi scoots68
Is your controller inside tow vehicle ?
Or on drawbar of Jayco
Cheers
Charlie
AnswerID:
439111
Follow Up By: scoots68 - Thursday, Dec 16, 2010 at 23:46
Thursday, Dec 16, 2010 at 23:46
Hi Charlie, controller is inside the vehicle. The car is all electric - doors, windows, mirrors, etc, no other problems, deepest
water we went through was probably only 20cm. Cheers Rachael
FollowupID:
710955
Reply By: Gronk - Friday, Dec 17, 2010 at 00:01
Friday, Dec 17, 2010 at 00:01
Someone may be having a lend of you if the controller was inside your car ??
The module MAY have been
water damaged, but $963 seems very steep......
Get another quote !!
AnswerID:
439115
Reply By: Member - Teege (NSW) - Friday, Dec 17, 2010 at 08:21
Friday, Dec 17, 2010 at 08:21
scoots
Can you explian what the "rear towing module" is? If your Prodigy has not been under
water, I fail to see how it can be
water damaged. I had problems about 10 years ago towing a Jayco and the first two lecco's I took it to wanted to replace the brake controller. After much stuffing around we finally found that the problem was in the earth in the Jayco. Have you tried attaching another van or camper with electric brakes to see if the problem really is in the controller? BTW, my Jayco had done about 20,000km's before the problem surfaced.
teege
AnswerID:
439126
Follow Up By: scoots68 - Friday, Dec 17, 2010 at 08:42
Friday, Dec 17, 2010 at 08:42
Hi, I'm not actually sure what the rear towing module is but it is supposedly worth $355. I believe it controls the van lights. The repairers initially replaced all the wiring, said problem was still there so replaced prodigy & said there was still an intermittent problem so they replaced the 12 pin socket & rear towing module which fixed the problem. No
water was in the car, they are basically saying that the
water on/in the wiring has caused all the problems. Didn't actually think to try another van & it's been fixed now so can't do that & just think that all the wiring under the car should be waterproof.
FollowupID:
710968
Reply By: Member - Graham H (QLD) - Friday, Dec 17, 2010 at 11:03
Friday, Dec 17, 2010 at 11:03
Price of Prodigy $185 Cable $35 New 12pin connectors $15 each side.
2hours Max to replace. $160
If it shorted something else it woud perhaps be different
No modules in most vans except the make or break breaksafe and your van is probably not heavy enough to have one.
Wires go straight from drawbar to magnets
Did you get the old parts back
I always insist I do get them.
AnswerID:
439145
Follow Up By: Dunaruna - Friday, Dec 17, 2010 at 16:44
Friday, Dec 17, 2010 at 16:44
There is a genuine trailer plug loom and module behiind the rear kick panels. It is there to take care of things like reverse sensors, brake controller etc. It is a plugin device.
FollowupID:
710995
Follow Up By: Member - Graham H (QLD) - Friday, Dec 17, 2010 at 18:50
Friday, Dec 17, 2010 at 18:50
Yeah Toyos have a plug in loom for towing. But I bypassed that for the brakes.
At least I know there are no joins to come apart and stop them from working
FollowupID:
711011
Reply By: Member - Charlie M (SA) - Friday, Dec 17, 2010 at 22:19
Friday, Dec 17, 2010 at 22:19
The prodigy should have been showing connection fault if faulty wiring or earth.
If inside vehicle it would not have been
water damaged unless car was full of
water inside above controller.
I would be asking a lot more questions.
How heavy is the earth wire from plug to tow vehicle.
Does controller show if connected to Jayco, it should show a letter C in red if all ok
Cheers
Charlie
AnswerID:
439189
Follow Up By: scoots68 - Saturday, Dec 18, 2010 at 10:28
Saturday, Dec 18, 2010 at 10:28
hi charlie, definitely no
water in the car, only about 20cm deep over the road. Not sure how heavy the earth wire is. The controller was showing that it was on when the Jayco was not connected but showed nothing when it was connected. Can't remember exactly what it was showing on the controller though. We're disputing whether they did a proper job installing it in the first place - surely these things are designed to withstand going through some
water - when we walked through the
water it was barely knee deep on my 5 yo so plenty of other cars & vans went through it. cheers Rachael
FollowupID:
711073
Follow Up By: Member - Charlie M (SA) - Wednesday, Dec 22, 2010 at 09:53
Wednesday, Dec 22, 2010 at 09:53
Rachael
If connected to car and controller is not showing anything it may be the earth to the controller itself, not making good contact to body earth white wire.
Or power wire to controller may not have power to it, black wire.
Hope this helps
Charlie
FollowupID:
711442
Follow Up By: scoots68 - Thursday, Dec 23, 2010 at 10:12
Thursday, Dec 23, 2010 at 10:12
Thanks Charlie, we are going to go & have a chat with them to find out a bit more about what has gone on. Cheers
FollowupID:
711529
Reply By: Dunaruna - Saturday, Dec 18, 2010 at 09:38
Saturday, Dec 18, 2010 at 09:38
If the trailer plug is underwater (mud etc) and you put your foot on the brake, it is possible that a short will occur. Was the plug full of crud/corrosion?
AnswerID:
439220
Follow Up By: scoots68 - Saturday, Dec 18, 2010 at 10:23
Saturday, Dec 18, 2010 at 10:23
Pretty sure we didn't brake under
water as we know we aren't supposed to do that. There was no mud/crud in the plug. Apparently a circuit breaker can be fitted in case you accidentally do get
water in the system which would then blow a fuse but not the whole system. I would have thought a circuit breaker would be standard to prevent such damage but apparently not. The repairers have fixed it so we are really disputing now whether they did a proper job installing the system in the first place given what has occurred and whether we should pay for it.
FollowupID:
711072