Left the Bronco Topless in the Rain

[azuano3654]

Left the Bronco in the driveway with the top back (but with a JTops bimini installed) as well as front doors off, and of course we had a few 10-15 min thunderstorms run through while I was working from home not realizing the Bronco was still out. I did start it up to move it and position it better in the sun to dry it out and didn't notice anything strange in that quick time, but are there other things I should do as a precautionary measure? Wait longer to use the radio so the speakers don't break? Anything?

My wife was panicking when she saw it and did her best to towel dry the dash, etc. and I tried to assure her the Bronco was designed to handle some rain (and dust) with the top off/doors off and that we should be fine but I think I was also trying to convince myself by saying that.

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[Razorbak86]

It's ruined now. Might as well send it straight to the crusher.
/s

All kidding aside, as long as you dried things out as much as possible and didn't see any error messages on the instrument panel, just let it air out more and it should be fine.

 

[SS Bronco]

I have done the same thing more than once for hours. Make sure you dry out the space under your cargo area where the Jack is stored it holds water.

 

[‘21OBX]

Carpet or rubber floors? Take out the floor mats if carpet so air can dry it better. The sill plates pop off lift one and feel under the carpet to check if still wet. You could also pop off the sill plates and prop up the carpet to get air under it if it is not dry.

 

[BroncoSarge]

One of the reasons I went with the Badlands. Forgot the top many times. Now I rarely put the back windows on it. Of the at least 6 times I have gotten the interior soaked, I haven’t run into any issues with dash errors or problems.

I will +1 on the rear cargo and jack locations. I don’t put anything back there and leave the plug out of the cargo part. I have the jack tools in a ziplock as well. It’s just never dry.

 

[sjp]

Put it in a big bag of rice?

 

[Peter_benton]

crap, just soaked mine last week with a surprise overnight storm. pulled out floormats and letting sun bake it out but wondering any other advice?

will check the cargo hold area..

amazing the poor design of window switches etc.. clearly no one planned on top off rain scenarios.

 

[patientB]

When I had my 98 Wrangler TJ, I had instance where my horn started blowing nonstop - the only way to silence it was to remove the fuse. Dealer diagnosed a dead clockspring behind the steering wheel, said it was a common issue of Jeeps left in the rain repeatedly.

Years later, a neighbor's TJ's horn started blowing in the driveway (vehicle off, unattended). Helped him locate and pull the horn fuse. Same diagnosis.

As these Broncos age, depreciate, and are left to the elements, we'll see what common electrical issues happen from repeated thunderstorm exposure.

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