Hello All.
completely stock car...
For some strange ass reason, I decided it would be cool to hit a puddle the other day.... you know, just for kicks... yea, I know, I'm an asshole....
Anyhoo... The car stalled!! So, I went and opened up my air cleaner, and my damn air filter was wet.... the airbox was literally soaked....
Tried to start car, and it kept trying to force itself to start....removed airfilter and proceeded to dry as much as I could..... Try to start car, nothing...
Decide to sit for a little while and hangout...you know, listen to some tunes...talk to client's on my cell.... you know, anything to forget what an asshole I am.....
15 mins...car starts, although labored....
Now, it runs...but feels a little rough... when I go into reverse, it feels like it might stall.

How much damage did I do??? Could it be the extreme heat lately??What do we think? Do I have serious engine problems????

And keep your flames to yourself..
unless you know what Hydrolock is, and how bad it is for car, don't post.. :madfawk:




peace,
BC

 

If it's still under warranty, then get it checked out and fixed by your dealer, assuming that you didn't modify your intake. All that anyone here can do is tell you what might have happened. I believe the usual damage is bent valves. You may also have water in your oil.

I've heard of people sucking up water, eventually getting the engine started, and then it working just fine. But, I have also heard horror stories of people encountering major engine problems after a little while. The only way to know for sure is to get it checked out, so if there is a problem, it won't get worse.

Good luck.

 

I'm not usually a worst case scenario type of guy, but i'll tell you my story anyway. About a month and a half ago, this guy got his integra towed to my work (Acura Dealership) He had a cold air intake on is car. The guy wasn't the most knowledgable guy in the universe, and said:
So we opened up the spark plugs and sucked out the water, gave it an oil change and sent him on his way. Two weeks ago, it happened again, you'd figure this guy would learn. So we sucked the water out of the car, and told the guy that he was really lucky. Flash foward to last week, I go on holidays. Went to Regina for the long weekend + my sister won her soccer tournament (nobody even scored a goal on them the whole tournament), so it was a good weekend for me + my family, but I'm guessing this integra dood didn't have such a good weekend. I came in Tuesday to pick up my paycheck, and noticed that ever familier integra (its got a lot of rice, without the beef to go with it, so it sticks out like a carrot in a cucumber patch). I decided to walk around and check it out, maybe he installed a supercharger while I was away, but there was no supercharger to be had. I don't know what was happening, but the cylinder head was off, and a bit later I noticed the crank kicking around. Now I know that is a worst case scerario, and I know I beat around the bush to tell this huge story, but I was bored anyway,soo.

 

hydro lock is a weird thing... it can do anything from just stalling your engine, to bending valves, to breaking connecting rods.

a compression test should give you a good idea if any damage was done or not.

have you replaced your air filter with a new one? i can't imagine that a wet paper filter once dried can flow enough air for a motor to run on.

 

Yes, I went and picked up a new airfilter. The airfilter was actually very wet!
Where do you think I can get a compression test? Do I just ask my dealer? Thanks for the help guys!

 

You can purchase a compression tester kit at any local auto parts store, and do the test yourself. Should run you $10-$20. Dealer will charge $35+ and you don't get any tools out of it. As long as you can remove spark plugs, you can do a compression test.

Having another person to help is a good idea though.

 

Ok...i read the full thread here and a similar thing happened to me the other day..here's the post i posted in the accord forum...

"First the cause of the problem. I originally removed my resonator which leaves my airbox open to whatever comes in the front right trim under the bumper.

Thursday night i went to a local warehouse parking lot and changed my automatic tranny fluid and was done with that. I WAS planning on doing my oil at the same time but i decided to pack up because a storm was heading in. I made a GOOD choice because it started to sprinkle JUST as i got the car off the ramps and everything in my trunk. Thank GOD!

So i decided NOT to go home right away. I wanted to see if my tranny was alright with the new fluid i put in. So i drove around a little. It starting raining harder and HARDER..REALLY HARD!!! Now it was POURING! I was driving through this parking lot with draines in the center of the lot with warehouse builidings on both sides of me. So all the water from the roofs of those warehouses were draining down into those drains. I was like "cool..thise is deep water...water spraying from my car is prety cool"....so i start going through it faster..and then one i went through REALLY fast....BIG MISTAKE!!

After that my car started to loose power and started to vibrate. I SO friggin knew what i did!!! Water splashed up into the filter and SOAKED it!!

So the check engine light came on immediatly, so i shut the car off!

I waited..and thought...thought..and thought some more.

I eventually started the engine again and seemed alright...BUT..when you hit the gas...i assume it sucks water out of the soaked filter into the engine....so it starts to vibrate again...so i let my foot off the gas. I let it idle....i think if more and more air gets sucked through the filter. It'll dry it out eventually. I was right...well...not RIGHT..but semi-right. I guessed it dried it out enuff so i could get some high rpm's to get the car moving.

I went up to the gas station under cover of the rain and look my airbox apart. Sure enuf...SOAKED!! I tried to dry most of it out...but it's still gonna be wet. So i just drove home and turned it off. Next morning it was fine. I'm pretty sure the filter has dried by now(didnt feel like taking the airbox apart again).

Just last night i changed my coolant and my oil. The car runs great and sounds great. BUT..i have a small problem...

My STUPID check engine light is on!!!! Now i have heard before that if anything is wrong with the car..obviously that light will light up. I also heard that REGARDLESS of what you do to fix the problem that had happened. The light will STAY on??? Is this correct? or is the sensors still picking up water in the intake? I am figuring i have to go to honda for them to reset it for me cuz that light is ANNOYING!!

Can i get it checked other places besides Honda? I dont wanna pay too much for them just goin in and reseting the ecu or somethin. I can do that myself. Will resetting the ecu reset that? I havent tried that yet but i might.

What is the SURE FIRE way to reset your ecu? I have heard of removing the ecu fuse...to disconecting the battery for 5 minutes....to i dont know what.

Thanx for all the help, hopefully someone will have some experience with what i'm going through, thanx!"

Now, so far my engine runs as smooth as it did before the water. My filter is now dry and the engine seems fine to me.

Would it be SMART to go to the dealer to get that compression test? They'll prolly recomend it if my check engine light is on anyway.

Any feedback would be useful, thanx!

Dave

 

Absolute worst case scenario would be bending a valve and breaking the top ring land, a leakdown test would tell you more than a compression test, but a compression test is a very good place to start, and if you do any modifications or tune-ups on your own, a compression tester is a good thing to have anyway, so buy one. As for the leakdown tester, they can be pricey, so take it to a good shop if you want a comprehensive diagnosis before taking any action. Sometimes you can get lucky, sometimes you don't. Water on it's own doesn't hurt an engine, the super-high cylinder pressures it promotes [since water... you know, doesn't compress...] is what hurts an engine, test twice, fix once.

 

ok, thanx 1stGenCRXer, your the only person who has helped out with a statment out of all the threads i posted with this problem on! Thanx again!

So you recommend taking it to a shop to do a full diagnostic on the engine to where that check engine light is comin from? I know a good shop that i trust that is usually cheaper than Honda themselves and i believe they can do the same quality work.

Dave

 

I'd start by buying a compression tester and checking the compression on each cylnder to see if anything is bent or broken, which would be shown by an extreme drop of pressure compared with the others, or low readings in general. After you make sure that the engine has avoided enough damage to at least build decent compression across the board, then I'd worry about taking it to a shop to get a leakdown test done and having that code sorted out.