I have a 99 GSR that was running in immaculate condition until about a few hours ago. My cousin works at a dealership and I was gettin my oil changed and he said I could get my car washed there too. So I got that done and then he started to wash the engine bay. I thought he knew what he was doing so I didn't say anything. He just sprayed down the entire bay with a hose without covering anything up. Then when I drove the car home everything was straight. I parked it in my driveway then like two hours later I get in my car to go somewhere and the CEL light comes on and the engine starts to have a rough idle. Like it would dance around and dip lower than normal and go back up then down. And everytime I would rev the engine would sorta like shake or bog. At first I thought my car was hydrolocking but my uncle told me that the spark plugs or something just got wet and I should just drive it and it would go away. It did go away for a bit but now whenever I start the car it has a rough idle and everytime I change gears it would bog for a bit then be fine. Like I would go into first then the engine would shake shake shake then it would be like a little boost and resume to accelerate fine but then when I go into second, third, fourth, and fifth the same process would happen. I'm going to check the CEL code tomorrow morning but any idea what is wrong? Water in the distributor or something? And any idea how to fix it? It was very cold today if that matters.

 

Probably got water on the plugs and fouled them.

Try replacing the plugs.

 

Water on the plug wires, plugs, or water in the distributor. This happened to me, I ended up replacing my plugs and plug wires.

Do you have aftermarket wires? If not it's most likely your distributor.

You will throw a 71,72,73 or 74.

 

So if it is my distributor, what should I do? Do I need to replace it or should I just remove the cap and like air it out and make sure there isn't any excess water?

 

I also removed my cap for a little while, after I did all of that it ran like a champ. I could visually see water in the spark plug holes when I took out the plugs. I soaked it out with a sponge before removing the plugs.

 

Usually when a car get's it's engine bay detailed, something goes wrong, either check engine light in your case, or something else... Check what code is stored in your obd... it's probably something minor...

 

It could be water in the distributor cap because I've cleaned my engine bay plenty of times and all I cover up is the distributor cap and never had any of the problems you are experiencing.

 

Replace the plugs and reset your ECU.

 

Hi,
Did you ever find out what was wrong and were you able to get it fixed? I'm having similar problems and had my engine "cleaned" as well. I've had all new spark plug, wires, and a distributor cap put in, but I'm still having the same problems.

Erika

 

Geez, I don't let anyone clean my car except me!