CAI = Hydrolock :(

1

15min5k

Banned
So I was driving home from work today in this torrential downpoar and everything was great. Just got my Unichip on my Speed6 monday and I was loving life and excited to get my new DP and exhaust mani on. I take the offramp and head home... About 2 blocks from my house I go through a yield and check for traffic coming down the hill, everything is good, I look at the front of my car and all of the sudden I was looking at a freaking great lake... I engage the clutch pop it out of gear and proceeded to freak out. I rolled through the puddle to the point where I am now only in 3 inches of standing water opposed to the ~7inches I started in, spread across both lanes. The car stalled and massive amounts of steam start hurling out of the engine bay. A kind samariten helped me push this wet bohemoth up the street to the gas station while I popped the hood. I disconnected the silicon hose where my CP-E CAI (w/ CP-E Prefilter mind you) connects to the inlet and start praying.

Of course you know the story, little pools of water chilling in my intake. I know for sure the Prefilter that came with my intake has saved me on numerous occasions just driving through 1-2 inches of standing water on the roadways when it is raining hard here, but I think this time was just too much and caught me by surprise. Engine doesn't crank, car never threw a cel... The worst case is my engine is f'd and now I can go get me a brand new forged monstrosity and get back to it (which is also the BEST scenario if I had a ton of money). The irony is I have a COBB SRI in my trunk
 
same thing happend when i had my svt focus with cai. my insurance company called the foci a totall loss. they paid me now i got the ms3.
 
Guys the OP has enough problems with a hydrolocked engine dont hurl insults as well.....
 
The enigine wont crank? That is interesting. Also, that CP-E CAI doest turn up to the filter like the Speed CAI or the Injen? Also, how much water were you standing in and were you moving going in to that much water? I just find it hard to beleive you werent running through it some how creating enough wave to get up in there.
 
id pull the spark plugs and then try and crank it, see if it just cant crank because of water pressure in the cylinders, it should blow out that way, then replace the sparksplugs and see if it cranks over, you could also try crankin by hand.

i did this with my Protege when i had it, it smoked , white smoke everywhere, but i cranked it a lot without spark plugs, put them back in, cranked up and smoked for 20 min
ran like a champ afterwards
 
man i would pull your plugs and see if there is water on top of the pistons if there is blow it out and put your plugs back in and see if it will crank.
 
the other day i was working on a civic that did the same thing but what happend to him is the water stalled the motor before it could bend a rod, so we pulled the plugs got the water out and it ran like a top.
 
lol
nothing more stupid than knowing that it's a huge "puddle" and you know you have a CAI and the results of driving through a "puddle" and taking the chance to roll through the "puddle"
 
TheMAN said:
lol
nothing more stupid than knowing that it's a huge "puddle" and you know you have a CAI and the results of driving through a "puddle" and taking the chance to roll through the "puddle"
Click to expand...

Actually you just proved yourself wrong and found something "more stupid" with your attempt to form a coherent sentence...
 
Thas bad man, but your best bet is to remove intake, tmic, and coldpipe contected to the throttle body, then have someone stomp the accelerator (NOT RUNNING OBVIOUSLY) the remove your coils and plug and turn it over until no more gysers are present. Regap your plugs and re-install, cross your finger and pray to the mazda gods.


****KEEP US UPDATED,
 
Last edited:
Sometimes "puddles" just aren't avoidable. I hit one on the interstate from a clogged drain. I saw it just in time to get off the gas and hope I make it to the other side. Of course, I didn't. But did get the car going after removing the plugs, cranking it to get the water out. I would highly recommend changing all the fluids afterwards to insure there is no water there as well. Good luck, hope you didn't damage anything!

Just a thought, when you say it wouldn't crank, could you hear the starter trying to crank? Or just totally dead? Maybe something shorted out?
 
So as far as hydrolocking goes, is there any SAFE intake? I mean, I live up in the North East and we can get a ridiculous amount of rain. I don't want to have to live in fear of every puddle I come across.
 
I think this goes without saying but it should be common sense that pools of water should be a level of concern to CAI owners. That being said, the bumper would have to have been submerged which is problem #1. I'm sorry to hear about the OP's situation but potential owners should realize that its not common or typical. It can however, happen when you drive right into a puddle.
 
I live fairly north and fairly easy and I've run SRIs on every car I've ever owned because I know people personally who take the bus because they are making payments on a car with a hydrolocked engine
 
EMS541A said:
So as far as hydrolocking goes, is there any SAFE intake? I mean, I live up in the North East and we can get a ridiculous amount of rain. I don't want to have to live in fear of every puddle I come across.
Click to expand...

If you know of areas that flood pretty heavily during rain, then the only safe intake is stock.
 
Well, tropical storm Hannah is in town and I've been driving in heavy rain and puddles all weekend with nary a problem with my CP-E MAFci.

In fact, I have yet to have a problem in the past three years I've driven through snowstorms, slush, torrential rain, tropical storms, etc. Then again, I don't go driving into roads with 6-12" of standing water.
 
Raynman said:
Well, tropical storm Hannah is in town and I've been driving in heavy rain and puddles all weekend with nary a problem with my CP-E MAFci.

In fact, I have yet to have a problem in the past three years I've driven through snowstorms, slush, torrential rain, tropical storms, etc. Then again, I don't go driving into roads with 6-12" of standing water.
Click to expand...

This pretty much comforts me. That, and I recalled how many people I know in town with daily drivers with CAIs.

I think I was overestimating how easy it is to hydrolock a car.
 
Please log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
Mazda TSB 01-001/23: Valve in exhaust manifold overheating
Replies
0
Views
624
mikesierra
M
R
Help needed: 2013 Mazda6 won't hold charge or stay running
Replies
5
Views
2K
rrubel
R
S
2014~2021 Mazda6 2.5L DRTuned BaseMap W/ Cold Start Delete Review
Replies
1
Views
2K
besto
B

Latest posts

Back