drove through water....help :(

D

Dreeza

Member
:
'03 pro LX
Hey guys, i know its been a looooong time since i've posted...but i figured this was the place to go for some help!!

I am living in Charleston now...and lets just say it has a tendency to flood...

Anyways, i know i am a freaking idiot, and that you are never supposed to drive through water, blah, trust me, i know...

Went down this one street, and well, ive been down it totally fine before when its been flooded...but by the time I realized that the water was WAY deeper than before, I was already in it...

There was a buick sedan following me, and the water was over his wheels in some spots, just to give you an idea of how much it was. And I have a CAI. NOT good.

Well, my car made it through, and I was able to make it the 3 blocks to the parking garage I was driving to, but my CEL went on, and my car was lurching basically the entire time...I parked, turned it off, and haven;t touched it since (like an hour ago).

What are the chances of it working when I need to use it in like 4 hrs?? I can probably leave it there overnight if you think that would be better...

please tell me some good news??
 
before doing anything, take the oil cap off make sure its not milky, check your dipstick, check your air filter for water it might just be really saturated. Also pull the MAF out dry it, probably hair drier with indirect heat would work best, pull the plugs and shine down inside the cylinder and see if u can see anything, also pull the plugs and crank the motor and make sure no water is in the cylinders at all. You may have gotten lucky this time who knows, just check the oil, MAF, air filter, and cylinder for water before cranking it over to start it and drive
 
do an oil change before doing anything. replace spark plugs and check the MAF. like was said above, you may have gotten lucky, but hydrolock is no joke and can easily kill an engine. water does not combust, so its going to compress and expand and take the path of least resistance. which can include pistons, rings, valves ....
 
alright, i really want to do everything possible to avoid killing my car...but I am parked in a public parking garage right now...and since all i was thinking about was turning off my car...the front of my car is facing the wall.

The big question is should i be avoiding turning it on??? I am pretty sure I would have to get my car somewhere where I can change the oil..not to mention I really dont think I can just start disassembling my car in a parking garage :(

crap...
 
do not drive the car. its really that simple. if there is water in the engine and you run it, you are risking blowing your engine. thats a very expensive choice to make. if you are that concerned, i would get it towed.
 
well, it basically came down to blowing my engine in the garage, or getting it towed & blowing my engine at the dealership (i talked to a service guy & he said that they would try to turn it on if i brought it in...).

Anyways, let it sit for about 30 hours, checked the oil & it looked good...

so i risked it...and i clearly got lucky :)

Sounded like absolute crap at first, but the more i drove it, the better it ran. It had a moment where it seemed like it was going to die on me, but it pulled through.

Im just gonna drive it as little as possible until I can bring it in for a check up, since it clearly needs one.

thanks!
 
Captain KRM P5 said:
do an oil change before doing anything. replace spark plugs and check the MAF. like was said above, you may have gotten lucky, but hydrolock is no joke and can easily kill an engine. water does not combust, so its going to compress and expand and take the path of least resistance. which can include pistons, rings, valves ....
Click to expand...

Water does NOT compress. A cylinder full of water will usually break a connecting rod first.
 
or two rods and 3 valves like in my experience this past winter, dreeza glad to hear you got lucky, just take it easy when its flooded again and dont assume, you might not be so lucky next time.
 
If it didn't hydrolock immediately after ingesting the water, then it's not going to.
The CEL was probably just the wet MAF and the poor running was the saturated filter choking off the air supply (which is why it got better the more you drove and the more the filter dried out).
Unless your engine is under water almost past the hood line, you won't have water in your oil except if you crack the block/head or blow a head gasket and you would know if that happened by a huge knocking sound from the engine or clouds of steam from the tail pipe. No reason to change the oil due to sucking a little water into the intake. The piston rings will keep it out of the crankcase. Same goes for spark plugs. A little water ingestion isn't going to ruin them. Let it dry out and it will be fine. Pull the air filter and take it inside for a while to speed up the process, if you want. Then just clean off the MAF, reset the CEL and you're off and running.
 
my CEL turned off on its own yesterday :)


That was quite the scare. I can assure you I won't be driving through water again!
 
Dreeza said:
my CEL turned off on its own yesterday :)


That was quite the scare. I can assure you I won't be driving through water again!
Click to expand...

Excellent! The wet MAF must not set a hard code, then.

Glad you've learned your lesson. (thumb)
 
Please log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
Rear Wheel Bearing Replacement 2001 Mazda Protege
Replies
1
Views
578
sahol
S
U
Yellowspeed coilovers actually good?
Replies
3
Views
890
IamFODI
I
M
Stuck With 2002 Mazda Protege Hesitation and Now Idle Shaking
Replies
3
Views
2K
Matt.M2
M

Latest posts

Back