So it was raining really bad today and all the streets were flooded. I was avoiding all the puddles but I went over a pretty deep one and water went up my CAI and into my engine. It's the worst thing in the world.

So my friend (mechanic) and I pumped out all the water from the pistons, mani, and throttle body. I tried to start it like 30 times to get all the water out. It worked fine for awhile but the idle is very jumpy and sometime turns off. Is my car going to get better?

 

Probably not.

Remember water does not have very good compression properties, so if it reached as far down as the pistons, you may very well have some damage. I've seen it where it bent one of the rods in my buddy's 90 GSX. You need to do all kinds of tests ot make sure the car is in working order (compression, leak down, etc).

Good luck.

 

Yea but won't the rest of the water just evaporate? We got all the water out so the engine runs fine.
It's just that it doesn't keep and idle. Once I turn it on the rpm's drop and turns off the car. But if I keep my foot on the gas and keep it level the car runs fairly decent. All I know is that the engine is not hydrolocked.
So do you think there is a damaged sensor? Possibly the idle sensor next to the throttle body? Or the MAF connected to the CAI?

 

It could just take a little while for your ECU to reset itself. This happens to me every time I disconnect my battery. At idle it'll dip down really low and it's even stalled out a couple times... and I drive an auto!

So just give it time, it could take a little while for the ECU to get back up and running

 

The same thing happened to my cousins TL... never turned on again. The dealer called the problem "Hydro lock" and the TL was reported TOTALED. Wish you the best of luck mann

 

Thanks man...
Hopefully that's the case. I just don't want to be looking for sensors to replace. So do you recommend me driving it around and warming up the engine or just let it idle and warm it up that way?

 

My car turns on and runs fairly well. I just have an idle problem.

 

Those lakes were ridiculous man. and its still raining... Good Luck with the engine

 

Thanks man, hopefully the engine doesn't fail me later on.
But do you live in the burbs or in the city? Here by me they closed down all of barington rd and all the stores got flooded. Luckily my house sits pretty high and we don't have a basement.
The only bad thing was my car!

 

Im by Niles so its not as bad here. I had to drive through Schiller and Melrose Park yesterday and that was bad.

 

Yea it was bad. It's still coming down really hard here.
And for an update... The car is running a little better but the idle and acceleration is still jumpy. I'm going to change the oil to get out any water that might have gone in. Hopefully I didn't mess up any sensors.

 

I would say it probably has damaged your ECU. Usually if your cars flooded you would need to replace all that, so if the problem still occurs try getting a used ECU for your car i remember going over a heavy puddle and it splashed everywhere under my car and the car idled jumpy and over a period of time it went away.

 

Yeah man, just let it idle for a while, and eventually the ecu will relearn.

but it should just go away after a while, and if it doesn't then you could be looking at what doctorjon said. :/

 

Next time this kind of condition happens to someone...pull of the road into a shopping center parking lot or something.

Doesn't make sense taking the chance on risking an engine.

Worst comes to worst leave it there and have a friend come to pick you up then return later for the car.

This happened to me during Hurricane Frances a fews years back. There was no where to go without high water so just had to leave it in a Walmart parking lot until later that day. Needless to say that CAI came off the car a week or two later.

WADAD

 

Okay so the engine runs good now and the idle is a little better too. But now when I turn off the engine it shakes violently and when I turn it on it's jumpy. I'm going to buy some motor mounts from a fellow evolutionm.net member. Do you think that will solve the problem? I'm also going to get a throttle body to hopefully solve the idle problem. Will I also need a MAS to help the idle problem?