Damn Puddles!! (Long) NEED HELP

[blueb3]

RANT\
Coming home tonight during a torrential downpour, go through (what I thought was) a small puddle. Lake, BIG lake.(quick, name the movie) Water spray, both sides of the car, easily 25 feet high. Instant check engine light. Car sputters at first under heavy throttle (mind you this is on a freeway entrance ramp where I hit the puddle) don't pay it no mind, decide to limp home.
Fast forward about 10 minutes, about 5 minutes from my house, car is losing power, BADLY. drop down to 35 with the blinkers on, car dies. Coast to a stop under a freeway overpass, pop the hood, pull the air filter. It drips. A lot. Lay it out on top of the motor, and call my wife (my 4 year old son is in the back seat saying "just like your old car")

She gets there about 20 minutes later, pop the damp filter back in the car, and she starts up, kinda rough. Limp home, and am now in the process of drying out EVERYTHING.

/RANT

So word to the wise, never assume that "little" puddle is so little. That sucker was easily over a foot deep, way deeper than the stuff I run through when playing in the mud.

[Plays_with_Toys]

I did that in my pickup. When colorado got 4ft of snow a few years back, it was a week later and I finally got my pickup free. My mom's car was still stuck, and we needed to get food. Went through a timid puddle at 45 mph. Yeah. 10.5" wide tires hitting a puddle 8" deep, was not fun. It instantly dropped to 25mph and water was everywhere. It was carbureted, so whose to say if it would've thrown a code.

Anyway, I hope all is well with yours. Hopefully it just gulped a bit of water (which atleast it was blown out). MAF was probably wet and running wacky too.

[blueb3]

Well, I pulled the intake apart and dried the air filter, and now the car will start, idle for about 20 seconds, sputter and die. It was running better when I was liming home! No matter what I do, it won't stay running. I really need some help guys.

[clubber6985]

you could've got water in your injectors. check everything your spark plug ur maf adaptor couldve ruined through the water might need a new one of those most likely it has to do w/ your intake check it out i mean drying your filter will help also spray some starter fluid in the throttle body i had the same problem i went throught with those.....

[blueb3]

how do I check the maf? and the injectors?

[SHOfast]

There is little chance that you got water in your injectors. The only way that would happen is if your gas tank filled with water, not likely.

Two things to look at.

1, all electrical devices that got wet. Electronics do not like water at all. Usually under the hood stuff does ok with water, computers and more sensitive electronics are more fragile.
2. You got water in your engine and now it is broken. This is the most likely case if you are still having problems after drying things out unless water got inside the dash. When water goes in the engine things break and or bend. Most common are connecting rods. The only way to fix these are rebuilding the engine and replacing internals.

I'm hopeing you only have electrical problems, honestly since it is starting up but running really bad, it is sounding more and more like your engine is done for.

[ivwarrior]

If it starts and idles fine, I bet it's something simple. Recheck EVERYTHING electrical and make sure nothing's wet or disconnected. Check all vacuum lines and make sure all are hooked up. Unhook the battery to clear the computer, then try again.

[blueb3]

from what I have been hearing, since there wasn't any water in the engine (spark plugs were dry and not "steam cleaned", plus nothing came out when the engine was turned without plugs) The likely culprit is the "Air Flow Meter" since it's a "hot" wire that sits inside the intake, if it got water on it, one of two things happened, either it got fouled or broken. Will let you know how it turns out.

[blueb3]

Well I limped the beast home, she started sputtering and surging right when I rounded the bend to my house, and parked in the garage.
I took the whole intake off because the AFM was being a b!tch and not separating like it's supposed to. Good thing I did. Where the intake is ribbed for her pleasure, there was water all through it. So, took it all apart, dried it out and got to looking at the air flow meter. Pretty neat looking, except for the rivulets of dried, dirty water along the bottom. Both pieces of wire are still intact *PHEW* so I sprayed liberally with "STP intake and throttle body cleaner". Now she's all purdy and clean! Just waiting for everything to dry VERY well, don't want to make matters worse, will put it all back together again in about an hour or so, and go from there. If I am still having problems, there is a yard that supposedly has a couple of these for ~$45.

[Plays_with_Toys]

Eek, intake/throttle body cleaner? Hopefully it works, but I would have used an electrical contact cleaner, or MAF cleaner like QVC puts out (little, expensive red cans). Its a delicate wire, and some solvents may be too powerful. If it works, awesome. If it makes it worse, and you grab a junkyard one, clean it with the QVC stuff. I used it on mine, so I know it doesn't harm it. Also, you'll probably want to replace that air filter. Unless its a K&N, in which case clean and re-oil.

[blueb3]

Air Filter - New
oil change - tomorrow
weird crap in a can - WORKED
My baby runs like STINK!! I will be picking up the electrical contact cleaner stuff tomorrow, just in case. Old dude at parts store said that this stuff I got would work, and he was right. The car has been running (and being run) for the past 30 minutes with no hesitation, no shudders, no nothing. I sprayed the AFM and then IMMEDIATELY turned the can upside down and used the propellant to blow dry it. Then I let it sit for over an hour to completely dry out. Reconnected all the intake hoses, and fired her up. It ran rich for the first 5 minutes, but leveled out real nice. Let it idle for about 5 more minutes, and then revved the piss out of it (mind you, this is 1am in a residential neighborhood) grabbed a fresh mountain dew, and proceeded to tear ass up and down the main cross street (about a block from my house) after a good 10 minutes of laps, I brought it back home, let it idle for another 10 minutes, and then did some more hot laps.

So, long story short - I dodged the bullet on this one. Thanks to everyone for all your help and suggestions. It was much appreciated.

[Wiscon_Mark]

Well, that's good news. I thought we'd lost another beautiful sapphire blue pearl Legacy :(

[blueb3]

nah, would have gotten a new lump and been back on the road. A friend has a 2.2 sitting in his garage for a "if" project on his VW Vanagon.

[ivwarrior]

Glad you got her fixed up. I figured it was something simple. If you had sucked in enough water to do engine damage, I'm sure you'd have know it. Bent/broke stuff would have made some God awful noises, if it even would have started to begin with.

[blueb3]

Yeah, I doubt it would have acted so nice the first night home.

[sansMYSTi]

... my 4 year old son is in the back seat saying "just like your old car"

:lol: You gotta love kids - I guess they do say the darndest things.

[losdiosdeverde86]

yeah, i normally only run though puddles where i know the terrain/road surface

[blueb3]

So do I, this was just amazingly deep. Lesson learned, without being too costly (thank god!)

[losdiosdeverde86]

So do I, this was just amazingly deep. Lesson learned, without being too costly (thank god!)

so everything's dried up and good to go?

[blueb3]

Yup running like a top, unless I run the A/C (really need to figure this bit out, NEW THREAD! )

[losdiosdeverde86]

Yup running like a top, unless I run the A/C (really need to figure this bit out, NEW THREAD! )

what? loss of power and a sqeek/chirp when you let off the gas?


btw, are you talking about the vanagon on USMB?

[blueb3]

no, as I am cruising along it surges and bucks a little, but no chirp. If I am slowing down (foot off the gas) or accelerating, it runs great. It's just when it's cruising.

This is in my Legacy (What vanagon? and what's USMB?)

[losdiosdeverde86]

This is in my Legacy (What vanagon? and what's USMB?)

haha, oh. i guess not.

USMB - www.ultimatesubaru.net (http://www.ultimatesubaru.net) - vory much like here. great atmosphere, nice people, very helpful. check it out!

USMB Vanagon - a project that some USMB guys are doing. there's a section dedicated to it near the bottom of the forum list. i think they're transplanting an EJ25.


i think the problem that i'm having my AC is the ac clutch. not sure what to do about it though.

[blueb3]

Ah! I see said the blind man! That is actually a very popular swap. Seen anything from a base EJ22 to a full STI set up on a vanagon. Pretty mean sleepers if done right.

[Sarra]

Wow, that's impressive. A foot of water? I've driven my Legacy through water that just came up to the bottom of the front intake more than a few times, gone through about a foot of water at about 25 mph more than once, never had this problem.

I was going to suggest checking vaccume hoses, and pulling the spark plugs to let any excess water or vapor on the plugs or in the cylinders evaporate quicker.

As for the AC, make sure that the belts (all of the belts) are still okay and that nothing got lodged in them or they didn't get damaged, and make sure the clutch on the AC compressor is turning right.

[blueb3]

Thanks. Part of the dry out procedure was pulling plugs and all the vacum lines. The funny thing is, that it probably would have been fine if I hadn't done the snorklectumy.

I'll check out the compressor, seems like the system could use a recharge anyways.