Takin in Water!

[TommyDSM]

Over the weekend, We had heavy rain. And I was driving my on the highway when I notice the car in front of me going through a BIG puddle of water. It was too late for me to stop and I also went through... Problem! I had a Cold Air Intake, and my car started to bog, but I reved it and got through... I got off the first exit, and checked everything... Everything seem Ok, but when I went to leave, my car started to bog and studder at the higher air flow about to build boost and died... I try starting it and it wouldn't start... Thought it was hydrolock... Well I waited acouple of minutes, and try to start it again... It started after giving it some gas. I drove slow to a buddies house, where i pulled my plugs to see if they were wet. And they weren't. So I figured my car took in water... But not into the engine. So it must be the MAF. I went out and got a new one, swapped it, took car for a drive, and still same problem... Next thing, Water in the intercooler! So I pulled my intercooler off, and dumped out ~3 cups of water... So basiclly as I started to build boost, water was getting sucked up past MAF giving messed up signals... Well I tore everything apart and dryed everything in my intercooler and piping... Now my car drives fine, but ive been getting knock when i start to boost... Do you guys think both my MAF's are bad now from water blowing by it?

 

[qtxdevilz]

wow your one lucky dude...im guessing the intercooler saved your car...a buddy of mine just got his car back on the road (supercharged miata) and this past weekend he drive into a puddle and seized up his whole motor...he is in the process of getting the motor torn apart again...as far as your maf i would just borrow a a buddies maf and try it again...its possible it might have gotten bad again...

 

[TommyDSM]

Yeah I figured... Is there anything else I should check for that I might get water? should i pull the plugs and shine a light down and see if I have water?

 

[90AWDTalon]

Do you have the GM maf sensor? I had this happen to me, I still cant figure out how the water got in my intercooler but it did some how. Any ways I was driving to an autoX in damn near a monsoon. I come to a stop go to take off and the car starts bucking, once I got up to speed it drove fine. I got on it to see what would happen, it started bucking again. I decided I should scrap the autoX and get the car home while it was still driving fine under cruise conditions. Well when I got home I figured out that what was happening was I some got water in my intercooler, under normal cruise this had no ill effects. But under acceleration it would cause the water to come in contact with the GM maf sensor. This sensor is a hot wire unit that measures how much the incoming air cools some resistors. So when the water hit these resistors it super cooled them making the ecu think I was getting tons of air when I wasn't. So basically it makes the car run super super rich.

After I got the water out of the intercooler and dried everything off the car was fine, no more problems.

 

[gixrman]

Ditto on mine to, but it was the shop that put my trans in that drove Thur a puddle. When water hits the little sensors on the MAF it makes the voltage max out causing it to run rich. Take your MAF off use carb cleaner and a q-tip and lightly clean the diodes. Oh and don't get the AEM bypass valve it doesn't work with turbos.

 

[TommyDSM]

Yeah, I have the GM Maf, But wondering why I get so much knock now... I did clean it out and stuff... Maybe I need to do it with carb cleaner....

 

[gixrman]

Are you getting knock all the time?, is it random? on come on under boost? You may have bent something.....

 

[TommyDSM]

Are you getting knock all the time?, is it random? on come on under boost? You may have bent something.....

Well I can't tell if I'm getting it all the time or not, cuz I have the KeyDiver Chip with Phantom Knock Code. But Right now I get it when I boost, about 500Hz and over 30%... And it doesn't go away with adjusting my MAFT... so I think its tuningable... If I bent something I would get it all the time...

 

[Burnett03]

check your turbo.. rain/water hitting a turbo usually kills them

 

[TommyDSM]

check your turbo.. rain/water hitting a turbo usually kills them

What do I check for? my turbos when I took the filter off, looks fine, its ball bearing and spings up fine...

 

[Burnett03]

check for fin damage