2G Car won’t start after being cleaned

[bo0st2]

I had a guy pressure wash the car engines bay since it was dirty and now my 2G DSM won’t start is it likely we got water somewhere where it shouldn’t be and what should we do now?

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

 

[CKOPOCT]

Give the car a day to dry out. It's possible some water got into a connector and is grounding out a signal. Also, make a check of the connectors all around the engine bay to see if any came apart or are loose. If you need to get the car running immediately, you could try using compressed air or electrical contact cleaner to dry out any connectors.

The main sensors you are looking for are your cam and crank position sensors. It's also possible water got down into the spark plug ports and is grounding out the spark before it gets to your plugs. Compressed air will take care of that (or some paper towels and time).

 

[bo0st2]

Give the car a day to dry out. It's possible some water got into a connector and is grounding out a signal. Also, make a check of the connectors all around the engine bay to see if any came apart or are loose. If you need to get the car running immediately, you could try using compressed air or electrical contact cleaner to dry out any connectors.

The main sensors you are looking for are your cam and crank position sensors. It's also possible water got down into the spark plug ports and is grounding out the spark before it gets to your plugs. Compressed air will take care of that (or some paper towels and time).

Thank you for the quick reply I appreciate the advice will definitely try this out!

 

[Mikealj]

I have also seen the MAF get damaged if you have an aftermarket filter.

 

[miliman13]

Leave blower and alcohol used to fix for me

 

[bo0st2]

I have also seen the MAF get damaged if you have an aftermarket filter.

I covered that up using a trash bag.

Leave blower and alcohol used to fix for me

thanks I’ll try that.

 

[99dsmer4g63]

Spark plug tubes filled up with water most likely.

 

[bo0st2]

Spark plug tubes filled up with water most likely.

My Guy and I checked and we don’t see any water anywhere, but maybe this guy is an idiot? Anyone in Arizona willing to make some money want to come out and take a look?

 

[Tony1094]

My Guy and I checked and we don’t see any water anywhere, but maybe this guy is an idiot? Anyone in Arizona willing to make some money want to come out and take a look?

Your profile shows you have ECMLink, have you tried doing a key on/crank data log to see if all sensors are populating data? May lead you in the right direction. Checked all fuses as well?

 

[bo0st2]

Your profile shows you have ECMLink, have you tried doing a key on/crank data log to see if all sensors are populating data? May lead you in the right direction. Checked all fuses as well?

I will try that later today when I have more time and I will post another video for now. I have this video over here and if you guys could take a look at it and give me some advice where we could look, I would really appreciate it. Thanks again

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

 

[GavinDSM]

I had a guy pressure wash the car engines bay since it was dirty and now my 2G DSM won’t start is it likely we got water somewhere where it shouldn’t be and what should we do now?

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

Maybe try getting it dirty again!

Jokes aside try vacuuming out bad water places
Intake
Near the injectors
Mighta fried some circuits in the process

 

[bo0st2]

Thanks for all the replies everyone!

If you can take a look at this log: https://www.sendspace.com/file/gtkkrbwq & let me know what's up I'd appreciate it

Sorry if thats not an approved upload site but I dont know how else to attach it? I don't see like a paperclip option

 

[bo0st2]

bump has anyone seen the log? Anyone in Phoenix willing to work on these cars?

 

[Tony1094]

Personally, I don't see anything in the log as a reason for it not starting but I am also far from experienced with ECMLink. Hopefully someone else would be able to chime in as far the CAS (what you correctly pointed to in your video). Timing is being reported and the value does change in your log, I'm not certain if that confirms the CAS is working or not. If you activate the fuel pump in ECMLink with key on, do you hear it turn on? Do you have a spark plug tester to verify all plug wires/coil pack are working?

 

[pauleyman]

have you checked for water in the spark plug wells? Thats a very common problem when washing an engine bay.

 

[bo0st2]

have you checked for water in the spark plug wells? Thats a very common problem when washing an engine bay.

Yeah I had a knowledgable DSM mechanic (Brandon from here: https://www.dsmtuners.com/members/brandon-nicholson.152984/ ) come over and take a look I don't think he mentioned he saw any water in there. He advised rewiring some stuff up and suggested it'd be about $300 but it's a car I'm not driving, not planning to drive, so not planning on dumping more money into it at the moment.

 

[bo0st2]

So the car starts once but after that it if I start it again it just dies, any idea guys?

 

[pat white]

So you start it and it runs but when you shut it down it won't start again ? ...does run ok when running and do you let it run and get heat soaked ? and how long before it will start and run again ...like gotta be cold ?

 

[steve]

Sorry if thats not an approved upload site but I dont know how else to attach it? I don't see like a paperclip option

That part is easy, you use the "Add Photos" button below and browse to your ECMLink log file (*.elg) like you would with a picture.

 

[bo0st2]

So you start it and it runs but when you shut it down it won't start again ? ...does run ok when running and do you let it run and get heat soaked ? and how long before it will start and run again ...like gotta be cold ?

Yes that is correct. Take a look at this video and let me know if you hear anything odd:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

I turned it off and when I tried to start it immediately after it just starts up & dies.

That part is easy, you use the "Add Photos" button below and browse to your ECMLink log file (*.elg) like you would with a picture.

Thanks for teaching me that I really appreciate it. Here's the log from before, let me know if you guys want to see some new logs:

 

[bo0st2]

So the car pretty much runs now but it just doesn't feel the same when you press on the gas the turbo isn't spooling as nicely as it did (prior to being pressure washed) I'm thinking I'll let it dry out a little bit more unless someone else has advice on exactly what to check.

Also it's doing this weird thing where it starts up but when I try to start it again, it doesn't work unless I disconnect the battery & wait 10 seconds then try to start it again.

Has anyone experienced that before?

Here's a couple new logs:

In "car runs after disconnecting battery" you can see it'll start right up after I disconnect the battery but in the other logs you can see it's struggling and when I give it gas, it doesn't wanna pass like 2500 - 3000 RPMS.

Does anyone see anything?

 

[bo0st2]

So you start it and it runs but when you shut it down it won't start again ? ...does run ok when running and do you let it run and get heat soaked ? and how long before it will start and run again ...like gotta be cold ?

Hey, how’s it going? Can you check out some of the latest logs I uploaded and let me know if you see anything.

 

[Tony1094]

The only thing I can see different between your battery disconnect start and the other crank but no start logs is that on the log where it starts and runs it seems to be applying crankingfueladj, but on the no starts it didn't. I don't know if the crankingfueladj is cancelled out by the fact you were pressing the throttle or not. For a test, you could try enabling hot start enrichment on the misc tab and see if that gets it to fire up for a 2nd time after the battery disconnect.

On log 3 it looks like you kept it running with throttle input, and it seems like it may have been running lean even with that. I wonder if an injector got fried maybe? Running on 3 cylinders would probably sound pretty subaru-ish like you said in of posts/videos..

 

[bo0st2]

The only thing I can see different between your battery disconnect start and the other crank but no start logs is that on the log where it starts and runs it seems to be applying crankingfueladj, but on the no starts it didn't. I don't know if the crankingfueladj is cancelled out by the fact you were pressing the throttle or not. For a test, you could try enabling hot start enrichment on the misc tab and see if that gets it to fire up for a 2nd time after the battery disconnect.

On log 3 it looks like you kept it running with throttle input, and it seems like it may have been running lean even with that. I wonder if an injector got fried maybe? Running on 3 cylinders would probably sound pretty subaru-ish like you said in of posts/videos..

Thanks again for the reply and for taking the time to look through the logs. I really appreciate the help.

I went ahead and enabled the Hot Start Enrichment like you suggested and tried it again. Unfortunately, it still does the exact same thing.

After disconnecting the battery, the car will start and run. But once I shut it off and try to start it again, it will fire up and immediately die. So enabling the hot start enrichment doesn't seem to have changed the behavior.

What has me confused is that if the car can start and continue running normally that first time, I would think most of the major components are probably working. Does that seem like a reasonable assumption, or could something like an injector, wiring issue, ECU input, or fuel-related setting still cause this exact behavior?

When Brandon was here looking at the car, he mentioned that disconnecting the battery may be clearing or resetting something, which could explain why it starts afterward. He also mentioned possibly rewiring a few things, but that would be around another $300.

Before I start spending more money replacing or rewiring things, I'm hoping to narrow this down a little more and get some advice on what I should be checking next.

If disconnecting the battery consistently allows it to start and run once, but every start after that immediately dies, does that point toward anything specific that I should be looking at?

Thanks again for everyone's assistance. I appreciate any ideas or troubleshooting suggestions.

 

[Tony1094]

So, I'm starting to think your MAF sensor got wet or just a coincidence it happened to go bad? I don't use a MAF anymore myself so I don't have a log to look at, but I added the Baro data point to your logs and noticed that with engine off or on or trying to start, your ECUBoost and Baro number never changes. Hopefully someone else can chime in and confirm before you parts cannon it but I'd have to imagine that the vacuum number should be changing. It would also explain the fueling looking terrible when you finally do get it running as the engine doesn't know how much air its getting.