My car stalled, won't start back up

[Trav83]

I was driving to pick my gf up tonight and I was coming to a stop sign and my car just stalled and won't start back up. All it does is crank really slow for a sec. I really hope I didn't hydrolock it cause I just made a cold air intake for my car and it was raining pretty heavy out, but I took off the intake pipe where it connects to the throttle body and it felt pretty dry in the pipe, plus from what I was told you pretty much have to submerg your filter in water to have that happen anyway.

I checked my ignition fuse's and made sure my battery terminals were tight. Could my MAF sensor have gotten too wet and died? I also recently istalled a black cap CAS, but I set the timing right on it (5 degrees). My friend thinks it could be my alternator, because when I was driving I noticed my headlights were very dim, I could hardly see the road in areas with no light post.

Any ideas guys? I really gotta get this thing running, it's my daily driver

 

[2gawdtsi]

try and get someone else to jump it, or try to.
and if it turns on, it should tell you its the battery or alternator...

 

[Trav83]

try and get someone else to jump it, or try to.
and if it turns on, it should tell you its the battery or alternator...

Yeah, my friend was gonna go with me tomorrow with jumper cables and see if it fires up. I'll give an update on how it goes. In the mean time feel free to give me your opinions guys.

 

[2gawdtsi]

my feelings are that its probably something electric.

raining hard, dim lights, cranks really slow....
but those are just my thoughts.

where is your air filter located?

 

[DSM1G90]

I also call it an ALT if you had dim lights like that. No jump will help you. Think on replacing that ALT.

But, have to ask: how old is that battery? If it has age on it and can't hold a charge, they will destroy ALTS in a quick.

 

[Trav83]

my feelings are that its probably something electric.

raining hard, dim lights, cranks really slow....
but those are just my thoughts.

where is your air filter located?

to the left of my fog light behind the bumper

I also call it an ALT if you had dim lights like that. No jump will help you. Think on replacing that ALT.

But, have to ask: how old is that battery? If it has age on it and can't hold a charge, they will destroy ALTS in a quick.

The battery is probably about 3 years old at the most. I was also thinking about how yesterday when i was messing with my intake, the pipe part of it hit against my positive battery terminal and made a spark... dunno if that mattered or not

 

[91 TSi GP]

i had this happen to an integra i had, i bought a cheap ebay cold air intake and when it was raining i went around a corner and then everything just cut out. i couldnt get it to start, i just kept trying and when i did it shot out white smoke, i ended up sucking water. took it home made it a short ram intake and never had a problem again

 

[Afroclipse]

Check battery connections and invest in a multimeter it takes the guess out of guess work.

 

[Trav83]

i had this happen to an integra i had, i bought a cheap ebay cold air intake and when it was raining i went around a corner and then everything just cut out. i couldnt get it to start, i just kept trying and when i did it shot out white smoke, i ended up sucking water. took it home made it a short ram intake and never had a problem again

So are you saying you killed your motor? or it started running after the white smoke shot? Well like I said, I disconnected the intake where it meets the throttle body and felt inside, it was dry.

Check battery connections and invest in a multimeter it takes the guess out of guess work.

I do have a multimeter, I'm leaving here soon and probably gonna wind up using it. I'm just hoping a jump will get it started right up, hopefully I just have a bad alternator or battery. If I have hydrolock I'm gonna be so pissed (and screwed)

 

[91 TSi GP]

No it was fine once i got all thw water out of the motor, it just took forever to get it started again finally then once i did it was bogging down horribly bad. i just sat there and constant revd it and it ended up being fine

 

[Trav83]

- RESOLVED -

My friend drove me to my car, it started right up jumping it. He tested the battery with a voltmeter, it wasn't holding a charge well at all, so obviously we suspected a bad alternator. Took it to autozone, they tested it, it failed, got a brand new replacement at no charge cause I kept my receipt and it had a life time warranty

Thanks for the quick responses guys, appreciate it

 

[gstryyder]

so with that new alternator is the battery fine now? how good does it hold a charge?

 

[Trav83]

so with that new alternator is the battery fine now? how good does it hold a charge?

Well right after we installed it, my friend tested the charge again, it holds at 13.80 to 14.00 I'll check it again later today or tomorrow