jaguax

iTrader: (1)

On the way home from college today there was a big puddle of water from heavy rain and melting snow. I slowed to a stop and idled through it, must've been at least a foot of water. Ok no biggie I got through it, the belts squeaked a bit and everything was fine. About a mile later I get to a stop sign and try to accelerate. RPM's go down and start fluctuating up and down. It Wouldn't accelerate at all in fact the more I pressed the gas the more the RPMs went down near stalling.

Ok so I pull off to the side of the road, let it warm up for 5-10 minz. As I'm sitting there I smell a burning smell. I have no idea where it came from, I popped the hood and everything was fine. The car wasn't even fully warmed up yet. The smell dissapeared though, it was odd.

Ok so after I sit for a bit, apparantly whatever had gotten wet dried off because the car was driving/accelerating normally. Couple blocks later though I hit a few small puddles(everything is soaked it's impossible to avoid all the water on the streets) and it started acting up again. RPMs jumping up and down between 500 and 800 RPM, struggling to stay running. Giving it gas does nothing but lower RPMs and probably stall it. So again I let it sit to dry and all is fine until the next encounter with water.

As for the burning smell I never smelled it again after that first time. Which is good I think. I had my dad pick me up and my car is sitting in a parking lot until the rain lets up and the car dries.

I dunno what do you guys think happened? I wasn't overheating. The radiator was smoking a bit but my dad and I think that was just from being soaked in water.

Jeff92se

iTrader: (82)

Ah VG motor. I bet the dist is maybe getting wet under the cap or if the plug wires are getting wet, it might be causing them to arc across each other. Check to see that your air filter is dry.

jaguax

iTrader: (1)

Yeah about that, when I was changing my plug wires a few weeks ago I had the plastic cover off of the distributor cap. The thingy that says like "ECM" or something on it, just a plastic cover nothing more. Ok well I had that resting somewhere in the engine compartment. Well I walked away from the car for a second and combine that with defective hood struts and you have shattered plastic everywhere. Dunno if that has to do with the prob though, because it appears to be perfectly dry.

probmxstyle

iTrader: (4)

I had a similar problem with my VE a while back after I hit a puddle, went away after awhile.

MrGone

iTrader: (30)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3460651.stm

read and learn the proper way.

hmm a foot? I think I'd be affriad of my altenator.
the whole rpms going down thing suggests ignition to me, but then again for a foot I think it would still be hard to get the dizzy all wet.

todamax

iTrader: (6)

In a foot you know the altenator got wet. The pully and belts threw water all over the engine compartment...

jaguax

iTrader: (1)

I'm worried about my new speakers in my front doors. You don't think water got into there right? lol

StRacer718

Street flooding can be harmful to older cars. My alternator for some reason seems to always take the brunt of the punishment, so I have to do like 5mph going through puddles in order to keep the splashing down.

bartek

I think your altenator is on its way out. It happened to me during a storm in the fall and it was the alternator.

Maxima-4DSC

iTrader: (1)

its either your ignition, or your alternator troubleshoot both

xveganxcowboyx

iTrader: (1)

Jag, I'm saying distributor got wet. Once it's dry it's fine, probably not so good for it, but it should be fine. I think the smell was probably the water washing a little oil or something onto your exhaust system. Again, nothing to worry about.

dkris42

Hello. The Cover on top of the distributor,The thingy that says like "ECM" or something on it is that important to have because I busted mine and I was just wonder if it was really needed.

internetautomar

iTrader: (30)

E-brake cables can be had for less than that if you know whom to ask.
the alt may look dry but internally it could be having problems.
Not too mention water can/does cause belts to slip and reduce the effective charging capabilities of an alternator

internetautomar

iTrader: (30)

in a word:
no

Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

I've also seen problems with the O2 sensor going haywire if you dunk the car like that. my VE did something similar today when I took it swimming. it never died, but I could feel it bogging down at part throttle. at idle and WOT it was fine though.

last time it felt like that was when the O2 sensor came unplugged.

white90se

iTrader: (1)

a couple years ago me and my friends were late for one of our volleyball games and the road we took was completely flooded..so we had to drive our cars through it...i had my max and my friend had a stealth...both cars made it through fine...but to get an idea of how deep the water was...when the stealth went through...the water was flowin over the hood of the car...its weird how some cars can handle the water and others cant

jaguax

iTrader: (1)

Hey, since that day my car has been fine however it hasn't rained since then so I don't know if it will start doing it again when I hit puddles.

The other day I changed my O2 sensor with a new NTK and I found something that might be related to the problem. On my old O2 sensor, the wires were basically exposed right where they connect the the O2 sensor. Looks like someone took a wire stripper or scissors or something to them because the insulation is sliced down to bare wire on 2 of the wires. The third one(the black one) was also slit, but not to bare wire. Is it possible the water hit this and caused a short or something?

But anyway since I installed the new O2 sensor the check engine light has turned off. Yay! It used to always be on because my mechanic screwed up the old O2 sensor while installing my Warpspeed Y-pipe. I guess that's what you get for $15 of labor.

But anyway, thanks for all the help guys!

Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

very possible those cuts in the wires were causing the problem. glad you got it fixed tho. (sorta)