drove through a large amount of water the other day, and my car stopped right in the middle as i was driving, i have a injen cai and now it aint starting. Anyone have any suggestions on what to do or been in the same situation and what was the outcome

 

clean ur maf out...see if that helps

 

Prey you didn't hydrolock your engine....

Check the oil. What does it look like?

Pull the spark plugs and report back their condition. Are they wet???

 

might sound crazy, but dont try starting it. Do ^^^ and report back.

 

he's already been cranking it. If its cranking its most likely not hydro locked. and if it was u would have heared the release when the headgasket blew or w/e.

this is why CAI just aint worth it

 

it doesn't crank non-stop though only when you turn the key for the first time it makes a little cranking sound, i'm gonna clean the maf tomorrow, and check the spark plugs like suggested, even the oil. the car is over at a mechanic because i'm waiting to get a estimate from my insurance. I don't trust this mechanic that much because right away he said the engine is dead when i told him the intake took in water, and he didn't even check it or anything before he said that. thanks for the help guys, its been a couple of days already and im missing the max, i've been very optimistic, hoping that it will fix itself by drying off for a couple of days so i been trying to start it daily.

 

generally speaking with a cai and a stall out in water, hes right. Checking the oil is step one.

 

i just went down their and checked the oil, it seems fine, i played around with the maf sensor and almost got the car to start. something is holding it back though, its actually cranking real loud now just like before and the car even stayed on for a few seconds, pressing on the gas doesn't do anything though, seems like something needs to be cleaned out.

 

probably the plugs like suggested above. did u check them yet?

 

Wont the water float in the oil? Meaning that just 'checking' it wont do anything, it needs to be drained and new stuff in, right?

And yes, pull the plugs(all of them) and clean them off. They could have water on them or they could be flooded from to much trying to crank.

 

Yes water and oil will not mix. oil sinks to the bottom

 

wasn't able to check the spark plugs last night, it was dark, very late and i didn't have any tools but i'll check them today. i guess a oil change would be a good idea too.

 

if it was dark enough that you couldnt check the plugs, are you sure you did a solid check on the oil?

 

i had a flash light, and i wiped the oil on a napkin, it was a rich brown color, checked the transmission oil too and that looked fine also

 

you could also have a electric short, that used to happen to me in my old camry and i needed new spark plug wires. It sometimes wouldn't crank after that happened. Just another idea.

 

If theres a short in the plug wires you can usually catch it at night. Fill up a spray bottle with water and in the dark mist the water over the wires while someone cranks it. This usually works best when the car already runs and has a miss, but it can work when cranking too. If the short is in a visible area of the wire(s) you will see sparks like a lightning show

 

Good idea if these cars had plug wires.

xopton- did you pull the plugs yet? when you do, try to shine a bright light into the cylinders (front side) looking for water/ moisture. If you find moisture, leave the plugs out to allow dry-out time, and clean the plugs.

 

ah f me your right. see what happens when i post before my morning coffee. I just pulled the coils two days ago too. thats sad.

 

1. Change the oil. don't ask any more questions. just dump it out. If there's water in the oil, you've just fooked your engine cranking it over so much. oil WILL mix with water in an engine because of the wya the oil pump works like a blender. If your oil looks like chocolate milk, then it's full of water.
also remember if there's water in the oil and it hasn't mixed, it will sit in the bottom of the oil pan since water is heavier than oil.

And where's your oil pickup tube? that's right.. at the bottom of the oil pan. so IF there's oil in the water, you just injected it into your engine instead of the oil and you've likely fUBARd the bearings.

2. Pull the spark plugs. check them. use a flashlight or a small piece of paper towel taped onto a long screwdriver to touch the tops of the pistons. pull them out and see what's on it. water? you're fooked. oil? you're probably fooked. dry? you *might* be okay.

3. CHECK ENGINE COMPRESSION.

don't waste any more time speculating on anything else until you've done those three things, in that order. If you've got clean oil, clean pistons (and spark plugs) and good compression, then the engine itself is okay and it's time to start looking at electronics.



And yes, kiddies.. THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T DRIVE THROUGH DEEP WATER. JUST DON'T. NOTHING GOOD EVER COMES OUT OF IT.

 

Oil and water cant mix, its not physical possible. you can pour them into a literal blender and they will not combine. The possibility for molecular interaction between water and oil is impossible. Oil can't hydrogen bond as it is non-polar and water can't form strong London forces to the oil and therefore it just cant happen.

 

oil and water will mix inside an engine. Ask anyone who works on old cars or has dealt with a car sitting for a long time outside.

they don't have to chemically bond with each other to mix, as the oil and water are basically 'homogenized' while going through the oil pump- just like they do with milk.

http://www.marinelube.net/watertest.htm
http://www.foodsci.uoguelph.ca/dairy...enization.html

 

I can see the water being present in the oil, but not mixed with it. If you have two fluids in a close loop system then yea both will be present in the motor but they arent actually mixed together....

 

So explain an oil slick in the ocean after a tanker spill.............

 

guessing i would say its one of two things:

1) i got it backwards and water is heavier and sinks to the bottom, but i am fairly sure its oil that sinks to the bottom.

2) the salt water is more dense and changes the result

 

wrong on both counts.

density of motor oil is about 0.88g/mL
density of water is 1.0g/mL
density of salt water is 1.02-1.03g/mL



and yes, motor oil and water WILL mix together in a closed-loop system, just as I've described below. I see it on a very regular basis.

Here's the oil filters we use on our hydraulic equipment at work-- to keep the water out of the oil...
https://dynamic.donaldson.com/webc/W...041&item=11957


And nowhere has anyone said anything about chemical bonds- you don't need one to have a mixture. look up the definition of a mixture and a compound in a chemistry book.

 

I think oil stays at the top. But anyways, i think the guy should just change his oil, wipe dry his plugs and other stuff and simply try again. Could water be sitting in where the piston is.?

 

I must have slept through all those years in science class...

 

busy reading up on computers in science class huh.

 

i think computer science is the only schooling i ever took seriously. I need to get the heck out of this thread man im bombing. I'm off to have a beer, its noonish....ha

 

take out your coil packs and plugs, along with the intake itself. crank the engine and be ready for some water to come out. I had the same thing happen to my original vq30de motor. i got the water out and change the oil about 5 times with 50 miles until it no longer looked like cappicino. The engine ran fine for about 900 miles until one day is just dropped two rods out of the block....no fun. Good luck. Let us know whats going on....

 

... change ur oil filter too

 

Count yourself lucky if the motor is turning over. I just went thru this same thing witt the wife's Caravan. She went thru water at an underpass after a rain (stock air intake, sits kind of low in the grille). It wouldn't crank over...at all. Sounded like the starter was hitting a brick wall. So towed it home, took out the 6 plugs (after 2 days) and nothing in there. Backed out the starter in case the bendix was seized into the crank gear (I've heard of this happening when a hot starter gets drenched with cold water.) But, made no difference, even with a breaker bar and wrench on the crank pulley. So, I knew I was up the creek. Checked the oil by backing out the drain plug and draining a little onto a paper towel. Well, when there's water you'll see it fanning out and wetting the towel up around the oil that's in the middle. That's what it looked like in my case, not good. Figured the water all leaked down the ring gaps and sat at the bottom of the pan by the time I got to it. Put a breaker bar on crank pulley again hoping to get lucky and free it up, turning it both directions. Well, eventually I sheared off the bolt on the crank pulley. So, I figure I either have bent rods, bent valve stems, wedged rings, or a combination of the above. Result, I just sold a perfectly good '96 Caravan with 150K miles and locked engine for $600. End of sad story. Moral: do find another way around standing water that looks like it could be deep. You don't have to have a CAI to make it happen.

Bill

 

Pretty amazing when a bone stock vehicle hydrolocks. Thanks for sharing your story Bill. That sucks.

 

thanks everyone for all the input and support, i have great news, i got the car to magically start. Its being inspected right now, gonna have the oil changed, and new spark plugs put in.

 

^^^very lucky..

 

Matt93se is right, oil floats on water. theres only 2 ways to do the opposite but neither occur in the natural world, including in an engine.

They cant necessarily mix but they can be blended together to represent a mixure. A true mixture wont ever separate but when finely blended oil and water can form an artificial mixture. What differentiates it tho is that it will still separate given enough time. But as long as the oil and water are circulated through the engine constantly and blended through the oil pump, they will continually represent a mixture.

following matt's 'milk' analogy its like putting chocolate syrup in milk. when you are drinking it, it seems to be all mixed but if you let it sit in the fridge for awhile the syrup will sink to the bottom of the glass.

good job...but shame on you for not changing your oil first. you could be harming your engine more than it already is by starting it before changing the oil.