Ack! How bad did I eff up my car?

[RaceCarRiot]

long time no post-y...

anyways, my street has the habit of flooding really badly when it rains, because it kind of sags downward in the middle, and is an old brick street, so it doesn't have any modern drainage.

so i'm driving home the other night, and it's late, been pouring rain, and of course, my street is flooded. because it's dark, and because it's NEVER been this bad, i assumed (there's that word) it was safe to attempt to drive down the street. "ford" the street was a more applicable term, so i of course proceeded very slowly. i finally chickened out when i got about 1/2 way down, and noticed a nissan sentra parked by the curb about 20ft in front of me, and the water was almost halfway up the door. yikes!

i put the car into reverse, and start to backup, when my car shudders and throws a CEL. coast a few more feet, the light goes out, and the engine is fine. so i keep backing up SLOWLY, and it bucks/throws a CEL a few more times.

i finally get it back off my street, and the engine has never stopped running, just been a bit crabby. so i figure i need to A) go around the back way to my house, and B) drive the car around a bit more to make sure any water that got anywhere evaporates. so i pull out on to the main street, and roll on the throttle. everything is fine up until about 3500rpm, when the engine cuts out like it hit the rev-limiter, and the CEL comes on again. at this point, i just hold the throttle where it is, and ride it out, making sure to watch my rearview, since i'm only going about 20 with the engine cutting in and out. it probably cut out/CEL'ed me about 7 or 8 times, and then it all went away. however, what had me worried was every time the engine would cut, it would shoot this huge puff of steam out the exhaust pipe, a la chitty chitty bang bang.

it's been fine ever since, except for one isolated shudder friday night, with no CEL's. except for that, it's run perfectly. should i be worried that i hydrolocked my engine, or was it not enough water? the air filter seemed to be perfectly dry and didn't show any evidence that it had been soaked, but there was a bit of water and muddy goo in the bottom of the airbox.

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[Opie]

If you had hydrolocked the motor...it wouldn't run at all. It would be locked up. Probably did get some water where it shouldn't have been causing a misfire. I would clean out the entire intake system, and change both the oil and the gear lube (they probably both have some water in them now) and you should be alright.

[Kostamojen]

Sounds like you might have f'ed up the MAF as well.

[DDMan]

The reason u were limited to 3500 is in essence a "safe mode" for the car...it limits the revs when there is a major problem with the motor.

I say change the motor oil...MAYBE the gear oil...and reset the ECU (unplug battery overnight)...see if this fixes it.

[joefocker20]

If its running fine with no CEL, your MAF should be fine. I'd change the motor oil and make sure there's no water in your airbox, and make sure your filter is fine.

[linsavy]

you said you backing up slowly in deep water... maybe you flooded your muffler and cat? The cel could be cat inefficiency or the O2 sensor is getting whacky data.

[Jack ffr1846]

I agree. Sounds like you got water into the tailpipe. The good news is that every time you drive, you'll quickly boil out the water till there's none left. If you park on a hill, park nose uphill. It'll help to be sure that the water doesn't get into the cylinders. Unless you were flying (not from your description), no water would have gotten into the intake.

jack

[Blindeye_03]

If you are still hitting the 'revlimiter' at 3500rpms, your maf is toast... As might be your airflow sensor. Something is preventing you from getting the correct airflow/fuel amount or readings, causing it to hit the revlimit UBER early.


My car did the same thing when my proecm got disconnected .

-justin