Car question--possible water in engine

Factual Questions
1

So I was driving home today in my 2002 Cabrio when I went through a very small puddle with my right front tire. The car immediately sputtered to a halt. Attempts to start the car were mostly unsuccessful, but I occasionally got a very rough start for a few seconds before it died again.

I didn’t panic, because I remembered that it did exactly the same thing about a year ago. That time I waited for about fifteen minutes and then it started right up with no problems. My mechanic checked it out and said he didn’t see anything wrong. I never gave it another thought.

Once again I waited for a while and eventually it started just fine–until I got to the bottom of the hill, and it died on me again. I managed to roll it into a motel parking lot and called my wife to come get me.

I tried it again while I was waiting for her, and this time it started up like a champ. I drove it around the parking lot a few times and let it run for a few minutes, and it seemed fine, but that was all at low speed. I still didn’t drive it home, since I go via a fairly busy and dangerous stretch of highway that I didn’t want to stall on. At worst I figured I’d let it sit there overnight and try it again in the morning.

I did some reading when I got home, and it seems I most likely got some water into my air intake, and that trying to start it at that point was actually a horrible idea because you can cause damage to a piston or rod by forcing it to compress against the water. This scares me, but would it have started up and run fine like it did if I had done any serious damage?

And the big question–should I get my mechanic to tow it in and check it out tomorrow even though it seemed to be running fine? (In retrospect, I should have called to have it towed in immediately instead of trying to turn the engine over, but I didn’t.)

2

This sounds like an electrical problem to me.
If it was water in the intake, it would have either a) ruined the engine. or b) done nothing once the engine started.

3

I am in agreement.

4

Definitely electrical, probably distributor, coil, or another component of the ignition system. It’s not water in the engine – small amounts in the intake could cause sputtering, when the water turns to steam from the heat, but I don’t think it would stall the engine. Large enough amounts to stall the engine would likely break things pretty noticeably.

Your car is in the grasp of that old villain, CAMOAH. :slight_smile:

5

If your engine ingested enough water, it would be hydrolocked and even cranking it would be next to impossible.

A little water (which is not compressible) will make cranking difficult. Get enough in there to fill a cylinder, and you’ll have an effectively seized engine. Attempting to crank it will probably result in bending vital parts like connecting rods or even the crankshaft, or breaking teeth off the flywheel or starter pinion. If you’re lucky, you might get away with violently expelling the sparkplug from the waterlogged cylinder and stripping the threads out of the head.

So, like everyone above, I’m confident that you only have wet electrics - either your sparkplug wires are crummy (At six years old, they’re probably due for replacement) and a little moisture was enough to do them in, or water got into an ignition module.

6

You might need a lawyer more than a mechanic. :slight_smile: