I got a call tonite about 20 minutes after my wife left to go out with her girlfriend. She said she was in the middle of a huge puddle and the car had stalled out. She said that when she got stuck, she opened the doors and water came inside the driver side (front and back) about 6 inches high!!! 2 inches of water on the passenger side. (Its been rainin hard for days here in England) Not only that, but she tried to start it while she was in the water. A farmer came by and towed her out and she let the car sit for about 2 hours and tried to start it again. The starter just clicked. My questions are: What ALL could be wrong? How do I fix it? Could anything be permanently broke? Any and all help appreciated.

 

Worst-case scenario: Water got sucked up into the intake, got into the engine, cracked/bent rods/pistons/etc.

Best: Water shorted something somewhere, and a fuse blew.

I'd take all the plugs out, see if any water comes out. Might have to turn the engine by hand, to see if it will turn.

 

If the starter is clicking like you say, it's usually either because the battery doesn't have enough power to turn the flywheel, or because there's something physically stopping the crank from turning (i.e. seized block, etc).

I would try charging the battery before pulling too much of your hair out.

 

How do you hand crank the engine? And if it is seized, can it be UN-seized?

 

Ok, as far as I can tell this seems like a pretty easy one. If the water was up that high and the car sat there not running in water that high, then the water was probably at about the starter level. In that case, the starter is hot and would then be grounding out through the water, thus causing the battery to kill itself, and therefore not having enough power to crank the engine and the notorious "clicks". Just recharge the battery or get a new one if it's old, I'd definately put my money on that.

PS: Nice bike! Kawasaki 500?? I was lookin to get one of those except in yellow not lime.

 

First off, you got 2 nice azz vehicles there.

One time when I ran thru a deep puddle, I lost some charging abilities and my power steering, pretty much went out., along with the idle dipping way low, it went away after a min or 2 though.

 

One of my friends got water in his like that one time (only not a camaro) and he took the plugs out and cranked it. Not exactly sure what it is suppose to do, but it worked for him. We were in the river in his truck with water up to the windshield, not in a little puddlee.

 

If you got water in the cylinders and haven't broken anything then pulling the plugs and cranking it over should fix I think? Not sure, so someone either tell me I'm wrong, or tell me I'm right.

I figure that if water got into the cylinders and since water isn't compressable then yanking the plugs and cranking it would eject the water and allow it to cycle through the exhaust system. Once it dried out a bit, you could put them back in and try to start it.

Course if your wife bent/broke parts in your car then well, that sucks.

 

Change your engine oil and oil filter asap. Change the trans. fluid and filter asap. Divorce the wife.

 

You guys!! This is rediculous! He said the water was up 6 In above the door, that is not high enough for water to have gotten inside the engine block!! That's obsurd. The only thing that happened was the battery shorted out from sitting in the water. Your engine is fine.

 

You're probably going to have more problems with moisture in the interior than the engine or electrical system. Given the constant humidity, it could take a lot of heat and forced ventilation to dry out the interior. Remember that there is sound deadening matting under the carpet that holds water like a sponge.

She probably waterlogged the exhaust system as well, so the cat converter could be toast if it was nice and hot when she entered the lake.

Plan on an O² sensor as well, possibly a starter, wheel bearing repack, all new fluids (there is a vent on the rear axle that will let the housing fill with water if submerged), brake cable inspection/relube, seat belt retractors, etc. You might just want to ship the car to Phoenix for a couple of months...

 

Thanx for all the info! I'm going out right now to see if it still won't start. I hope Stingraye is right. (By the way Sting.. its a 1996 ZX-6R) I cant afford to rebuild my engine right now. Do you guys have any tips on getting the spark plugs out. I tried it once and never again It was a pain in the AZZ tryin to get to a few of them under the manifold (yes, I still got an exhaust manifold, no headers). And if I have to, how do you hand crank the engine?

 

I doubt you have water in the motor, but change your oil first just in case. The only advice I can give you on pulling your plugs is buy a 3/8 drive universal joint if you don't have one.( never changed plugs on a camaro without headers). I believe the crankshaft bolt is a 5/8. Put the 5/8 socket (deepwell) on a long rachet or breaker bar. Pull your your plugs and rotate the crankshaft by hand and see if it rotates smoothly.

 

Just a little tip on getting those plugs out, you can do it much easier from the bottom on those tough ones (i.e. the whole right bank). It helps if you have a lift, but jackstands work too. I totally agree that you don't have hydo-lock, you just have a dead battery. Try a jump start, and let the car run (or drive the **** out of it) to re-charge the battery. That may not be the "right" way to do it, but hell it works. The problem that I foresee is the stink inside from the mold that will undoubtably grow under the carpet. Before my brother turned his IROC into a pro-touring car, he used it to pull his boat, and at one lake the ramp wasn't steep enough to get the boat in and the car dry, so we swamed it. Well, it smelled like lake for a year, and it took new carpet & sound pad to fix it. Good luck.

 

another possibility is that water shot up onto his ignition which would cause the no start up problem. try and take out your cap and rotor, see if they look ok.

 

Jig,

You can go to all the trouble of removing the harmonic balancer and installing a crankshaft sprocket, or you can use a strap wrench wrapped around one of the accessory drives (like the A/C clutch sheave) to hand crank the engine. The strap wrench can be found at Simpson/Sears for about £4 or less. The beauty of the strap wrench is that you will be turning the crankshaft via the accessory belt, so there will be some slippage. That is desirable, since there is no way you can do any mechanical damage to speak of. If the engine is hydro-loocked (and I'll BET that it isn't) the belt will slip long before any damaging forces are applied. Besides, it's the easiest way to crank it over since you can do it from the top. Take your time and do at least two full crankshaft revolutions in the normal direction to make sure any water is expelled. You should be able to feel any locking or mechanical damage that might already have been done.

Once you have manually spun the engine a couple revolutions, charge the battery if you can and try cranking briefly. If there are no warning noises, crank it as long as you can (up to fifteen seconds) to try to restart the engine. Let the starter cool a bit between attempts if the engine doesn't start. You may have a very wet ignition, so don't be surprised if it doesn't just fire right up.

Plan on changing fluids very soon, especially the rear axle oil. Rust in the rear end is not a good thing.

After that, send your wife out with a Phillips screwdriver and a bunch of towels. Have her remove the door sill trim, kick panel trim, and whatever other pieces are necessary to raise the carpets. Start laying towels on the acoustic matting to soak up moisture, and change them every couple hours for 3-4 days.

 

BTW - Hurry up - it's getting dark.

 

Wow, that's a beautiful car.

 

OMG that is the most beautiful car I've seen on this board. What color is that and do you have any more pictures?:hail: :hail: :hail:


BTW Don't let your wife drive anymore, or if she has to, make sure she doesn't drive through anymore standing water. Although I'm sure she's learned that lesson.

 

O.K. I'm back from retrieving the car. Here's what happened...its a long story so try to keep up. On the way to my car I drove through the same puddle with my wife's car (the T.A. is lowered 2in. from stock and T.A.s are low in the first place) and damn near thought I would get it stuck too. My wife has a Diamante (stock height) and the water came almost to the door sill! I got to my car and took off the K&N filter, that is directly on the throttle body, (thank *** it wasn't in the stock position) and saw water in the throttle body past the butterflies...GREAT! I figured "what the hell" and tried to start it and it just clicked (I thought it might work since it stood overnight). I used my wife's car to try to jump it. Now, I have a Viper auto start so I can rev my wife's car while I press a button to try to start the T.A. As I was watchin the T.A. try to turn over, I saw the serpentine belt go forward around for about half a revolution (the correct way direction of travel) and then reverse direction the same amount of travel! Then it would quit. I got scared cuz I knew what was happening (hydro-lock). But I figured I would try it again anyway. The third time, the pistons powered their way through the water and pushed it out the exhaust valves. Nothing but thick smoke for about 10 minutes that fogged up the whole neighborhood! But the car was workin and no engine to buy. I drove it around and it drives great. It accelerates hard, no hesitation, no weird sounds, nothin. Next was the cleanup, so I went to the car wash. There was still a small pool of water in the footwells of all the seats (my wife and her friend had bucketed up as much as they could that last nite). I vaccumed up what I could and picked up the carpet too,( I see that sound deadening material yall were talkin about) what a nitemare! While I was vacuuming my favorite song came on the radio. That was cool except I had the car keys on the passenger seat! So now when I leave my car I have to turn the radio all the way off first or I'll come back to a dead battery. Well the car cleaned up as nice as I could of expected. I plan on putting a space heater in the car for a few hours a day for a couple of days to try to dry the sound deadening material. After I vacuumed the car I took it to the GM/Chrysler service dept. near my base that caters to the large American population. I talked to their lead mechanic about what had happened and he told me that I didn't need to change any of my fluids (except MAYBE engine oil) and that my car was fine. He also told me that this time last year he had to do 2 engine changes cuz of the floods and that I was very lucky. What do you guys think about his advice? He said there was no way for water to get in: the engine oil (unless I'm burning oil too), the tranny, or the differential. Obviously my radio found a ground somewhere, but where? Should I just wait til the interior dries before I do anything? Thanx for all the help!!!

Oh and for those with the comments about the looks of the car... THANX. Its a stock mettalic blue for that year. And I got a couple more pics on my webpage. Oh yeah, its a stock untouched engine with 160,000 miles (thank *** for MOBIL 1) and it still pulls very hard.

I'm editing this again cuz I just found out that if you type G*O*D this website will edit it and put *** for MOBIL 1. Thats messed up. I can say DAMN, but I cant say my lord's name (L*o*r*d' name in case they edit that also). Anybody know whats up with that?

 

Listen to Vader Jigga, change the rear diff. fluid and engine oil.