It began raining as I was driving down the road, soon after, the car began running like total crap. It was the first time I ever drove the car in the rain btw. At a stoplight I first noticed the car was shaking worse than normal. Then when the light turned green I pressed the gas and it hardy wanted to go. It was very very sluggish and felt like it was about to stall out as I was trying to build up speed.

Then the check engine light came on, first time that has happened btw. After I got up to speed it seemed to be ok, and several miles down the road at the next light it didn't have trouble taking off from the stop light. The check engine light was still on. The problem seems to be intermittent.

Another thing I remember is right when I bought the car I took it through one of those automatic car washes that has high pressure water spray. When I pulled out of the car wash it did something similar but was only temporary and check engine light did not come on.

I assume the presence of rain had something to do with my troubles today. I doubt it is a coincidence. Any ideas what the problem can be? Thanks.

 

Does your car have the lower pan shield on it (skid plate)? I ask because it sounds like water is getting on your distributor causing a short. I used to own a VW scirocco that would crack rotor caps when it got wet. Just a thought.....

 

Yep it has a skid plate. I guess I need to get the car checked with one of those code readers to see why the check engine light is on. Autozone does free checks for this. Not sure if they can check a 89 Volvo though.

 

Update to my problem above. I just took the car out in the rain again. It was fine at first then when I hit some big rain puddles I had problems again. I barely made it home. My car was bogging down and I could only get to maximum speed of 20 at some points. Before I left I reset the check engine light by unhooking the battery. The light came back on after it acted up again. I definitely have a problem related to rain for sure.

 

When was your last tune up?

 

Not sure on when last tuneup was, since I've only owned car for a week and a half. I guess I should change the plugs, wires dist cap and rotor tomorrow. Anything else I should do?

 

Sure sounds like your rotor cap is getting wet and shorting out, I bet you have a small crack inside of the cap. Rather then changing everything, you could probably get away with just replacing the cap, making sure the spark plug boots are tight on the cap and seeing if that resolves it. It's a good idea to replace everything like what you're wanting to do, just try it one item at a time, then you'll know for a fact what was causing your problem for future reference.

 

Thanks for the tip, I'll start with the cap and rotor today and see if that fixes it.

 

Update, I replaced the cap and rotor and after about a block down the road everything returned to normal. It wasn't raining, so I do need to do a rain test again. I don't know if this helps but I duct taped the heck out of the disrtributor cap, ran it around it several times to stop any water from getting in.

 

Sounds about right j, your check engine light shouldn't return unless another miss-fire is detected, of which I'm pretty sure that's what turned it on in the first place. Sounds like you've got it narrowed down, AWESOME job man!!!

Dale

One more thing, I don't know that I would use duct tape long term, if you have any dialectric grease that's what I would use to help seal out the moisture. Just put some of it on the spark plug leads before you jam them in the rotor cap.Dialectric grease is non-conductive and serves as a great water displacement.

 

Spraying around the Cap with WD-40 is also a good sealer.

 

Thanks for the tips guys. I actually taped around the edge where the cap meets the distributor. I will get some dialectric grease and apply that.