Yesterday it rained like it hasn´t rained in the last 4 years probably. Many streets were flooded, including one close to my wife's office. Instead of waiting for the water level to go down, which took about two hours after the rain stopped, she just went ahead and drove the car through water that was higher than the exhaust. Luckily it was not higher than the air intake, otherwise bye-bye engine.

I opened the air filter box. The filter was totally soaked and there was water in the box. I removed the air filter (the car has not been used without a filter) and left it outside to see if it would dry up. Gonna try with a hair drier, just so she can use the car today for a short 5 km drive to her office. I´ll buy a new filter and swap them tonight.

What else should I check, besides my wife's brain? Oil change just in case? Check out the turbo? Heeeeelp

 

Update: I put the air filter in the microwave oven for 1 minute at max level. Then took it out and used a hair drier to blow the steam out. I repeated this four times and the filter was a bit moist, but usable. I put the filter back in the car, and my wife went to work. Let´s see how it goes.

 

Hi Axel,

I would just buy a new filter (unless it's $$$ in Argentina), as well as engine oil & filter. Well, at least the motor had a free wash[8D]


JPN

 

Air filter is cheap, 20USD manfactured by Mann. I'm getting the oil & filter changed, I was wondering about the rest. Anything else I should check? The car has started vibrating horribly now on idle. I guess it might just be coincidence. If I accelerate a bit the noise goes away. If I put the tranny in P or N it goes away. The noise is there when the shift is in D, but the break pedal is pressed.

 

Good evening Axel,

The rough idle (vibrato) may be due to wet ignition components, I would check to see if there is water trapped somewhere along the ignition system. Or just wait a few days until everything dries out. Also, drive the car for 15 minutes and double-check the transmission fluid level, as well as the colour.

I would also take off the timing belt cover and make sure everything in there is dry.

I hopenone of thesensors/electrical connections suffered short-circuit from water....


JPN

 

Also maybe even check the engine mounts.

The mass flow might have shorted out some from the water as well.

 

Thanks guys, I´ll check it out today.

 

The filter is in wonderful shape after the microwave oven trick. It is incredibly clean, probably has less than half the dirt it had before. You can probably double the life of the filter this way.

Regarding the horrible vibration, is happens in all the gears. It seems to come from one of the cylinders, maybe a rod was bent by hydrolock? The noise stops if I accelerate above 1000 rpms.

I took the spark plug cover off to inspect the plugs, and I found a lot of oil under the cover. It is apparently coming from the oil cap, so I guess I'll have to buy a new oil cap seal (the round rubber thingy inside the oil cap). I removed all the oil to see if how bad the leak is.

I am attaching picture of plugs 1-4. I didn't have time to check out number 5. Look at all the dirt (carbon?) on the plugs. I don't know if that is the wrong anti-seize thread lubricant that I added a year ago to make plug removal easier. I cleaned them up and put them back in.

Any comments are welcome.

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Pictures didn't attach.

 

More pics

[IMG]local://upfiles/4713/0999219677A648E989C367BBD627E9ED.jpg[/IMG]

 

Cyls 1 and 2

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That engine is pretty clean inside!!!!

Plugs look pretty good just a little worn.

 

Cyls 3 and 4. Check out the white dots on the inside walls. I took a sample out and looked at it with a magnifying glass. It looked like salt. Maybe it's calcium residue do to rain water in the combustion chamber?

[IMG]local://upfiles/4713/51C171FBE1614AFDB9976DA5213F8A22.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/4713/3C463C26C64340FE9007CACF09B45313.jpg[/IMG]

Edit: I meant sodium, not calcium...

 

What's the brown stuff on the top of the cyls? Is that oil or rusted alluminum? I didn't want to try to scrape it off because it would probably fall inside the combustion chamber.

I am really worried about the noise now. Would a bent rod stop making noise at a higher rpm?

 

That looks like it might be either rust from water being in there one time or another or slight weapage from the o-ring. There is an o-ring around each cylinder between the Cam Cover and the Head.

Yes a bent rod can act like that as well.

 

I didn't see any o-rings when I took of the spark plug cover. Are they missing or did I misunderstand you?

Guess it's time to throw the car off a cliff then

 

You missunderstood me.
Between the 2 aluminum top covers is where they live.

 

Today I used my car´s wife for the first time since the rain/flood. I did 90 kms on the freeway. I came back from the office late at 10 pm so I was able to test the engine, which seems to be working fine. I reached 200 km/h. Would a bent rod allow me to do that without blowing up the engine?

I am wondering if the noise isn´t coming from the tranny instead of from the engine.Could water get into the tranny or the differential and cause some damage? I am going to do a tranny drain to see if changing the fluid will reduce the noise/vibration.

 

if it stops when in neutral and part take a quick look at your muffler and the c-clamps that hold the mfuffler. I know it's a long shot but kinda makes sence?

 

The noise comes from the front of the car, not from the back where the muffler is. It seems to come from under the engine (tranny?).