Hey everyone,

I have read a few things on the internet, all contradicting of course so here goes nothing.

My sister & I both drive Volvos, i was following her home and it was raining very hard. We came to the bottom of a hill to turn onto our street and i guess she did not see the puddle but she proceeded to go through the water which was well over 1/2 up her tires. She stalled in the middle, being right behind her i hit the gas and drove through to safety not wanting to risk my car stalling.

I left my car running while in park and helped push my sisters car to safety. After about 10 mins i could hear my car sputtering so i ran over, got in and drove it around the block. It did not drive normally, but i managed to pick up my sister and make it back to my house. I checked the oil to see if it was milky - it was not so i just left it to dry out.

This morning i went to start it and it started fine, idled normal but after about 10 seconds it started revving high so i shut it off. Started it again - same thing. Started it a 3rd time and it was idling normally and running like normal so i drove it to work (about 10kms, which it was driving completely normal). I was just going to go get something to eat and now my car will not start at all. The lights come on and the radio however it does not even turn over or act like it wants to start.

I have heard that this is NOT a good sign and that i might have hydroblocked my engine which basically means my car is toast.

Please, please, please let me know if anyone has any insight on how to go about fixing this issue. I love my Volvo and i would hate for it to be finished.

Thanks in advance!

 

If it ran - even a short time - after you went through the wet stuff - then it's not hydro-locked (water in the cylinder). You probably got some electrical components wet although. I would pull the coils and dry off the top of the cylinder head really good with some compressed air and go from there. Maybe do the same with the air mass meter connector.

 

I think there is zero chance you hydrolocked it. The problems may be related to rain, electronics getting a little wet, but maybe not.

 

It is not hydrolocked. If it was you would have bent rods, or blown a hole in the top of a piston. Either way you it would have made a holy hell of a noise. Plus since you started it and it ran tells me it is not hydrolocked. HOWEVER, you probably got a lot of the electrical components wet and quite possibly sucked up a little water into the air intake. I concur with the above answers....doyour best to dry it all out, plus pull the air filter and see if there is water in it. Disconnect the battery and pull out the computer module and dry it and the connector out. Should run better after that.