Taigher

Yesterday, I was washing my engine bay as I have before in the past. I like to keep it really clean. I usually give it a day to dry after I wash it because everything gets pretty soaked. I use soap and water to scrub then I mist everything down with a garden hose.

About an hour after I washed it I was going to leave to pick up some soda. When I cranked the key the dash lit up but the engine didn't start at all. It didn't make the "cranking" noise or whatever you'd call it. I was like oh **** because I remembered I just washed the whole thing and there's no way it would start. So I left it until today.

Today, I was going to test to see if my car works and I got the same problem. The dash lights came on around the gauges and the fans for the AC came on but the engine didn't crank or start at all. Basically what I got is when you just put the key in "position II" but I was cranking it all the way to III.

So I popped the hood and I noticed some moisture still. It wasn't a particularly hot or dry day so I guess that makes sense. I dried all the electrical connections I could find and they looked pretty good already. When I cranked it again to see if what I did worked I got the same dash lights as before but then I think I shorted it . Now nothing turns on and I'm not going to test it again until tomorrow when it's more dry.

So what should I do? I'm probably going to have to replace something really expensive because my luck is like that but it's probably what I deserve for washing my engine bay. Help please?

Colin42

Check fuses

Taigher

In the fuse box under the hood? They seem to be bone dry. The plastic cover kept the water off I think. Do you imagine that by trying to turn on the car when it's wet I did some sort of permanent damage?

Taigher

Alright, I think it's the alternator. I checked back under the hood when it stopped raining and took a look at everything. Double checked the fuses and electrical connections and they're all dry.

Then I flashed my light on the alternator and saw some moisture inside. I wasn't sure if maybe some oil dripped in there so I got a rag and I pushed in and soaked it up. Smells and feels like water. I feel pretty ****ing stupid. I thought I was careful to not mist it because that's one of the main things you don't want to get wet but evidently I didn't.

I'm going to wait until tomorrow to try it again. I twisted the key to position II and the lights and all the electronic stuff turned on again but I'm not going to bother cranking it all the way until it's completely dry in the engine. Best case scenario it dries out and works fine but I'll probably have to replace it again. Damn it! Learned my lesson. Next time I clean the engine bay I'm just going to gently scrub and rinse one area at a time. No more garden hose for this guy...

ezone

time to learn how to really diagnose an actual problem without guessing!

Absolutely nothing electrical works now? Bad connections of the battery cables.

Taigher

Well, there is water in the alternator so that stands out to me. I'm just going to wait until everything dries and if it still doesn't work I'll call my dad. He's mad old and he knows all about this stuff.

I went out again later like I explain in my second post. I don't want to attempt to actually fire up the engine until the alternator is dry. But when I went out there earlier and turned it to "II" that worked. As in the lights on the dash lit up again so that's good. I didn't check to see if the automatic windows and AC work too. I don't want to mess around with anything more until everything is dry.

Earlier, nothing was happening but I didn't explain it very well. I attempted to start the engine but all of the lights went out after a "pop" sound. If I heard that sound coming from my computer it would mean serious damage. As in it's broken. That's why I went back out later and only turned the key to "II" because I wanted to see if that works now at least. And it did! But I'm concerned there's some kind of damage.

ezone

I'd hose one down while it's running. I ain't skeered.

Also, the alternator can't cause the problem you've described.

It came from the engine compartment?......the POP was the poor electrical connection going open during high current loading and everything in the car quitting at once.
I'm probably older than your dad LOL.

When I was young, we had hand cranked modems and wood burning servers.

Overzealous washing might be what caused the problem: Corrosion.
You can learn how to find the problem.....Google how to do a voltage drop test...
You can check battery cables for corrosion and looseness, take apart and clean (wire brush) until bright clean shiny metal is exposed for good electrical contact....If you have cheapo cable ends with the wires clamped, that's another place bad connections happen.



I'm sure I can pinpoint the cause using a light bulb and a piece of wire.....or maybe only my bare hands.....

Taigher

That's a good point about the corrosion. I actually have one of those meters for drop tests too. I was so caught up thinking I should just wait until it dries that I didn't use it. I'm going to go at it tomorrow. I found a good tutorial on youtube about it so that should be helpful.

I thought it was weird too because I sprayed down the engine bay with a hose a bunch of times before and it was fine.

ezone

If you do test, the car needs to be "dead" (problem is acting up) while you do the testing.
If you have to turn the key on and headlights on in order to make everything to go dead, do it. Whatever it takes. If someone has to sit in the drivers seat and twist the key to crank to make it go dead, do it.


Make it act up---but before checking with a meter, just feel the battery posts and cables for heat. If you find a hot spot, that's probably the bad connection.
You can wiggle cables and stuff while watching for the car to come back to life.

Taigher

Okay, thanks that's good advice.

Taigher

I was going to update on the car so if some dope like me googles a similar problem in the future this may be of help. This morning I checked my car again and when I tried to start it it fired right up on the first try. So I guess this fixed itself. There's probably still corrosion issues, though. For now I'm just relieved there wasn't any significant damage.

ezone

I'd call the problem something more like 'dormant'. I'm sure it will come back to haunt you later.

It isn't actually fixed until you track down the root cause and fix it.

Taigher

UPDATE:

I've been weary lately waiting for the inevitable issue to occur again. When I went to start my car, it did the same thing as a few weeks ago. I and II worked but III to start the car didn't work. It's not what I wanted to deal with today but I knew something was coming.

When I popped the hood, the plastic end of the hood popper latch broke off and I was like god damn that's not what I wanted to deal with today. I got the hood open and looked for corrosion. The number one place would be on the battery because the negative one has a cheap terminal clamp. I took it apart and there was corrosion around the copper part of the wire and the clamp itself had corrosion all over on the inside. I went at everything with a wire brush and put it back together. Everything seems to be working now, but I want new terminal clamps and spark plugs when I get my next check.

I'd just though I'd update this in case some dope if the future has the same problems.