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Hey guys, I was driving home late last night and I hit a pretty big puddle...came up to my ankles when I stepped out. Anyways, I own a '06 Civic SI and have an injen CAI. When I got halfway through the puddle, the car just stopped. So I figured I messed up my car, got out of the car and pushed myself out of the puddle. I was in my neighborhood and called a tow truck which didn't come for 2 hours and he towed my car into my garage.

anyways, what are the chances I hydrolocked my car? I tried starting it again today and it wouldn't turn but my gauges, radio, heat, and everything else turned on...

Considering I have a lack of mechanical knowledge, I figured this would be my best bet to get answers. All of my friends who do know about cars just so happen to be away at college right now so...any help or anything would be greatly appreciated.

 
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chances? REAL GOOD...

sounds to me like its hydro locked...

good luck!

 
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Yeah dude, sounds toast, hate to say it.

((Big ****in' puddle + car dies halfway through) x won't start next day) + battery still works = hydro lock FTL

It won't turn over probably because you mashed a rod against the cylinder wall. Did you hear/feel a big clunk! when the car died? If not, it's possible (although unlikely) that you just got a bunch of water in the cylinder but not enough to kill the car.

Drain the oil and see if there is water and metal shards in it. That's the first thing I would do.

This is what the bottom of a hydrolocked cylinder looks like. This destroys rods.

 
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Before you make any big decisions! See if you can rent/ borrow a compression tester. It plugs into the spark plug holes. Turn over the engine and see what the psi reads. Typically looking for 110-140 psi. If one of the cyliders come up a lot shorter, you got big problems. If you have good compression on all cylinders, I would say a bad electrical or gas issue from all the water.

 
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make sure you take out the plugs then crank the engine over a few times to see if water comes gushing outa the spark plug holes. If it does keep cranking till none shoots out. then put the plugs back in try starting it. If it fires up dont run it any longer then 30 seconds cause the oil probably has water in it too. If it runs CHANGE THE OIL right away. if it works out that way you are one luckey SOB lol. My buddy has a boat that he flipped and we used that method.

 
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personally, id pull the head, dont crank, itll only do more damage, if u want to "save" it, check the cylinders first, if u did hydrolock, ull have to rebuild, or claim it on insurance, but the other problem is that u could have fried the wiring harness, pcm, ecu, or created connector failure on any one of ur electronics, its time to have it towed in, that way, a shop can say, yep, its toast, and then u call ur insurance, pay ur deductible, and get a new car, because ur prolly screwed, if a car stalls mid puddle, then its a 99% chance that its hydrolocked, and the cold air intake doesnt help either, probably sucked water into the throttle body, but ur best bet, to know if u sucked water into the engine, is to pull the throttle body off, and see if there is water inside the intake manifold, or water damage apparent inside the throttle body, good luck, sorry about ur loss

 
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put the stock intake back, and tow to the dealer lol. hope for the best.

 
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^ yep, if you are still within warranty.. thats ur best bet.. otherwise try what others said and pull the plugs and try to crank and see if there is any water shooting out... also look around for damage to the block.

 
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hydrolock, in 90 percent of cases, will not damage the block, it will not be apparent unless u throw a rod out the side of the block... so u cant just look around

 
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whether you put your stock intake back in or not, the dealer isnt retarded, once they see evidence of water, its on you to pay for it.

anyway i had the same issue happen about 4 years ago on my still running strong civic. got caught up in a major flooded street and car died. had it towed to a shop and they sucked out the water and got the car running. didnt do any damage. you case my be different but see if the engine turns.

 
Rep Power: 359

Do not crank on it anymore. Wasn't there someone on here awhile (like 2 or 3 years back) that hydrolocked their car and with a lot of time and effort got it to come back to life? Can anyone find the thread?

I forget what all he had to do, but it was a lot of work.

If it is still under warranty getting it back to the dealer would be the best option. Because if you try to fix it yourself and don't catch every little thing you're risking premature failure of a variety of parts later down the road.

 
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first off put your stock intake back on, now call the dealer like it happened last night tell the story play stupid and see what you can squeeze out of the dealer. I hope the 3hp increase of the cai was worth it lol.