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Hi all--

I've searched on this and found somewhat similar posts regarding CAI's and stuff--so sorry in advance for the re-post, BUT...

Yesterday I was driving on some back roads in western massachusetts and it had been raining all day. There were puddles everywhere. I went through one that wasn't all that deep, probably an inch if that, and my car made a funny noise. It sounded like a gurgling-type of sound. Same thing happened over another puddle later in the day. It was definately engine-related as the engine made the sound in gear. I quickly slammed the clutch down and let the engine idle in neutral while I slowed down (the sound then stopped). After I slowed down, I put it in gear and it was fine. No smoke or anything.

I was like because I've read a lot of the posts on hydrolocking and such.

I have an 02 lx sedan completely STOCK. Nothing added. Any ideas?

 
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How deep were these puddles? You shouldnt be flying through anything too deep. Besides flooding out your engine temporarily, you could have hydroplaned that thing into oblivian. The same thing used to happen with my old prelude when I couldnt miss hittign puddles like that, a few thigns under the hood get saturate that shouldnt and it sort of sputters, and sometimes, like in my case, the car stalls out and wont restart till enough of the water gets out. Without a CAI I dont think you have to wrry about hydrolocking as much unless your driving through really deep puddles

 
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No, it wasn't that deep, actually. I wasn't going that fast, either. That's why I am confused. I guess I just psyched myself out. Weird.

 
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There is nothing you can do. If your engine dies HONDA has to replace it under warranty because of no modifications!

 
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Yeah cuz your car is stock. So anything happens, just head over to your dealer.

 
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Take a look at this:
http://www.nhtsa.gov/TSBScans/sb631006-sb631014.pdf

 
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I think I know what that noise was. Since you were driving, naturally your engine will get pretty hot. When I go over puddles that aren't even deep, the water gets on the brakes and on the engine block, and when that happens, there like a boiling gurgly noise as a result of the cool water hitting the hot engine/brakes.

 
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ZSKCivic01 and MMILX: Thanks, that makes a lot of sense!. Thanks to all who posted. I really appreciate it.

 
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You bet! My car did this the 2nd night I had it and I was sure that something had gone wrong.

I found the TSB and when my car goes in for its 30k, I'll bring copies of this TSB and one for the rear seat being hard to unlatch... Then, the dealer can fix those while the car is there.