Rep Power: 330

It never fails, as soon as I get my car running great something go's wrong. I got caught in a really bad storm about 2 weeks ago, and was forced to drive for several blocks in 2-4 inch deep water. My first fear was that the engine would ingest water. so I pulled over and popped the hood, and my CAI appered to be high enough off the ground that water wouldnt be a problem. Knowing that the flooding would only get worse I descided to make the 3 mile trip to higher ground. I was in 5th gear at about 20-25 mph, I figgured that keeping the revs down would reduce the chance of sucking water into the engine.

I hit several deep puddles and then I felt the car bog. I imediatly shut the engine down and coasted onto a side street, I figgured that if there was water in my intake Id let it fall back out before trying to move again. I started the engine and it began to idle very ruff, but didnt cut out. Then the idle climbed to around 1,600 rpm's and stayed there. I tried to drive to a 7-11 about 2 blocks away but the car kept bogging down and trying to stall.

I looked down at my A/F gauge and noticed that it was on all the way rich, and my check engine light had come on. When I finaly sputtered into the parking lot I let the car idle while I looked for loose wiring in the engine bay. After I couldnt find any I let the car idle for a few minutes, and to my surprise the check engine light turned off. So I was like WTF... ok maybe it will make it home. I slowly made my way to the highway, where ther was no flooding and punched it in second gear. It backfired once, and then seemed to excelerate ok untill around 5,000rpm's where it began to bog and backfire very quickly. It kinda sounded like a 2 stroke dirtbike with a racing muffler. The whole time the A/F gauge was still on all the way rich.

Now 2 weeks later the car no longer bogs and backfires, but it has several new problems. When cruising at highway speeds it will miss every 45 seconds to a minute, and still idles high at around 900 rpm's. Also when accelerating hard the A/F gauge goes to about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way rich, and doesnt have anywhere near the acceleration it used to. Before all of this happened the gauge was allways on the first or second bar of the rich section when accelerating hard.

The car has an hp racing 4-1 header w/ cat replacement, a hp racing midpipe, a custom axle back, AEM style CAI, and a VAFC. My wide throttle setting on the vafc is -2% from 1,00 rpm's untill 6,000 where its +1% untill redline. the narrow throttle and vtec points are stock. I Inspected my exhaust for cracks and leaks and found none, and discovered no water when I changed the oil. My guess is that the water damaged an o2 sensor and thats causing it to run rich, and the miss is caused be the engine "loading up" on fuel.

Any other thoughts or sujestions woulb be greatly appriciated.

 
Rep Power: 396

Next time post in the correct forum. I am moving this...

 
Rep Power: 0

Wat the hell shouldn't this be in the tech forum[IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/IMG]

 
Rep Power: 330

jesus christ, 2 people respond about it being in the wrong place and still no-one has even attempted to help me......

 
Rep Power: 419

I'm moving this back to the Tech Stuff forum. Also, I edited your message. Paragraph's are your best friend, use them. When people see a large block of text like that they simply don't bother reading it. That's why nobody has responded yet.

 
Rep Power: 0

Alright here is an idea. It is running rich mabey cause the filter was soaked in water. Take it off clean and oil it. Wait for it to dry before spraying the oil on. Then for good measure reset your ecu by disconnecting your battery for a bit. Hope that helps a little.

 
Rep Power: 0

i have no clue why you engine is doing that, other then maybe it injested some water. but i suggest take the CAI off untill the wet season pass's. Thats what i did, i am taking no chances.

 
Rep Power: 330

When I changed the oil I cleaned and re-oiled my air filter, but I havent tried re-setting the ecu. As soon as it stops snowing I'll go out and give that a try. Does anyone know if the first and second o2 sensors are the same? Im thinking about swapping them to test my theory.

 
Rep Power: 0

Probably wouldn't hurt to change the plugs also, I work at a garage and we just towed in a lady's car that was in the same situation. A lil carb cleaner,oil change, plugs, and TLC fixed her right up.

 
Rep Power: 0

senior mod shows the lil guy whats up jk civicdude