Drove my '02 GP 3.1L through some water during heavy rain last night. Engine started cutting out, no revs above 1200-1500 rpm, power felt like it was running down a couple cylinders at least, finally stalled. Waited a minute, restarted, some stumbling but made it the last quarter mile to work. Park it and forget it, it oughta dry out by morning.
This morning after my 8 hrs it started right away, stumbled at idle some but settled right down. Went to pull out but died in gear. Restart, erratic idle, dies. Restart, keep rpm at about 2K for a minute or so, OK there, drive around the parking lot, OK, drive 15 miles home w/ no stumble or problems.
Water is definitely the culprit here, never had a problem w/ it before so I never dug into troubleshooting. Only one similar experience on another car after an engine cleaning w/ pressure washer, engine ran erratic till it dried out.
Just for future reference/ troubleshooting what might I be looking at here?
Bobzilla wrote:
Ignition module?
yep. can't remember how many of those, and coils, i sold when i worked at autozone. it was a lot though.
There is probably an electrical connector for the wiring harness under the wheel well or some other spot that got wet. I had this problem in a Cavalier I had.
Wet coil? Cracked spark plug wires?
Get a can and spray WD40 over all of the ignition parts. The WD portion stands for water displacement, it will move out the water. It is the water that is causing the short.
Another option is to get a spray bottle of straight water. On a dark night, mist the water all over the engine. If it is truly dark, you may see the little lightning show under the hood as the electrical current escapes from the cracked wires/components.
After this, liberally apply WD40 to the same parts (it will not hurt any of them.)
Replace parts as needed but keep the WD40 close by until done.
Plugs and wires were replaced about 15K ago w/ ACs, not that it couldn't happen tho.
Ran fine when I parked it after driving home but I let it sit for a couple days to dry out JIC. Water in the headlight housings too but gone now.
Whatever it was it's dried out now and running fine. Still wonder WTF it was just to know.
I usually carry a pretty good kit in my vehicles but I recently cleaned it out to trade in while car shopping. Not so much as a berkeleying rain poncho, ugh. Lesson learned.
