Killed my car going through water.. help! ** FIXED **

[Jim 1]

So it finally happened. I had to call out the AA for the first time since I've owned a Corrado, and it was my own fault :(

 

So basically I went through a small bit of flooded road earlier this evening (having gone through it at a similar level yesterday) - was very careful and just pooptled through carefully. Immediately something was wrong as I came out of the water and headed up the road all power was going and I couldn't accelerate. Coasted to a stop and tried to restart the car and after 2 or 3 attempts, she spluttered into life and was ok again. Counted my lucky starts and pressed on. Drove half a mile, stopped to get some stuff for dinner, set off again. Came to an open bit of road and gave it a quick full throttle 'thwarp' to clear out anything that might be in the exhaust - and suddenly got the same again.. coasted to a stop and this time no amount of cranking would make it work.

 

Called the AA (who where there in 20 minutes - very impressed) and the guy was very friendly. He had all the dizzy cap off, airbox out, plugs out checking for any sign of water but there wasn't any at all. The car starts immediately when you turn the key but then it just won't run - his comment was like it was as if the timing was miles off. When we did get it to run (with the throttle pretty much held wide open) it was dreadfully lumpy and you'd get the occasional backfire into the intake manifold or the airbox kind of area. We had to give up and he towed me home and my car is now sitting in the garage with a virtually flat battery. He spent about an hour trying to get it to go but just couldn't get any improvement.

 

I'm optimistic that a weekend of drying in my garage and a jump start on Sunday and it'll be ok but the paranoid side of me isn't so sure. I can't help but think it might be related to the lambda getting submersed in water but I'm just not sure.

 

Any suggestions? :(

 

I'm really gutted tbh - this has been a great Corrado and it's sods law that I'm going to take it off the road in less than a month when my new daily turns up... I'd be mortified if I'd properly f*cked it up :(

[CorradoVR6-Turbo 0]

how deep was the water? :cuckoo: no way it could have sucked water into airbox! or mabey the fuel pump has been soaked?

[Jim Bowen 1]

at least there's no big hole in the side of your engine, i know people who have done that.

 

could just be water on something electrical, have you tried damp start everywhere?

[Jim 1]

The water looked like it would have come up to the bottom of the sills so not madly deep.. and yeah, there is no way water has got into the engine. The airbox is dry, the intake pipes are all dry, there is no water in the dizzy cap, and the plugs are dry (and in good condition).

 

I thought the fuel pump on these was in-tank...?

 

I wondered if somehow water had leaked into the fuel tank somehow?!

[Jim 1]

at least there's no big hole in the side of your engine, i know people who have done that.

 

could just be water on something electrical, have you tried damp start everywhere?

 

The AA guy WD40'd and dried off plugs in various places but he was just confused as there was no obvious water visible anywhere :(

[Purple Tom 0]

Does the 16V have a lower crank sensor or flywheel sensor or something similar thats reasonably low down on the engine?

 

It certainly sounds to me like there's a minor problem with a critical sensor (something like those I listed above!) thats causing the running issues. Possibly water in the connector or some freak of water pressure has pushed the connector off. Have you checked the lambda sensor connections? It doesn't sound terminal and doesn't sound particularly major - do you have a code reader you could plug in, or vag-com?

[Jim 1]

I was thinking it was a sensor or something and I did think it might be to do with the lambda..

 

It's too dark to look at it tonight and I'm tied up tomorrow - but hoping to have a poke around on Sunday prior to sorting out some kind of garage visit. I'm going to need a battery booster pack before anything as the battery is virtually flat now from an hour of trying to crank it! :(

[tombell999 0]

I would say that it's probably the fuel pump! There are 2 fuel pumps one internal and one external which should be on drivers side near the back wheel. I would check tht if I was you as I think it had a sensor on it.

[Brother Wang 0]

I have the same(Ish) problem with my car, same motor and seems to be the same scenario to cause the problem.

Have only been driving my first Corrado for about 2 weeks then Monday this week had to go through a moderately flooded section of road. No problems straight after the water, but when i went to use the car in my lunch break (approx5 hours after stopping) Although initially starting well within 20 seconds or so began to lose revs and eventually stall.

I restated the car with no problems but again within 20 secs or so the revs began to drop off, i tried to blip them back up with the throttle but the engine would not respond very quickly, coughing and farting slightly, once above 2500/ 3000rpm it seems to run smoothly again, it will then return to idle @ about 8 1/2 -900rpm for a further 20 secs or so then drop off and stall again!

I re-started the car and had to keep the revs up to be able to move as below 3k it would just bog down and fart some more, managed to get her on to a nice straight and opened her up, once going she was fine and had no other incidents that day.

Wed morning went to leave for work and the same again, started fine, then revs drop and stall.

Have checked most of the previously mentioned bits and bobs, leads, elec connections, plugs etc

Unsure if i'm looking for a Fuel or electrical problem?????

Any ideas????????????????????????????????????

Cheers, Brother Wang x

[davidwort 0]

yeah, as above, the main pump and pressure accumulator is under the car Jim nearest the driver's side and near the rear axle, I don't think it would have taken kindly to a swimming trip. They should be pretty well watertight (the electrical connections that is) but who knows what it's like under there, mine was a rusty mess until I did the filter and changed a load of the mounting parts.

Perhaps if it gets a chance to fully dry out it will be OK, but there could be trapped water, worth having a nose under there and following the power feed to it, can't remember how it connects, but I'd imagine there is a connector block of somekind under there, probably with water trapped in it.

 

The other good reason for not going into any water of more than an inch or two is the CAT, they really don't like being taken from hundreds of degrees down to zero in a few seconds by plunging into water, but I don't think that will be what's happened.

[Jim 1]

Cool - thanks for that Dave. I'll have a nose under there tomorrow morning hopefully... thing is, it sounded (and smelled like) plenty of fuel was getting through but I guess it could be unpredictable if the connector is soaked..

[Philmo 0]

Hi Jim

My immediate thought was OMG you've hydraulicked it! Unlikely with fairly high air intake - very common with Vauxhal combi vans though!

I've found over-exuberant hosing can get water into filter - and to MAF, causing much mis-fire. Though much more likely with my MAF - located in O/S bumper space.

[Chris Langdon 0]

sounds to me like a fuel or timing problem, you can check the fuel pump relay first bypass it on the fuse box with a wire on the terminal that the relay came of, be careful when doing this tho, if you here your pump starts working crack it and see if it fires up if i does and runs fine it the relay, the other one i would look at is crank position sensor

 

hope this helps mate

 

would worry about the water mate,

 

cheers

 

chris

[davidwort 0]

no MAF or crank pos sensor on 9A so you can discount those :)

re-reading what you said it does sound more ignition related, I wonder if the ignition timing has been affected by water in the electrics somewhere, none of the ignition related electrics is low down in the bay, would be interesting to see what ignition advance it is giving when it starts up, does Eric have an advance adjustable timing light? Almost like the hall sender is bust.

[Valerian 0]

Pull off all four spark plug leads off the plugs and look down the spark plug holes to see if there's any water down them.

If there is (and you can't always easily see if there is)....take all four spark plugs out and let the water drain into the cylinders.

Then replace the plugs and leads and crank her over.

[Reggit 0]

Pull off all four spark plug leads off the plugs and look down the spark plug holes to see if there's any water down them.

If there is (and you can't always easily see if there is)....take all four spark plugs out and let the water drain into the cylinders.

Then replace the plugs and leads and crank her over.

 

Won't that hydraulic it if there more than a little water there? If I did this, I'd spin the engine with the plugs out to blow any water into the exhaust.

 

I once had a similar issue with my VR after driving down a causeway that was still submerged, it would only run on about 3 cylinders after starting and kept cutting out/lost power intermittently for 2 or 3 days following that adventure.

 

I do suspect it's only wet electrics as I can't see how the timing could have moved.

[Jim 1]

Pull off all four spark plug leads off the plugs and look down the spark plug holes to see if there's any water down them.

If there is (and you can't always easily see if there is)....take all four spark plugs out and let the water drain into the cylinders.

Then replace the plugs and leads and crank her over.

 

It was all totally dry down there mate - the AA guy had each plug lead out and each spark plug and there wasn't a drip of water in sight..

 

I do suspect it's only wet electrics as I can't see how the timing could have moved.

 

This really is what I'm pinning my hopes on. It's locked up in the garage now so it's nice and dry in there and can hopefully just dry out over the weekend.. I don't have a battery booster or anything and I can't get to Halfords until Sunday now anyway so I can't touch it till then as the battery is virtually dead.

[KIPVW 0]

Realy gutted to see this Jim, hope it's something simple :( Daft thing for me to say but have you checked the fuel pump fuse yet? mine wouldn't start last week and it turned out to be the fuse for the fuel pump, but the silly thing was the fuse for the lights had also blown and this was stopping me from starting it so after changing that too it worked fine :cuckoo:

 

Good luck with it mate!

[mic_VR 3]

Bad luck mate, hope you get it sorted.

 

I'd say it's an electrical problem, compared to say the VR which has the in tank fuel pump only there will be a lot of electrics under your car to do with the fuel pump and accumulator, plus Lambda wiring. I'd say it was very unlikely that water would have gotten up as far as the airbox, or plugs etc without leaving a shed load of tell tale signs. But you might want to consider stuff lower in the engine bay at might has got a little wet (starter motor, alternator maybe?)

 

Unfortunately I'm not overly knowledgable about the 9A.. :(

 

Do you not have a friend who can jump start it for you?

[Jim 1]

Amusingly not a lot of my mates don't even own cars - I end up doing a lot of driving! But I do have plenty of people who's car I could jump mine off.. Eric (Tempest) is due over later as we're off down to 2cc's for the weekend (beer, food, catchup) and I might try turning it over then and jump the car off his diesel van!

 

mine wouldn't start last week and it turned out to be the fuse for the fuel pump, but the silly thing was the fuse for the lights had also blown and this was stopping me from starting it so after changing that too it worked fine

 

I'm sure the fuse is ok mate as you hear the pump prime when you first turn the ignition every time without fail and when it was trying to start it would always burst into life but then immediately just cut out or REALLY struggle to run - and it reeked of fuel if you kept trying. So fuel is getting through...

[Guest]

I'm sure the fuse is ok mate as you hear the pump prime when you first turn the ignition every time without fail and when it was trying to start it would always burst into life but then immediately just cut out or REALLY struggle to run - and it reeked of fuel if you kept trying. So fuel is getting through...

 

I can't offer anything other than sympathy and hope.

Kips problem was really p*ss*ing him off as the car would fire up EVERY time then cut out a second or so later, and as you have, there was plenty of fuel around, it reeked. We were thinking the electrical fire had blown the imobiliser or something. But it turned out to be a blown fuse.

 

Anyway, I haven't a clue about 16v, very little idea of 8v and I've only learnt a little about VR6s so can't really help but hold on in there. It WILL get sorted but probably not until after a lot of worry and head scratching.

[Valerian 0]

Just remember this the next time you try to drive through a flood.

 

Replay in your head the legendary words of Mr Scotty "She canny take it Jim"

[Jim 1]

Lesson well and truly learned - believe me.

[Supercharged 2]

Mate - not had time to read thru properly but check the air filter isn't wet and the metering head is dry too...

 

Look at the fuel pump connections under the car, maybe worth re-seating the electrical ones with lots of WD40

 

Could also try unplugging the metering head and running it on just mechanical injection (like a KR)

[Jim 1]

Well got back from Chris's a little while ago and went and had a quick look at the car with Eric. We connected my jump starter to it and it started perfectly and ran perfectly. For about 45 seconds or so.. then started to notice it missing slightly and playing up and starting to run progressively lumpier.

 

We killed the car, and disconnected the lambda probe hoping that was to blame but restarting the car found it ran just as badly and was hard to keep running, with it even starting to backfire into the engine again. Interestingly it also absolutely stank of fuel out of the exhaust.

 

Eric really wanted to check the timing but running out of natural light, and no electrical connections in the garage meant we couldn't really.. so going to have to leave it till Saturday at the earliest now.

 

So any mileage in changing the fuel pump fuse & relay or would the car just not run at all with those being faulty?