so i think im the lastest victim
 

but the way the water fell today in cali...im surprised if everyones car isnt.....wanna take a guess???

HYDROLOCKED...in other words....F U C K E D!!!

i have an AEM CAI with BYpass...and to the most part...it hasnt caused me any problems, have had it on almost two years...been through rain and all that...but not this kind of rain that fell on soCAL today...anywho
i dorve it for the better part of the morning and everything was ok...my girl wanted to go to the vans store mid afternoon so i took her. When i pulled in no rain or very little, while shopping, it started rainling insanely hard to the point where in made the biggest river where i was supposed to exit from
(actually the only place i ca exit from). and i took the car over it and hped for the best...everything RAN good after that...my radio was off, and it didnt sound like it sucked anything in.
after that i told my girl to take her car(05 scion xa) since she doesnt have any mods yet and it would be easier for us to get around that way, I left her(my car) at her house for the rest of the day till about 2 hours ago....i started it and it was fine...tho after a u turn...and like 50 feet...car jumped in RPMs and stall...i tried to start it again...i jumped in RPM.s and stalled....did tht about 5 times...on the lat attempt for dear life...i pushed on the gas pedal as it was trying to die and it stumbled a bit...so i kept the engine at high RPM's to warm up and hopefully get rid of some water i had in there...
what do you guys think i should do?
please dont tell me to take off my CAI and take it to the dealer ...you play...now you gotta pay....if anything its my fault
any chance that it was just a little bit of water? and it shouldnt harm the engine that much?....

strange, doesnt AEM market the bypass as rain/hydrolock proof? Just wait till tommorow morning and see how she feels.

^ya...but dude ....the amount of rain that came down today....bypass or not....some was eventually going to go in

Hey rigos, get on AIM

yeah, today blew hard rain wise, im ready for some dry roads, i need to turn fast damn it!

You know there is a general rule of thumb, if the water is that deep dont drive.

No offence but that was just asking for trouble...you should buy that ralliart engine for sale, its the perfect optertunity.

^ yeah i know....BUT i really didnt have a choice....i would have been stuck there till this morning...

True, but I still think you should give serious though into that RalliArt swap that that guy is selling.

^nah....dude is asking too much...th 4g69 has been found for $700...

I watched something about the aem water bypass valves, the video I watched was on a supra, and they did some special piping just to prove the the valve worked. They started the car put the the filter completely under water and reved it up. The piping was also clear so you could watch. It sucked the water up a little bit but then it just stayed there even while it was reved up. Plus the fact that it happened so much later after you ran through the puddle makes me think that it wasnt hydrolock. It could be though im not an expert just my opinion

have you fired it up today yet? if so....how's everything?

thats why i got a short ram

hydro lock would have hit RIGHT then. It's when you get water instead of air in the cylinder, the water can't be compressed, so the engine just stops. hence the 'lock' part... sounds like maybe some water got splashed on something...

fired her up today and everything seems to be running ok...im kinda takng it easy ....ill update in a few days...
i also took out my CAI last night...at least untill all this weather passes...there was a lot of water in the piping....and the MAS got wet but it doesnt look like anything was bent or cut(in the MAS)...

Probably just a little water. If your car hydrolocked it probably wouldn't have started at all. There's a difference between the motor ingesting water and there being too much moisture in the motor though. The bypass valve is located so high on the piping that unless it too is submerged it will cause such a drop in pressure in all the piping below it that the engine will not take in water in any large quantities. Imagine trying to drink through a straw with a foam section in the middle. Same principle. You'll probably be ok though, and it's unlikely you've done any irrepairable damage to your engine.

If you've got a little balls try just taking it to the dealership as it is. Don't point at hydrolock. Just tell them that you were driving home the other day and it started stalling and spluttering etc etc. Explain the symptoms, but not what you think the problem is. At least that way they can confirm or deny what happened. See what they say.