K, so it's rainin' pretty hard here in so cal the last few days... I'm drivin' down the road, car ahead of me. He suddenly swerves out of the lane into the second lane of a two lane road, leaving me to see what he wanted to avoid; a flooded out lane. I had a car right next to me so I couldn't avoid it, just had to go right through... thought my baby could handle it, but sure enough, on the other side of the water (it was probably about a foot high, 30 feet or so long), engine sputtered and died. Got water up in there somehow, maybe through my Injen CAI? Anyway, gave it some time, it's dried out now and the engine runs, but the idle fluctuates between 1500 and 500 RPMs, and the "Service Engine Soon" light is on. Anyone have any idea of what I might have done?!?

 

Sounds like you swallowed some water.

 

that sucks dude, yeah you prob swallowed water, I hate this damn cali rain.

 

first thing you shuld do is maybe change your oil...if you mix too much water with oil....it's like a vanilla milkshake..but primarily just take into the dealer..maybe switch your intake if you think they will hassle ya

 

my car has been idelin between 500 - 1500 too, it goes up and down. when i took out my cai pipe and turned it upside down all this water came out. so i just turned it to a short ram, just to be safe.

 

i say try letting ur engine and all the stuff dry and to reset ur ecu. if none of that works then i suggest making it stock and bring it to the dealer and play dumb. u should have a warrany on it still. good luck man.

 

I agree w/ nightrider. Disconnect your battery for about 10 - 15 minutes to reset your ecu and give it a whirl. Play dumb if that fix don't work. As Bill Cosby said once - " we are dumb, but yet, we are not so dumb. "

 

Definately remove your intake and inspect it for water. Check TB to make sure there is no water or dirt in there. Disconnect battery for 5 min to reset the ECU and try starting it.

All else fails, play dumb to the dealer.

night and lil red are on the $$$

 

I say make it stock again and lay dumb. Period...

 

NR's and Yannot's advice is probably the best. Fix it yourself if you can. Keep the dealership out of the picture if possible, because they'll inevitably try to screw you no matter what happens.

 

easy way to reset the ecu.....take out the oil fuse, then put it back in....(the one in the fuse box under the hood)

 

There's always the possibility he could've bent a valve or even slightly skewed a rod (remember, water doesn't compress) but his car is turning over and running. Woe the fault of water ingestion.

 

Don't they sell a water-removing fuel additive at Pep-Boys?

 

dont reset ecu cuse if you dont fix it and still has prob but cel dont come on = bad idea when goto dealer

 

My car also fluctuates between 500, and 1500 but I didn't go through any water, i'm in arizona!. But the frickin thing wil just stall in idle, and the service engine light comes on every other day for about two or three hours. I bring it to the dealer, and the light turns off, and they tell me they can't look at it b/c the light is not on. Tempe Mitsubishi