Washed engine, lumpy idle

[fishbone]

I'm assuming water got to the ignition coils. Runs fine on the street, just very lumpy idle. Almost stalled a couple times, triggered CELs for Banks 1 and then 2 lean condition and cyl 1 and 3 misfire, in pairs, alternatively. Do I keep driving it to get any trapped water to evaporate quicker, or just let it sit in the garage? Didn't use pressure water or any attachment to the hose for that matter, but I did hose that thing down good.

It's been 2 days and 20 miles or so of city driving, 85+ weather, still doin' it.

[Max Capacity]

Did you learn a lesson here ? A dirty engine that runs well is better then a clean engine that doesn't.

 

 

 

Hopefully it will dry out from driving it. Or you have corrosion on some connector.

[fishbone]

I was always hesitant about doing it but the few times I've done it before on my other cars, never ran into a problem. That, plus everyone and their grandmother giving me shit for having dirt on it. Excuse me if I actually drive my car This would not have happened if I would have listened to rao and just kept it garaged.

[Max Capacity]

Garaged....don't you keep it in your bedroom ?

 

 

I have washed mine I think 2 maybe 3 times in it's 128,000 miles. God, I even wash the IC with soap, can't believe I just admitted that. (old joke on here)

 

 

If it doesn't clear up in a short while, you may want to check the connectors.

 

I used to take my Civic's to the car wash start the engine open the hood and spray away with soap and water. Never had a issue. God, way can't Honda make a AWD car like these.

[fishbone]

I might want to check the air filter also just to make sure I didn't get it soaking wet somehow. It seemed fine to the touch but what do I know. Hopefully it will go away but I just haven't decided if I should let it sit or drive it. I suppose I should hook up Rom Raider to make sure it's misfiring only at idle. Who knows, maybe I have a cracked or cracking ignition coil and this is what it took to show a problem. I bet one of them is doing pretty arches to the block a la Tesla cannon

[km580]

I had a similar problem and found that one of my coil packs was loose.

[fishbone]

After washing the engine specifically?

[AZZMAN]

Funny this post just came up. I was thinking about doing the same thing but have heard of this problem before so I went with the rags, bucket, and brush thing... engine looks real good car runs fine lesson reinforced Max...

[fishbone]

It may very well be that my purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others.

[lofthouse_gt]

Well fish keep posting those lessons here, we appreciate it.

 

On another note, this happened to my friends 02 WRX (I am pretty sure he got water in his intake, no ignition problem), he just drove it around and it seemed to burn off. If I am remembering right it was like a rough few days or so before he ran better. We never logged or looked really specfically into it as it seemed to fix itself.

[frank_ster]

did you try beating the shit out of it ? thats what i do ! if water hurts something like that means there is a problem starting some where. with will get worse with time .. i usually wash the engine while its running ..

 

my neighbour dove through a pond with his wrx came out bunch of lights came on he reved it a bunch of times and kept going .. the lights went out a few days later

 

yea honda accord 3.0 v6 awd would be great !

[fishbone]

No, beating on it didn't cross my mind, when shit don't run right I get into the "limp home" mode, mister GM-turbo-swap-oh-what-the-hell-let's-throw-a-Buick-engine-in-that-sucker On the flip side, right before the wash I datalogged and the car has ran the greatest it ever had so far. No knock.

[HarryN]

Just make sure your coil connections are fine and that your MAF sensor is dry as well. Perhaps check the fuse box as well.

 

I'd recommend opening the fuse box, air box, and clean off the connectors on your coil. Leave the hood open as well over night. That should dry a lot of things off. If the air was dry there, which I doubt since I have been to Lincoln for a few summers, things would dry up much more quickly.

[fishbone]

Yeah, it is humid as hell here.

[Legend]

I just went through this with my TJ. Did several water crossings and on the last one I hydrolocked it by going 20mph thru 20" of water (you'd think I'd learn). Ran fine after re-starting but sputtered for 250 miles (had to drive 250 miles home the next day). Kept checking the basics (wires, coil, distributer, air filter, etc.) but turns out I ruined the TPS (throttle position sensor) on the throttle body. Like Harry said, could be the MAF sensor.

[ClimberDHexMods]

Why not pull a log and see if you can't spot something giving off an undesired reading

[moncur_6]

Definitely something to take note on. When I want to pretty my engine I just use windex or an all purpose cleaner on a rag to clean all of the black plastic parts and rubber hoses. That's typically all that is noticeably dirty

[km580]

After washing the engine specifically?

 

Yes and even after running the car through the car wash in the winter, the water would spray up and get into the connection that was loose.

[define]

I just went through this with my TJ. Did several water crossings and on the last one I hydrolocked it by going 20mph thru 20" of water (you'd think I'd learn). Ran fine after re-starting but sputtered for 250 miles (had to drive 250 miles home the next day). Kept checking the basics (wires, coil, distributer, air filter, etc.) but turns out I ruined the TPS (throttle position sensor) on the throttle body. Like Harry said, could be the MAF sensor.

 

If it ran fine after restarting it, then you most certainly did not hydrolock it. You would have been picking pieces of block off the ground and wondering why your connecting rods were in funny shapes.

[fishbone]

Right, engine stalling is not the same with hydrolocking it. That would mean water got into the pistons and, upon attempting to reach top dead center, water not being compressible like a gas, bent your connecting rods to shit and/or done other interesting things.

[BennnGeee]

Next time you wash your engine cover all important electronics with plastic bags! Alternator coil things like that.

[Legend]

If it ran fine after restarting it, then you most certainly did not hydrolock it. You would have been picking pieces of block off the ground and wondering why your connecting rods were in funny shapes.

 

Alright I accept this clarification. If the accepted definition of hydrolock means a blown motor then I didn't hydrolock. I just hydrostalled.

[fishbone]

It seems to be slowly getting better. The car was washed last Saturday and sat in the garage pretty much all this time until yesterday night, I took it out on errands etc. and I guess the idle settled some bit but it still shudders. Keeps triggering a P0171 System Too Lean Bank 1 and random misfires that seemed to not have come back lately. I hooked up Rom Raider and all 4 cylinders had them, 1 had 1, 2 had 1, 3 had 2 and cylinder 4 had 4 misfires. Thing is though, the numbers didn't increment with every shudder, what else could it be then? Even with the idle having stabilized more or less, I can still feel the engine shuddering. I'll keep you all posted but after this affair I am definitely back into the frame of mind that engines are better left unwashed. Boy did I hose this thing down, I sprayed it with a can full of CD2 engine foam.

[fishbone]

I might have identified the problem, but I had no tools on me and by the time I got home the engine was too hot to touch, I'll tackle it this afternoon.

When we did the comp test, someone forgot to tighten up the bolt on one of the ignition coils, passenger front (not sure which cylinder that is, 4?). The bolt was only screwed in about two turns. My guess is that the coilpack was stuck on the engine block somehow and washing it got it loose. Christ, I've been driving it like this since January. I'm reasoning that would trigger a lean condition since the cylinder is dumping unburnt air, am I right? Wonder what's been happening since it runs fine except at idle.

[ClimberDHexMods]

Passenger front = cylinder #1