possible hydrolock
 

Tonight it rained really hard where I live. After work while heading to grab a bite to eat before heading home I stupidly misjudged the depth of the water on the road and before i knew I was to deep to stop and attempt to back out. Causing my car to stall in foot and half deep water. I got the car out of the water and on to dry land and pulled the air filter, it was soaked, and now and just letting it sit until morning.

My question is what me should i do in the morning to prevent further damage.
I plan on changing the oil and pulling spark plugs and seeing if there is any water in there. Is there more i should check?

Might be worth checking with your insurance company to see if it would be covered.

Change the oil.. Pull the plugs and turn it over.. Put them back in and start it up.. Unless the engine was up in the rpm's then it should be good..

will do. thanks

"pull the plugs"... that's going to be a challenge.

There are a couple threads on here that are DIY and not hard at all.. I think a guy changed all his in 30 mins

Some insurance companies will cover hydrolock. Good luck.

Alright, after a few hours a bagging, cursing and making promises to my car I got the spark plugs removed. I let the water drain out for a half hour while i vacuumed the interior. But when i attempted to turn it over to expel all the water the engine would not crank. There is the click of the starter beginning to engage but no cranking.
Any suggestions? Are there any other thing that an amateur mechanic can try, or is it time to call a professional.

Your battery might be low in charge, try charging it.

Ouch... You might have bent something internally in the engine that the starter can't overcome.. This would be bad indeed.. Or your battery is possibly drained and won't turn the engine over..

I'd try and turn the engine over by hand with a breaker bar and socket on the main pulley.. If it doesn't budge then it's most likely broken something and jammed up.. How high where the RPM's???

put a jump box on it and try again, it'll probably turn over unless something electrical got jacked up. in that case you can check all the fuses and use a multimeter to see if the starter motor is getting juice with the key turned. if it's got juice, the motor's probably jacked. if not, it's an open probably from a connector or wire melting or something.

i'm not sure what the chances of damage are with an engine like this, but i've swamped and restarted about a bazillion dirtbikes in my life with hardly any issues.

Battery. That's something i hadn't considered. It's always the obvious things I over look. Thanks i will check that out.

Just a click would indicate the battery charge is really low. Might have been another effect of getting things soaked, some wires might have been shorted by the water and caused a parasitic drain that killed it.

You could also pull the fuse for the fuel pump(s) when you turn the engine over with the plugs out. This would prevent the ECU from dumping fuel into the cylinders without spark, further flooding it.

I agree with the others.. Unless you had a high load and high RPM's I don't see damage to the engine.. I've hydro locked one of mine and "fixed" a few ranger and explorers that were off roading and locked themselves up, all by removing the plugs and turnin it over.. Only case I seen where it was bad was a friends civic that had the CAI and was under full throttle and almost at redline trying to get past a flooded area.. Broke one rod and bent another..

I will give this a try while the battery is charging. Probably best to do it by hand them mess things up more. When the car died i was doing about 2 grand in second gear when it started sputtering and died.

Sound like you'll be ok.. A sputter and die is better then just stop and locked.. Charge it, dry it, drain it.. Then it should start just fine

Don't start the vehicle. If it was my car is drain oil and remove intake manifold.

Happened to me in my civic that was lowered with a CAI.
Here's what I did

1. Pulled intake off
2. Pulled plugs
3. Turned the car over for a few min
4. Put new cheap plugs in and started car and let it run for 30 min while I watched the smoke show
5. Changed oil
6. Put good plugs in
7. Drove car for 3 years problem free before I sold it running as good as new.

Happened to me in my civic that was lowered with a CAI.
Here's what I did

1. Pulled intake off
2. Pulled plugs
3. Turned the car over for a few min
4. Put new cheap plugs in and started car and let it run for 30 min while I watched the smoke show
5. Changed oil
6. Put good plugs in
7. Drove car for 3 years problem free before I sold it running as good as new.

Well after I pulled the plugs, and changed the oil I put a charger on the battery then attempted to turn the engine over by hand. I could get about half a turn in before it would lock up. I then tried turning it the other way and same thing, half a turn either way but no more. I tried the starter again and it made a small attempt to turn over and locked up so tight i couldn't get it to budge. I am thinking the motor is shot and needs to be rebuilt, but i am not sure

Stop messing with it and call your insurance....

Do not turn the crank backwards. The engine must always go in the forward direction as this puts stress on the timing gears, chain, rails, tensioner, etc.

Try charging the battery and give it another go. Also if you are gonna turn the crank by hand, make sure the transmission is not in gear.

Late to the ball game here...

Is it easier to pull the direct injectors than the plugs?

I hydrolocked my Grand Prix because I had a fenderwell intake system. What I would do is

1. Call your insurance company to make them aware of the situation and see what your next actions are.

2. If they don't cover, I would only hand crank is every few minutes to keep things moving and air dry. Shouldn't be hard, since it's a small engine. If it feel very very difficult you could have bent a valve or something.

3. Stick tampons down the spark plug gap to capture any moisture over night

4. Charge battery, ,change plugs, Add oil, grab a buddy and cross your fingers when you attempt to start the car.


Good luck man!

It was locking up with the plugs removed??