Car dying at idle after hitting puddle
 

Hey guys!

When I was driving to work this morning I drove through a puddle. Everything was fine until I parked and had my car idle. The idle sounded a bit strange and then the engine died (I'm guessing stalled) with the electronics still working. I could turn my car on fine and then after 10 seconds of idling the car would die again. It happened multiple times. There was steam coming from the engine bay but when I popped the hood I didn't see anything.

I'm not too knowledgeable with cars but I was told it could be my MAF from possibly getting water into my intake.

Does anyone have experience with this issue or knows if I'll be fine just giving it a bit of gas during idle so I can get the car home from work haha, and if you need any more info from me let me know.Any help is greatly appreciated!

Sounds like it was more than a puddle if it pulled water into your intake. Did water rush over the hood? Any check engine light?

Hit a puddle 6 hours from home in my 240sx 15 or so years ago. Made it home, smoking light a freight train the whole way. I went through several tanks of gas to make it.

Smoked the MAFS. Mass air flow sensors work by heating a piece of wire to a specified temp, the air flowing over the sensor cools it down and the measured resistance determines how much air is moving over it.

My thought is that the cold water on that hot little sensor killed it instantly. New MAFS and all was good.

Could be MAF
Soaked intake filter.
Wet wires or coil packs (this is my guess judging from the steam you mentioned)


As asked is there a CEL?


Before driving much more pull the intake filter and check for water in there. If you suck too much into the engine it can hydro lock and that is NOT a good time.

Oh, I reckon that if you just run it for a spell, the water will go away and it will be OK.


humfrz

It was maybe 1 foot of water. Nothing came over the hood. No check engine light until the engine dies and then all the check engine lights go on haha

Yeah no CELs until the engine dies after idle

I'll try that thank you!

If it didn’t come over the hood then I doubt it took any in the intake but I would take Tcoat’s advice to be safe. Pop the hood and take the cover off the air box and make sure there isn’t a bunch of water in there. If it looks okay maybe just leave the cover off so it can air out and then check back hours later. The heat in the engine bay should dry out coil packs and everything else in no time.

Will do, thank you!!


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MAF or possibly (much less likely) a damaged 02 sensor. I'm going to go with cleaning the MAF first, and hoping you didn't actually suck water through the intake.

Car dying at idle after hitting puddle
 

Update!

So I started my car up and all is fine! No CELs and the car did not die when idling! I'll try to take a look at the MAF and filter later but it's pouring rain. I'm guessing it was just a little bit of water and it dried up.

Thanks again for all the help, I really appreciate it!!

Glad it didn’t have a puddle in your intake. The warning was made because hydrolocking is catastrophic.