[Raypro]

I was on my way home today and it's raining really hard, streets are pretty flooded being a warm day and some of the snow melting mixed with lots of rain and my car started sputtering and stalling out a few times. I had a hard time accelerating as it would sputter a lot. I'm guessing I must of hit a good puddle since I have a K&N CAI and maybe some water got inside to my O2 sensor? Will the problem correct itself from my car sitting over night and hopefully it drys out and not freezes? Does this do any damaged to my engine as I had a strong smell from my exhaust when I got home?

I drive an 05 ST

 

[norcalfocus01]

Hydrolock (short for either hydraulic lock or hydrostatic lock) is a condition of an internal combustion engine in which an incompressible liquid has been introduced into its cylinder(s), resulting in the immobilization of the engine's pistons. The liquid causing this malfunction is often water, hence the prefix "hydro-". Hydrolock occurs in a 4-stroke engine when liquid is sucked into the engine's cylinder(s) during the intake stroke and, due to the incompressibility of the liquid, makes the compression stroke impossible. This, in turn, prevents the entire engine from turning, and can cause significant engine damage if one attempts to forcibly turn over or start the engine. Typically, connecting rods will be bent, making the engine uneconomical to repair. Confer flooded engine and vapor lock, two unrelated conditions which could easily be confused with hydrolock.

from wikipedia

 

[norcalfocus01]

im not saying this is it, but that can be what will happen from a CAI in the rain.

 

[whynotthinkwhynot]

If anything was affected by the water, it would be the MAF, not the O2 sensor. The oxygen sensor is in the exhaust, so there's not likely to be any water damage there.

Your K&N should've come with a "pre-charger" which is a cover designed to repel water. Do you have this installed?

I have both a stealth CAI and home-made short ram. I swap the CAI out for the short ram during the winter which means that I'll be sucking up hotter air to increase fuel economy during the winter.

If you'd hydrolocked the engine, it would not be running. I'd get out and look under the hood to see if I could figure out what the problem is. The first thing I'd do is clean the MAF with MAF spray cleaner, or alcohol and a Q-tip. I'd also remove the filter to see if there was water in it. If there was water in the filter, then I'd recommend moving it inside to a nice warm place overnight so the water could evaporate before re-installing it. If there was water, and the pre-charger did not appear to be doing it's job, then I'd go down the the local grocery or drug store and purchase a set of pantyhose and install these loosely over the filter and pre-charger. These also repel water- maybe better than K&N's precharger.

 

[Raypro]

I don't think that's it. It's still raining hard and windy as hell today, took the car out and drove good for 5 mins or so before going back to the sputtering again. The temperature is suppose to drop back down today to -5 and back to our normal temps of -10 to -15 for the week. We've been getting some abnormally warm weather the past 2 days.

^^^ referring to norcalfocus01 post

 

[norcalfocus01]

well if its still raining than after 5 minutes of driving, you could be sucking water into the CAI. DO you have your stock air intake setup still? i would slap that on and see if it still sputters.