What's up with my car!?!

The_Bullman

I was driving into work this morning in the wet and this happens.

I tried to put on more throttle and the accelerator wouldn't work. I pulled into a garage(I was stopping anyway) and left the car idling. When I got out of the shop the car was spluttering and not idling properly at all. I sat back in the car and it cut out. I tried to restart and it wouldn't. I drained the battery trying. Then I waited for a bit and got a jumpstart, and it started first time.

It's got me real confused. I assume that water got into the engine as there was some puddles on the road. I'm not talking about floods or anything, just normal puddles.

Has anybody any idea's what's up with it? Any precautions I can take(apart from not driving in the wet)? Any thoughts at all?

KlodaX

where you in a low gear? ... did the car jump as if you took your foot of the clutch to fast? had to accelerate alot to keep her lit?

Fabritzo

Sounds like it's flooding, has it an auto-choke? There might be water getting at the air filter.

mike65

Whenever I have had such symptoms its been with a manual choke vehicle. Has it been running poorly before
today?

Cold damp winter conditions will find out many faults!

It could be damp in the distributer I'd check over all the electrical areas, plugs leads, distributer, coil. WD 40 is good for repelling moistuer...

Mike.

The_Bullman

Originally posted by KlodaX
where you in a low gear? ... did the car jump as if you took your foot of the clutch to fast? had to accelerate alot to keep her lit?

I was driving along at about 50mph. I drove through a puddle and the car started spluttering. The clutch was normal as I pulled into the garage. The accelerator was unresponsive. It would only maintain the revs that was on the car and wouldn't allow me to put on anymore throttle

Originally posted by Fabritzo
has it an auto-choke?

It was my understanding that all petrol cars have an auto-choke these days. There isn't a switch/knob to adjust it that I know of anyway

Originally posted by mike65
Has it been running poorly before today?

Not really. This has happened before though. Once the car didn't cut out, only spluttered for a bit. The other time it did cut out, but I managed to get it started without me needing to get a jumpstart.

It could be damp in the distributer I'd check over all the electrical areas, plugs leads, distributer, coil. WD 40 is good for repelling moistuer...

I'll look into that. Thanks. Why did you trail off like that though?

mike65

Originally posted by The_Bullman

Why did you trail off like that though?

I dunno......:ninja:

ps it sounds like damp/water problems alright. Its possible that the distributor cap is'nt on properly.

Mike.

Capt'n Midnight

Used to have an old corsa that was hydrophobic - hated wet weather - changed spark plug leads, covered it with the spray. But wouldn't start or keep runing in damp weather and if you went through a puddle - you'd have to sit and wait till the distributer (low down on front of engine in the splash zone) or whatever dried out ..
Of course when it got really cold - freezing - it started first time and just kept going.

ColinM

Yeah, sounds like it was misfiring due to something being wet. You need to keep the revs high and speed low when driving through water. You might have drowned the engine for a moment while driving through the puddle if water got in the air intake.

If it hasn't had a service in a while, you might as well replace the spark plugs and air filter and check around the leads for any signs of moisture.

It's possible that by the time you got a jump start, the engine started ok because the warmth of the engine (even though it was not running) had made the damp evaporate.