[djuryne]

Good morning,

This past week my stepfather finished up fixing some rust spots and painting my car. Once he was done he washed it and cleaned up the engine bay as it was subject to some dusty conditions. That's when the problem started.

He drove the car Monday. Wednesday he washed it. Thursday it wouldn't start. I met up with him on Saturday, we replaced the spark plug, wires, and cap. No luck.

When changing out the plugs we noticed they were extremely wet. We pulled the plugs and turned the motor over to let out any excess gas that may have accumulated, there was a lot. It never stopped splashing out.

We came to the conclusion that the ECU must have gotten wet.

The car responds to being cranked over as if it had a dead battery, we used 2 batteries and each heeded the same result.

Has anyone had a similar experience? Picture for motivation. Lets get this dub back on the road! I have a Diesel Caddy to restore!

I bolded the key points, not sure if it is helpful or annoying.

 

[djuryne]

Details I left out, 1992 Golf GL Digi II.

 

[OutGolfin]

My car ran well before a torrential downpour that we had and it ran like crap. I thought it was the ecu but it turned out that my coil went bad.:screwy: But I wouldn't rule out the ecu being bad. Check everything that can be fixed or replaced cheap first.

 

[djuryne]

I had the problem in a bad snow storm before, but that was just a case of shoveling out the snow that had built up under my hood and spraying the wires with wire-dry. Didn't work this time!

I am getting good spark, just seems like it's getting a ton of fuel. Looks like someone is trying to water board my engine. If it doesn't cough up some answers soon I might be the one doing it!

 

[MercedesStenz]

Did you try putting the marker light back in?

 

[izzo]

Did you try putting the marker light back in?

And THAT right there is a GREAT FIRST POST!

 

[PDXGTI8V 2.0]

LOL!!! yes, awesome 1st post.....

OP, now you know why my engine has been steam cleaned once its entire life....there are things under the hood that dont take well to having high pressure water sprayed all over them....

i suggest undoing every electrical connection under the hood and drying them out with high pressure air if possible. when putting the connectors back together, i'd suggest some dilelectic (sp?)grease be applied as well....to be honest, most of the time this happens, its a matter of just waiting for whatever was water logged to dry out, then the car usually starts right up again....

 

[OutGolfin]

Did you try putting the marker light back in?

You'll do just fine here.

 

[91B3DUB]

LOL!!! yes, awesome 1st post.....

OP, now you know why my engine has been steam cleaned once its entire life....there are things under the hood that dont take well to having high pressure water sprayed all over them....

i suggest undoing every electrical connection under the hood and drying them out with high pressure air if possible. when putting the connectors back together, i'd suggest some dilelectic (sp?)grease be applied as well....to be honest, most of the time this happens, its a matter of just waiting for whatever was water logged to dry out, then the car usually starts right up again....

this is probably the problem, 99% of the time after an engine clean with a high pressure hose on electrical parts you will end up with no start. (mainly distributor, coil, ignition areas. also check your plugs as well.

 

[djuryne]

That is my friend Eric. He is a goon, a lovable tall goofy goon. He registered it for the sole purpose of saying that hah.

Seems pretty dry in there now but obviously I can't see everywhere. We replaced the plugs, cap and wires. So there's a few things down. I also wire brushed all the battery connections but will check on others. Maybe I can push it into the garage and fire up the wood stove. Get it nice and toasty/dry in there.

I didn't see the car until 4 days after this went down unfortunately so I didn't get to see the extent of the drenching.

I know these cars are sensitive I would have never cleaned it out that way. The thought was there, unfortunately it resulted in doo-doo.

 

[N3M51R]

Although I hear its OK and doable, washing an engine seems like a HUGE no-no to me and I'd consider anyone who'd do such a thing an idiotic [email protected] Good luck getting your car to run. :thumbup: