SnakeyesTx
08-20-2008, 04:52 PM
It was raining like hell today in Houston, and naturally I get sent out for picking up parts for work today. I see lake in front of me which used to be a side road to the interstate so I opt to get on the freeway and skip my pickups. Just as I'm about to be free of lake car-killer, some moron in a large box truck blasts through the lake at a good 30-40mph. The bow wave coming over the top of my hood was a good 4 feet from ground level and I hear the motor stall. When the wave receeds, I feel the front end float and get pulled into the lake. Wonderful.
I take off my shoes, socks and try to push out of the lake which is actually clear about 20 feet in front of me. A good samaritan pushes my car through with his truck and I'm in a parking lot.
109 dollars and a tow later, I have it at my work, and I'm ripping the plugs out, tossing the now soaked air filter, and squirting WD40 down the cylinder bores.
Cranked the motor over and a little water shot out, I let the engine dry for a good two hours with a heat gun blowing down the cylinder bores. Pulled the oil dipstick and there appears to be no evidence of water in the oil pan (about to change it anyway - read ahead why).
Motor fired right up, but ran at a much lower rpm .. sub 500. Almost a liter of water came out of the tail pipe so as instructed by a friend who's gone through this nightmare before, I allowed the motor to idle for a good 20 minutes or so. After a while I slowly pushed in the throttle to about 1000 rpm and it came up fine and a bit more water came out (this whole time white smoke is coming out from drying out water). At around 1500 rpm it was smooth, occasional misfire but smooth otherwise so I slowly bring the idle back down to its 500ish state and the check engine light starts FLASHING at me. I've never seen that before. Also the traction control light is now stuck on. Then I began to hear a deep knock so again I pull the oil dipstick and now it looks a little light in color so I suspect there was water down there afterall and low pressure due to water being slurried in there.
My question is... why did the CEL literally blink at me? (E39 540 btw)
I take off my shoes, socks and try to push out of the lake which is actually clear about 20 feet in front of me. A good samaritan pushes my car through with his truck and I'm in a parking lot.
109 dollars and a tow later, I have it at my work, and I'm ripping the plugs out, tossing the now soaked air filter, and squirting WD40 down the cylinder bores.
Cranked the motor over and a little water shot out, I let the engine dry for a good two hours with a heat gun blowing down the cylinder bores. Pulled the oil dipstick and there appears to be no evidence of water in the oil pan (about to change it anyway - read ahead why).
Motor fired right up, but ran at a much lower rpm .. sub 500. Almost a liter of water came out of the tail pipe so as instructed by a friend who's gone through this nightmare before, I allowed the motor to idle for a good 20 minutes or so. After a while I slowly pushed in the throttle to about 1000 rpm and it came up fine and a bit more water came out (this whole time white smoke is coming out from drying out water). At around 1500 rpm it was smooth, occasional misfire but smooth otherwise so I slowly bring the idle back down to its 500ish state and the check engine light starts FLASHING at me. I've never seen that before. Also the traction control light is now stuck on. Then I began to hear a deep knock so again I pull the oil dipstick and now it looks a little light in color so I suspect there was water down there afterall and low pressure due to water being slurried in there.
My question is... why did the CEL literally blink at me? (E39 540 btw)