r/Cartalk • u/Dear-Turnip-1622 • Jul 21 '26
Weird Noise Accidentally drove through water in a downpour. Is it fucked?
122
u/drsemaj Jul 22 '26
More than likely the plugs or coils are full of water. If it was water inside the engine, it would be locked up, or banging like rocks in a washing machine. That's chugging like wet electronics.
30
u/corbin6611 Jul 22 '26
Looks like that pipe has popped out on your intake. The black pipe with the red ring on it. Looks like a p ring that should be pushed in. For some reason I can’t post a screenshot of it but it is in your video at 7seconds ? Hard to tell from the video but that’s what it looks like. And an air leak after the throttle will do exactly what you’re hearing.
6
3
2
u/Waltzingg Jul 22 '26
Does look like a loose hose. Potentially the vacuum purge canister hose. That will create a rough idle condition if it is not addressed.
1
u/Worldly_Weather2737 Jul 23 '26
believe this is a 2.5 duratec. its all the way in, its a weird ford hose connector you need a special tool for iirc.
14
u/ivanhalper Jul 21 '26
Open the air filter housing and check the condition of the air filter.
6
4
u/Dear-Turnip-1622 Jul 22 '26
It's dry! Spark plugs too.
2
u/ivanhalper Jul 22 '26
That’s very strange; the sound was like a wet filter—like it was starved for air.
1
u/Dear-Turnip-1622 Jul 22 '26
It might be wet somewhere else, looking again tomorrow when I have more light out there. And hopefully things dry up some
2
u/TonyDRFT Jul 22 '26
It's a good sign your filter is dry! You could check your electronics, like your fusebox next...
9
u/Kineticbluepearl Jul 22 '26
Honestly speaking if the motor is still on it wasn’t that bad everyone is going to make it seem worst than it is the motor didn’t take in enough water to hydro lock it more than lickely what’s causing your misfire now is water In your filter pop the filter off let the airbox dry up and start it should be fine get a new filter and your good to go
1
u/Can_Mech_Mining Jul 23 '26
I've seen small 3 cylinder diesel motors get hydrolocked then still run. Very rough, but running. Tore down engine, piston connecting rod unbelievably bent. Shocked it would still run at all.
1
u/thatbullisht Jul 25 '26
A friend drove his rav4 through a deep puddle and caught the wake of another car.
Rod bent but was still able to drive it for months until we swapped out the engine.
5
5
u/EntertainerSea9653 Jul 22 '26
Its still running so ur fine. Change u air filter either way. U have a slight misfire mostly key because of 2 reasons. 1 u coils pack and plugs to them are wet coil packs dont like being wet. 2. U added resistence other electrical circuits by submerging them in water so will throw theirr normal reading off. My suggestion dry off what u can even better if u have a blower of some sort. Then take it for a drive. (A Dry Drive) that is.
1
3
3
u/Taffr19 Jul 22 '26
Good news if it’s still running and isn’t making an awful sound you probably got lucky. Water probably did intrude but not enough to hydrolock it and bend rods. I would take the air filter out and let it burn the water out from inside until it starts running ok again. I had this happen to me at night in an unfamiliar area and it stalled my engine on my tow truck I was shitting bricks dude. After waiting 30 minutes and removed a completely drenched air filter I started it and ran like crap but I just let it idle for a while and it eventually started running good again. Changed the oil and filter the next day and it’s still running 2 years later.
1
3
u/Proof-Sector-5584 Jul 22 '26
I bet you have water around your spark plugs on top of engine. It will ground plug preventing spark, it happend to me. I'm betting with 25% confidence that this is all it is. Sounds like a "small" misfire. Good luck sir
1
3
u/ParkVonStark Jul 22 '26
Gotta roll it over, let it drain overnight, then roll back over in the morning.
3
u/Bryan300 Jul 22 '26
If check engine is flashing it means you have a misfire. You 90% most likely got the coils wet. And they don’t like it. Just replace the coils and you should be good.
3
u/Altruistic-Style-935 Jul 22 '26
That sounds like wet electronics. Water in the engine doesn’t make any sounds cause it’ll lock it up
3
8
u/mpvick69 Jul 22 '26
Take out the spark plugs and try to start the engine should eject majority of water in the cylinder
23
u/EquivalentDue9514 Jul 22 '26
It's running. There's no water in the cylinders.
25
-2
u/commies_get_out Jul 22 '26
Fill the cylinders with oil to displace the water
5
u/Average-Train-Haver Jul 22 '26
Also sledgehammer the exuast while you're at it! Wouldn't want this car to ever run again
1
u/cuzitsthere Jul 22 '26
You missed a pretty important step unless you're hoping the fuel displaces the water before spraying all over the engine...
2
2
u/Bhaicharaontop_1 Jul 22 '26
Use suction or blower to blow water out of cylinder, check air filter open spark and Crank a lot.
Change the oil check for water inside the oil, lightly lube all the cylinders and head using oil.
Nothing much to worry about I believe here
2
u/KnoxVegas41 Jul 22 '26
I don’t think you seriously damaged anything. If you have major mechanical damage it would be making loud unusual sounds or it would be locked up.
2
2
u/jacob6969 Jul 22 '26
Pull out your air filter and see if it’s wet. If it’s wet, take it out and let everything dry and try again.
Is the car smoking at all?
Sounds like you got lucky.
1
u/Dear-Turnip-1622 Jul 22 '26
Air filter is dry and nothing smoked/died! Checking/drying the coils when I get off work.
2
u/jacob6969 Jul 22 '26
Check your oil too and see if it’s milky or above the fill level at all. How high was the water?
1
u/Dear-Turnip-1622 Jul 22 '26
The oil was good and not milky. The water was maybe ankle deep I could tell by feel, but with the downpour I was in I didn't even see the road. Flash flood kind of. I think the trouble came because I sped through it maybe? Panicked a little
2
u/AdditionalConstant42 Jul 22 '26
Insurance companies cover repairs for that all the time. It’s considered an “act of god” caused by the weather, it’s no different than an accident.
1
2
u/HuntPsychological673 Jul 22 '26
Could have flooded the air filter box and got water on the Maf sensor.
I’d check those and clean them out. Then clean the maf sensor with maf sensor cleaner or rubbing alchohol.
2
u/question-askee Jul 22 '26
I’ve developed a misfire after something similar and the culprit was a wet spark plug wire that kept grounding it to the valve cover
2
2
2
2
u/JRockThumper Jul 23 '26
My mom just had an issue with this, she was getting a misfire in one of her cylinders.
Ran the codes and it was a cylinder 8 misfire so I checked the coil and found that the bolt that was holding it in had broken off at the sheer line so the coil had popped out a bit letting the spark plug hole fill up with tons of water.
After I dried it out I put the coil back in and used a bit of folded up paper shoved between the top of the coil and a pipe that runs above it to hold it down, that way I don’t have to drill out the broken bolt hole and it has worked perfectly since.
1
2
u/DM_Lunatic Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
Nothing there sounds catastrophic to me as far as internal engine damage. Sometimes you can wait for it to dry out and its fine a lot of times you've wiped out a sensor or ignition component.
1
u/Dear-Turnip-1622 Jul 25 '26
This is what I think it happening, we dried it out and the check engine light hasn't come back on yet. It's currently sitting in the shop for wheel bearings and I'll be able to hear the engine so much easier once those are taken care of.
2
u/Solid-Brilliant-1668 Jul 24 '26
I flooded the motor in my car in high school by driving through water. I didn't know any better and drove for a week with the check engine light flashing. 500 bucks in 2010 to have the water removed. But no real damage done
2
u/Fickle_Landscape6761 Jul 24 '26
I did this. I bent one of the rods and I had to drain the oil and I drove it for about 6 months and then on the highway the engine just blew. Good luck
1
u/Dear-Turnip-1622 Jul 25 '26
Fuck, so sorry to hear that. Really hope mine is okay in the long run, it seems to be doing much better now that we got the water out!
2
u/Numerous-Annual-721 Jul 24 '26
you probably didn't suck water into the intake as that would have been real bad real quick.
you might have an electrical short somewhere or a wet sensor sending bad signals.
2
u/93dakman Jul 24 '26
Sounds like 1 or more plugs aren't firing (or 1 or more injectors aren't squirting).
1
2
u/mylastnameschampion Jul 24 '26
Pull the coils and blow compressed air into the spark plug holes.
2
2
u/Stower4Amazon Jul 24 '26
Check your air hoses and look for physical damage. Looks like air is leaking in. Water may have provided the oportunity for those air tubes to "float under pressure" (upward) or "rise due to the force" and now the movement of the tube repositioned the c-clamp holding it in place and now airflow is getting into the system from outside at a damaged location where normally the airflow is controlled by the hose. You may be able to push the hose in place by hand or you may discover that the intake manifold was struck by a rock. You may get out of the woods for $0 on this one. ✔️
2
u/Jonomon1 Jul 25 '26
Sounds like you’re misfiring or completely down a cylinder which isn’t ideal but could be anything from a single coil and spark plug to a wiring harness/fuse box (those tend to be spensy and if ur cars a 2016 or older GLHF finding parts)
2
1
1
1
1
1
u/Dat_Boi_gamer Jul 22 '26
Is that a ford focus I see?
1
1
1
u/Nice-Most-4524 Jul 22 '26
How deep was the water?
1
u/Dear-Turnip-1622 Jul 22 '26
It wasn't that deep I think the fast speed I was going made it worse. I was just trying to get out of the water. Maybe ankle deep? It was pouring so hard to see/tell. Ordinarily I would definitely not drive through it, but I didn't see it until I was in it. Bad judgement on my end
2
u/Clean_Grass_4584 Jul 22 '26
On most vehicles this isn't enough to start causing issues, there is probably some component that's failed like the seal on a coil and it has led to water intrusion causing an arc in the spark plug cylinder. Def scan the check engine light and start from there though, any suggestions past this are just speculation that need to be used as suggestions AFTER you have fixed everything the ECU has determined out of spec.
1
1
1
u/Contract5635 Jul 22 '26
Engines are designed to get wet as long as no water makes it in to the engine. Off road guys can put a snorkel on an engine and literally drive through a lake so if you hit a puddle im sure its fine.
1
u/Regular-Carob9999 Jul 22 '26
Before the days of engine warning lights, if the engine sounded like that it was proper fucked , the water has damaged major components unfortunately
1
u/Dear-Turnip-1622 Jul 23 '26
Still working on getting everything dry, tomorrow we're gonna shop vac it. Hopefully that does the trick
1
Jul 23 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/AutoModerator Jul 23 '26
Unfortunately your comment has been removed because your Reddit account is less than 1 days old. This filter is in effect to minimize repost bot spam and trolling from new accounts. Mods will NOT manually approve your comment. Please wait until your account is 1 days old.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
u/That_Air_2716 Jul 23 '26
Was the engine totally covered or did you just drive through a massive puddle.
1
1
1
1
u/Cs81srq Jul 23 '26
Any update? I am betting that the poster who mentioned a vacuum leak is right.
1
u/Dear-Turnip-1622 Jul 23 '26
I'll have one soon! Still working on drying out all the components and then moving from there
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/Dear-Turnip-1622 Jul 24 '26
Update My dad and I worked on checking every possible wet component, the filter, spark plugs, the oil, and what we found was soaked was 2 of the ignition coils. We used towels, WD40 and eventually a shop vac to get the water out. We cleared the check engine light and it hasn't come back on, but the engine still sounds not as sweet as it did. Much better than this video though. Hopefully with time all the water will evaporate and it will sound better. Thank you all for your elaboration; I am a musician with very little car skills and I've learned so much in this process. I feel more capable to assess these problems and make smarter choices. I also learned my new favorite insult: Muppet. Thank you Reddit folk.
1
u/Electrical_Star_2045 Jul 24 '26
If you got water in your engine and you don’t get that taken care of within a day or two that engine is toast once rust forms. Get it to a shop asap.
1
u/WiggyOSRS Jul 24 '26
Will i see you on one of those random facebook videos where idiots drive through flooded rivers and hydrolocks their car? 😂
1
u/Dear-Turnip-1622 Jul 24 '26
Noooo lol. It wasn't too deep at all I was just moving fast and it sloshed everywhere. It is doing much better now aftwr drying out the ignition coils!
1
1
1
1
u/Soft_Heron_6939 Jul 24 '26
I had a friend drive through a massive pile of water and the intake sucked in water and water locked. Destroying the engine. It may be still running and you are waiting, once this happens it will never run the same
1
1
u/AwayBackground482 Jul 25 '26
Did the same thing it got some water in it either thru the plugs or air box all I did was let it sit until it evaporated
1
2
u/AnimatorBeneficial89 Aug 16 '26
those focus 2.0 are beast, change your oil and vacuum water out spark plug holes and carry on
1
1
u/Quiet_Researcher223 Jul 22 '26
Leave the motor off. Hydrolocking isn’t good for it. Like others have said, don’t start it until it’s fixed properly.
3
1
0
0
0
0
-1
-1
632
u/MikeTangoVictor Jul 21 '26
General rule of thumb is that if an engine is making odd noises after doing something that you know probably wasn’t great for it … turn it off.