Car starts and idles. I step on the gas and it stalls. I saw water coming out of the exhaust. Help!?

Question

I try to restart it and it won't for awhile. Today I got it going by forcing it to stay started. After awhile it idled and I drove it home, with no trouble. Until I turned it off. It started but stalls when I acclerate unless I rev it up until it idles again. My sister just filled it up and power washed it.

Answer 1

water usually is a sign of a blown head gasket.  If you have diesel fuel in it , it wouldn't run and it would ruin your engine. Thank her for washing your car.

Answer 2

How much water we talking here? Its probably condensation. I wouldn't worry to much about it. I HIGHLY doubt you blew a head  gasket by power washing it lol, thats just absurd. If it was grey creamish liquid coming out the exhaust then yeah i would say it's a head gasket. Does your car have a history of overheating? if so then it's possible your sister over heated the car which caused it to blow a head gasket. Honestly, I highly doubt this is the case though.  I bet its like the other guy said, its most likely water somewhere in your ignition system. First take off the disributor cap and make sure thats dry. Second, make sure no water got somehow in the spark plug cables through cracks, etc. Dry those off to but remember what order they fire in. If anything do one at a time. Last, depending on how your engine is set up and how old it is, make sure no water got around the spark plugs. This happened to me on a old in-line 4 AE86 corolla I had and I had to suck up all the water around the spark plugs and then let it air dry for a day. After that she ran fine but at first she sputtered and muttered and wouldn't even want to start till i got her dry. Good luck and happy wrenching!

Answer 3

All care will spit out a little water... let it sit (water evaporates eventually) don't worry

Answer 4

One thing, did she wash the engine while running? It easily could have soaked the air filter. Also she could have filled the air intake and not realized it. Check distributor, remove the breather can and check the filter. If it has a point type ignition system it will dry out. Distributerless shouldn't even be affected. HEI would skip and maybe backfire but will get better after drying out the cap. My bet is a wet air filter.

Answer 5

perhaps your distributor cap got wet. Its not making a good spark and therefor stalling.