What has the water done to my car?

Question

After last weeks torrential rain in northern ireland, I was forced to drive through some major floods on the way home from work last saturday.

So I got home and my car will still running fine. But then after about 10mins I had to go to my dad's (no real floods on way there) and it was still fine so that was ok! I got to my dads about 5mins away and stayed there about 2hours, then I went to leave and my car had like no power, I had to drop it to 1st gear to make it up any hills and it wouldnt go over 20-30 miles per hour.

So I took it back to my dad and he had a look at it, fiddled with some things (but really didnt do anything at all) and away it went 100%, just like before the incident. Then I went home and on the way home it went back to normal.

So to sum up:

no power at all

jumpy when idle

jumpy when starting to accelerate

emissions light is flashing too!

Any ideas? Is it an easy fix?

Thanks

Answer 1

I would say that you may have got electrical problems and may need to change all of the plugs and wires, i would give your car a complete tune up and just let everything dry out, if it didnt damage the computer and so on, but other than that just change the plugs and wires and air filter and let dry out good, should be fine.

Answer 2

Im not a car expert but have had this happen to me as well..chances are that when you had to drive through all the flooding you ended up getting everything or most everything under the hood wet and drenched.

Since you have some lights on and its still not acting quite right

I would take it to the shop..it may be something as simple as your battery cables or some other electrical wires getting too wet and they just need a couple days to dry out

but because its acting jumpy and yor lights are on,,I would take it to the shop and tell them what happened so they can look it over

better to spend a little extra money now then to get stranded later

Answer 3

You forgot to mention the addition of the fiddle parts

Answer 4

you have water in your fuel.  Pour  methylated spirits (we call it de-natured alcohol in America) into your gas tank (6-10 ounces) you will need to create a sloshing motion inside your tank by bouncing on the rear bumper for about 30 seconds.  The alcohol will mix with the water and burn inside the engine as you drive.  You should fill your tank after letting the engine run for about 30 minutes.