HELP: Hydroplaned today and now car won't start
 

I was driving to work, and hydroplaned into the grass and down a small hill. I got stuck in the mud in a small ditch. So I got someone to pull me out, and now it wont start. Seemed like the battery was dead, so we got jumper cables. It started to turn over but wouldn't completely start. Only time it would, was when I would pump the gas pedal and it would die after I let off the gas. And there seemed to be a small rattling sound. Then we waited a little while and tried again and it won't even crank now. I've been told there is a fuel pump reset button or a computer reset button u have to hit when the car is shaken like that. Is this true? Any help?

do u have a varaam?

yes i do

Did you check and make sure everything is OK underneath the car? There could be damage from your off-road excursion.

If everything looks fine try disconnecting the battery for a minute.

There should be a fuel pump shut off, and that may be tripped.

I too have heard that on cars... not sure about if/where it is on a vette but yes some cars have that to stop a fireball if you are in an accident

Where is the fuel pump shut off located?

Do you have a modified cold air intake? How much rain was there? Is it possible you got water up the intake?

it is a vararam. There was quite a bit of water, would a clogged intake cause it not to even crank?

I would certainly check that. There is the potential for water in the engine.

The fuel pump won't keep the car from cranking. If it isn't operating properly it will keep the engine from firing and running on its own but has nothing to do with cranking with the starter. The car does not have a carb on it so pumping the gas pedal is an exercise in futility. If you hold the gas pedal to the floor that will put the system into clear flood mode and shut off fuel flow while you crank the engine to clear gas out of the cylinders.

I would be concerned that the engine could be hydro locked. A Vararam is a lot more susceptible to sucking water into the intake than the stock intake. If you threw up a wall of water in front of the car when you hit the water you hydroplaned in you could have driven right into it and sucked water into the intake. Cranking the engine over without clearing water out of the intake could have gotten water in the cylinders which would lock the engine so the starter couldn't turn it over.

Bill

ah...
 

If you picked up a LOT of water.. It could Hydrolock... not good.. You should have it check out before you do damage... or more damage.. :thumbs: :cheers:

If that is the case, what will get rid of the water in the cylinders?

You can pull all 8 spark plugs... and try to crank... Make sure intake is NOT full of water..

Pull the spark plugs and see if water comes out. Then crank the engine to see if you can force some out. If you are lucky there won't be any water in the cylinders. If you are less lucky and find water then maybe it didn't do any damage. Even less lucky and you will be talking to your insurance company about a comprehensive claim to replace the engine.

Bill

The best mechanic you can find? This is way beyond my pay grade.

So pulling the spark plugs and clearing the water out should cure the problem? A local mechanic is supposed to be doing that this evening.

"IF" you did not do damage.. like internal... WATER does not Compress, it can bend/break things... You will know soon enough... :cheers:

I'm sure there must be more to it than that. I would make sure I had it gone through by a knowledgeable mechanic. You are likely going to need a new air filter, amongst other stuff.

Pull your plugs, crank it a few times and you should see water shooting out... Good luck

Hydrolock
 

Had a MC that hydrolocked. I turned it over and pulled the bottom of 2 pistons off. Have the car checked by a competent mechanic.

I recommend getting your car on a lift and inspect everything under there before starting it. Might have some unseen damage and perhaps it's doing you a favor not starting at the moment. Was there any chance ingested water? I'd just be real certain there isn't damage that might be made worse with running that engine... :thumbs:

same thbing happen to me recently, when i try to start my car all the power cuts off and u hear the starter click. then the starter clicks again and the power cuts back on,,,,is this just a faulty starter

I was gonna pm you, Craig....

Said something about Varraram and lots of water on the road.....could be water or possibly a damaged starter motor from the mud off road?

I thought Vararams were totally safe? Hydrolocked motors with a Vararam were a lie?????

OP, take the intake off and inspect the maf and manifold area for any signs of water/mud/crap in general. From the sounds of it the motor drank liquid........

They are safe,, problem is one isolated case, and everyone thinks they will hydrolock the motor. Typical forum band-wagon.

I love how people just speculate away. You would have to drive through a puddle of water over the nose of the car, or close to that to suck enough water to hydrolock it...and if you drive through water that deep you'll hydrolock the motor with the stock intake...so all the vararam alarmist need to chill out for a sec until the OP comes back.

If he had an off road bumpy hydroplane excursion. could be any number of things,,,starter wires severed, starter messed up, any number of electronic things.
Sure it could by hydrolocked, we dont know for sure though. Plus if it is hydrolocked due to a vararam...its not gonna stop me from buying one..agian if he sucked that much water in or drove through that much sht, it would be locked with the stock intake.

Lets wait to hear back from the OP

I used to think the way you did.......until in ankle deep water ie: 3-4inches....my vararam sucked in enough to coat the maf honeycomb in water and ingest it into the manifold on my former 2007 LS2.

All it took was one pop-up thunderstorm to radically effect my feelings of driving with a Vararam in any kind of bad weather.

Every summer we see posts like this......I remember last year 3-4 vettes hydrolocked on the way to Carlisle......noone wanted to say which intake they were running despite my repeated questions.......maybe due to insurance and possible warranty implications...at least a couple of those C6's were towed to performance shops in NY.....form your own conclusions on if they were running stock intake or aftermarket with cut shroud.

All I'm saying is there is a much higher risk of ingesting water running a vararam then the stock or a top breathing intake. It's simple facts...you cannot place an intake scoop another 5 inches lower and have the same hydrolock risk as stock, fooling yourself to believe the risk is the same.

I can see where you are coming from, I guess some people get lucky with them and some don't. I had one on my C5 for 3 years and drove through numerous heavy down-pours and never had an issue. I'll agree there is a greater chance with the Vararam, sure that makes sense due to the design. I guess I rarely have seen posts about it, maybe its like you said people are not talking about it due to warranty issues or risks of problems and exposure. 3 hydrolocks on the way to carlisle? I wonder if they indeed where all running Vararams..

It's a bit of a crap shoot, I drove in many rainstorms and never had a problem (that I knew of, i didn't check the see if water had begun to climb the intake airbridge after a non-eventful drive in rain, though the lower scoop always had a small puddle of water and wet around the mouth) but what was different was the standing water on the road which wasn't near enough to cover the nose was just enough to be sucked up by the lower scoop vararam.

Let us know how it turns out. I'd had to jump on the band wagon and say hydrolock but that's just my 2 cents. If you were going slow and breaking foot off accelerator you might be ok!

Good Luck!

Let us know how it turns out.

GM will void ur warranty if there's really major damage due to the intake, they are strict these days...put the stock one back on and go to the dealer for warranty...hope u dont have an aftermarket tune either

and don't forget the Vararam is good for up to a 46hp bump
:rofl:
or so that's what they claim

c'mon dude, get real, look at the thing, the way it's designed. no way will the stock airbox suck water like the vararam water scoop

just speculating here, but the reason they're not talking about it could be one of two things: embarrassment OR taking it off and claiming that it was a stock intake that ingested water to either their insurance company or chevy dealer.

What other components need to be checked out if he hydrolocked and did not bend anything up? Remove plugs and get the water out. Check oil. The MAF was already talked about. Would the injectors be an issue as well? We had a large downpoor in NJ one afternoon many years ago. Many cars on my street with stock intakes were hydrolocked. I removed the water, but several neighbors had to take their cars in. Most had injector issues.

IMHO...it's hydro-locked !

I see you are in Ky. Not sure how close you are to Cincinnati, but I would strongly suggest you call Danny Popp, at McClusky Chevrolet, in Cincinnat , Ohio. Danny is the best vette specialist in S.W. Ohio. He only works on vettes and will take the time to discuss any problems you may have. I'm not a fan of dealerships, but Danny is exceptional. The number is 513-761-1111. Good luck.

All I was really gettin at was that none of us know how deep of water or mud he drove through since none of us were there. I guess I should have been more clear...there comes a point to which if you drive through deep enough water you can hydrolock any mortor with a stock intake...that's all.

better?:D:thumbs:

You would have to go through a lot of standing water to hydrolock the engine. Also, if he hydro planed, he would have let off the gas out of instinct. At 0% throttle the engine is at negative vaccum. I dont think that is anywhere near enough to gulp water.

Lets get back to basics: What's it take for an engine to run: Spark, fuel, air. Start with air. Make sure the MAF is securely connected. Also, check any other intake or exhaust sensors that are visable. Then go to fuel, then spark.

Thats just what I would do before spending money on it.

The one sentence that's highlighted here in the original post would sure give me indication that it hydro-locked.

Sorry to hear the accident, keep us informed as to what happens, Good Luck!

Trying to start an engine that is Hydro Locked due to cylinders full of water is not the point of concern. In this case the starter motor will fail to turn the engine, you pull the plugs and then use starter motor to pump the water out of the plug holes. Worst case - water filled the cylinders while the engine was up to speed, with Hydro Lock bringing the engine to a sudden stop can bend connecting rods, valves, stress the bearings and other bad things.

Make sure your mechanic Checks Things Out real good ...........

Sorry for your misfortune, post a follow up once you know the outcome.

I'm pretty sure hydroplaning off road, and sticking the nose into the mud, generally wouldn't be covered under "Manufacturers' defect" anyway... :(

Why would anyone think that this would be a warranty issue? This sounds like an insurance claim to me. You might get lucky with it being a Comp. Claim as it was water on the road, but they will probably say the damage was from the "Collision" with the side of the road / mud.

You may even have a hard time with most insurance as this could be considered a flood issue, which they may or may not cover.

:iagree: probably going to go down like that. Basically helost control of the car and hydroplaned off the road and went into the ditch and had an accident. Very good point. I don't think GM would even look at the car from a warranty perspective..it's not like he was just driving down the road, injested water in the intake and hydrolocked the motor...he lost control of the car. Insurance claim is my bet.

Not sure how they would classify it as a flood issue and not a regular claim.

It is called hydrolock. NOT a good thing; I hope it is not that. Water does not compress well.........and something has to give. :rolleyes:

Many years ago, one of the officers at our PD slowly drove a Dodge 440 into a really deep puddle and ingested water into the engine while it was running at low rpm.

The engine got really sick, barely made it back to the station.

The local shade tree mechanic "fixed" the engine for about half the cost of a complete rebuild but it never ran right and we got a complete new engine a couple of months later.

:iagree: Sure sounds like hydrolock to me; hope not for your sake because if so, you are looking at probable piston/rod/bearing failures. It doesn't take a lot of water to be ingested by a bottom sucking Vararam.

DING-DING-DING...We have a winner!

Vararam = best cold water intake on the market

:lol::lol:

:iagree:

No air intake is safe from ingesting water. Not even the stock intake. The 85 through 91 Vettes had tuned port injection with an air cleaner that sat above a cross bar behind the front fascia. The 85 and 86 models had a problem with water ingestion when a car was driven into a couple inch puddle and the water was thrown forward from the tires or the front spoiler. That water would come up under that cross bar and squirt directly into the air intake. In subsequent years GM put a piece of plastic under the air cleaners that prevented the water from coming up into the intake. By the way all of those hydrolocked motors that caused GM to add the piece of plastic were all fixed by the insurance companies. Driving into a puddle and hydrolocking the engine is not a warranty issue.

Water ingestion isn't a problem due to rain coming down but it is when you drive into a wall of water that your car threw in front of you. That water is going to go directly into a Vararam just like the air does. The OP said he hydroplaned so that means there were a few inches of water on the road. When he hit the water at speed that water went forward and to the side.

Bill

People laugh when we don’t take our Garage Queens out when the roads are wet.

Are we over protective or just using “common sense” ?

:nono:

Depends if you are using a Vararam!

File a claim with your insurance if its anything over your deductible.

That is a big problem with the aftermarket air intakes. The Vararam is very susceptible to water problems. There is a reason why GM designed its intake the way it did. The Vararam would never pass GM reliability tests.

Vararam knows about the hydro-lock problem and they mask it and deny it.

Is it worth the extra 5HP to destroy a $10k engine because you had to drive in the rain? If you believe so, then one with a Vararam should NEVER drive in the rain, NEVER.

Maybe it's not obvious, but when a car breaks, especially catastrophically like an engine, there are two ways to go. One is insurance, and one is dealer or manufacturer. Depending on many things, some choose the latter course of action. Suggestions to put the stock air filtering system back on a car suggest something, too.