flooded car possible, need help!

[blaxmax]

^^Hire the Craigslist Killer or a Mechanic that overcharges you for what he does not know.

 

[caseyjones955]

Granted CL is not the best way and dealerships are shifty at best. Any other maxers in that area or a neighbor/friend. This could probably be assessed in a few minutes, at least down to internal engine damage or not.

 

[poppop]

The diagnosis alone would be around 250.It's somekind of mechanical failure,I just believe he was doing his best at diagnosing it.I dont believe he is a mechanic,But i got to give him credit,He got out there i believe by himself and done his best.He posted his problem and done his best.Ive been a mechanic most of my life,And in all those years of doing it not everything goes right.Not bad for a first timer.

 

[caseyjones955]

The diagnosis alone would be around 250.It's somekind of mechanical failure,I just believe he was doing his best at diagnosing it.I dont believe he is a mechanic,But i got to give him credit,He got out there i believe by himself and done his best.He posted his problem and done his best.Ive been a mechanic most of my life,And in all those years of doing it not everything goes right.Not bad for a first timer.

Agree 100%. There is value in DIY and willingness to get ones hands dirty and trying to sort things out. I was lucky enough to have friends that knew more than I when I started out. I just hope its going ok for him, theres never a good time for auto failure.

 

[radley]

Anyone know how to shut off fuel before plugs pulled and turning key, was advised to do that. Continuing research is current status. Hopefully things dried out, we'll see what happens tonight.

 

[caseyjones955]

There should be a fuel pump fuse in the fusebox.

 

[radley]

FOUND A VIDEO, SAME ORDEAL WITH ME.
apparently the intake is very low..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAYrp4Xrz9o

The engine may be fine, and the problem may be electrical, we will see. I"ll try to give her a spin tonight. I have a spark tester, so I"ll test for spark once I dry out cylinders with compressor air dry out if not dry already, should be, it's been a week. didnt work on it at all over weekend. partied instead. also now getting some miles on the bicycle, actually move pretty quickly..... next you'll be hearing about how i run into a truck or something.

 

[Fire-medic]

I was in traffic next to a very impatient AUDI A7 who was trying to make time in rush hour traffic. He was cutting everyone off, and then slamming on his brakes, trying to gain another 20 ft. by reckless maneuvering. He did it to me, and I thought he was going to take my fender off. Luckily he didn't. The thing was, it was in the middle of a south Florida 'frog-choker' downpour. It had been going on for awhile, and several inches of rain had fallen, causing parts of the roadway to be under 6" of water. Most people drive with caution in these flooding circumstances, he was 'the exception.'

We got to an intersection, beyond which the road narrows one lane. He was in the lane which ends. When the light turned green, he shot-ahead, only to find the driver to his left, where he would have to merge, was already there, leaving him to plow-through the rapidly-deepening water, which looked like Moses parting the Red Sea, as I was behind him. I merged to the left, as traffic allowed it, and he was now trying to muscle-through water to his rocker panels, and the wake that he threw-up was easily over the roof of his car and anyone near him. He finally realized he was in 'deep water,' and was forced to slow to a crawl. I passed him, hot water steaming out from around his AUDI, awash in standing water. I hope he hydrolocked.

 

[forestdaledave]

I was in traffic next to a very impatient AUDI A7 who was trying to make time in rush hour traffic. He was cutting everyone off, and then slamming on his brakes, trying to gain another 20 ft. by reckless maneuvering. He did it to me, and I thought he was going to take my fender off. Luckily he didn't. The thing was, it was in the middle of a south Florida 'frog-choker' downpour. It had been going on for awhile, and several inches of rain had fallen, causing parts of the roadway to be under 6" of water. Most people drive with caution in these flooding circumstances, he was 'the exception.'

We got to an intersection, beyond which the road narrows one lane. He was in the lane which ends. When the light turned green, he shot-ahead, only to find the driver to his left, where he would have to merge, was already there, leaving him to plow-through the rapidly-deepening water, which looked like Moses parting the Red Sea, as I was behind him. I merged to the left, as traffic allowed it, and he was now trying to muscle-through water to his rocker panels, and the wake that he threw-up was easily over the roof of his car and anyone near him. He finally realized he was in 'deep water,' and was forced to slow to a crawl. I passed him, hot water steaming out from around his AUDI, awash in standing water. I hope he hydrolocked.

Poetic justice. Maybe he had to piss real bad.

 

[radley]

Thank you ALL for your help...

got the car started last night. shot some gas in the air intake. cranked it over, had to hook up jumpers to my lady friend's honda pilot, eventually fired up. fluid burning off engine, smoking a bit, can't find a leak or anything like that yet. took it to get oil change, guy at valvoline checked out dipstick, said looked like no water in there, suggested have a mechanic look at it, didnt change oil but certainly can and probably should anyways. i'll do it tomorrow. running a bit rough watching engine run, new plugs new plug wires. hearing some noise coming from driver side front tire, rubbing on something, probably a result from jumping the curb when I bailed out of the water. BUT, running. fuel issue, didn't hear too much about that from ya'll... got the idea to shoot fluid in air intake from the only response off of Malibu forum. seemed to spark some life into it. will drive it around locally before I go too far. hope it has to cough up crap for a bit before she settles down. so check this out, my mileage jumped 70,000. went from the 188K it was at, now reading 252K! lol. haven't heard or seen that before. probably can't count on it for long term ride.... we will see if she levels out a bit, but who knows. probably need to start looking for replacement vehicle.

 

[95spfldmax]

Been watching your thread with interest. Glad you got it started. Keeps us informed on your progress the next several miles. The odometer thing does sound strange.

 

[radley]

I will, thanks for the interest..

Something is up with my steering, driver side wheel, front. I dont think it's the tire that is hitting anything in the wheel well, it's within that. I'm not too familiar with wheels and steering systems. When I turn right I can hear something, not sure what it is, as again, not familiar with troubleshooting that part of a car yet. Learning as I go here, or more accurately, learning as I have to fix things..lol... ain't that the truth..

I'll take it easy with the car for immediate future here and try to assess issues/problems. Keep posted!

 

[caseyjones955]

So glad you got it started. With EFI it shouldnt have been necessary to prime it with fuel, guess there was quite a bit of moisture trapped there somewhere. A compression check would tell you a lot about if you should be looking for another car or if that one may live on awile. If it's got an honest 188k on the clock it might be time even without the hydrolock. They are much easier to sell/trade-in while they run properly. A GM with 200k+ is generally considered to be on borrowed time. Although some poeple get more if you want a true 300-500k mile car your buying Honda/Acura, Toyota/Lexus or some other select Japanese models. If the compression is consistent and the transmission is still behaving you may have a few more years left in it. If your cheap like me it might make sense to just drive it until something major goes wrong.

Oh, on the wheel rubbing, if you hit the water hard enough it might have pulled down the nylon shroud that covers the underside of the engine bay, give the inner fender a visual to, it's probably nylon to, you might be able to just snap it back into place if it became disloged. Does it rub harder on right turns than left, more at speed?

 

[poppop]

So glad you got it going,is it hitting on all cylinders? You really need to know,At this point i believe i would take it to someone i trusted and be sure that it is.If you have to or need to do this for yourself you can remove the wires or un plug the coilpacks one at a time and watch for the engine speed to drop. example.Disconnect 1 engine speed drops,Plug back in engine speed rises.Unplug another enging speed does not drop,Step2 remove plug examine.You may get burned or shocked in doing this,So be careful!And you could to the compression test thing fire medic suggested.If you have a dead cylinder,The injector will gas wash the cylinder leading to engine failure eventually .Far as the rubbing tire jack it up turn it to the right and rotate the tire.Does the steering pull to the right or left? Does it have a tach?And do you remember where the needle pointed before?If not does the engine tremble at idle?Hopefully you can just snap the plastic inner fender back in place and everything's ok. You've done good so far.Keeping my fingers crossed.Good luck.

 

[Fire-medic]

Maybe your CV joint boot has a tear in it, water got in & rusted the bearings, and now you have a 'crunchy' CV joint.

I agree w/others' requests to have someone trustworthy to road-test it and to trouble-shoot it at this point. They can give you guidance about 'get a down-payment together,' or "fix this and this, and you should be good." You have done what you can.

 

[radley]

You have done what you can.

Thanks but no thanks.... I appreciate all your help man, but dang, don't give up on me now!


To Poppop. I grabbed a compression tester gauge. Well, renting it from Auto Zone, bring it back, get the deposit back. I haven't used it yet, but certainly can if you really need. From who I have talked to, they suggest that I would be able to know if things were misfiring, not running well, running on less than 6 cylinders, etc... I dont hear anything banging around the engine, so no (well at least not significantly) bent rods, etc. But, I can see why having those numbers for each cylinder would be a good thing, so I'll try to do it this weekend for you, a Dry and a Wet test for compression. But, the car seems to be running as crappy as it did before, and I am happy with that....

However, last week it was hot up here. I did some running around town grabbing a few things on Saturday and made a few stops. I was going to do the compression test and also the other things you said, jack the car up, turn wheels etc. I was going to do this at my gf's place b/c she has central air conditioning at her home. I was loading tools into the car and noticed it was leaking coolant pretty decent...dangit, I thought. I drove to gas station to get some Coke to mix with my Jim Beam Maple for the afternoon, and just as my car sat there for a little bit, it had a nice stream of coolant running away from the car... WHAT? She was running hot as I drove the 1.5 miles to the home, it was like 215 degrees or so, a bit hot. I parked and opened the hood to take a peek. Fans running, new thermo working, fans working. I could see a little pool of coolant on the engine, right side, close to me, and it looked like I could see a little air bubble at the gasket just below the air intake area, that part of the engine (front left). That would explain the pool of coolant jsut below it....also I noticed a little tear near the radiator on the hose that connects the coolant resevoir to the radiator. I cut the hose back to the tear and reconnected it. I let the car sit and started to drink. After it cooled a bit, I cleaned it up real good where I saw it leaking (?) and saw the air bubble.....after talking to a neighbor he said that that gasket is probably the head gasket. I let the car sit dry (i flushed out all coolant so I could do the fix with the hose) overnight and filled it up with water when my buddy stopped by to help me diagnose the leak on Sunday. he stopped by about noon, filled it up with water, plenty of water and nothing weird happened. Started up good, didn't overheat, nothing. I took it for a spin and nothing weird happened, so I'm not sure what to think about THAT now...

Either way, I will try to do compression test this weekend even though I think it is okay.

Assuming that is ok, and the leak will disappear for a while, I need to address this steering issue.

When I roll around at idle speed, there is nothing. I dont feel anything weird in the turn, but it happens when I turn the car to the right, only. Louder with faster speeds, but you have to be goign like 10 mph to hear it at all.
I can also jack the car up and take some pics. I took a peek yesterday but couldn't see anything obvious. maybe I'll try to get a video of it happening in action.

By the way I was wrong about the 63K miles that just appeared on the odometer, the actual mileage is in fact 252K, which is what it reads.

I want to get the steering thing fixed, clean up a few other things on the car and try to sell it while it is running alright. I'll need to get a vehicle more conducive to hunting with all my gear, and hauling a trailer, etc. anyways. Also, she'll need new tires within a year as well.

So, let's do that. let's get this thing tidied up and sold...... I'll get as much intel in regards to the steering issue and report back this weekend.

So glad you got it going,is it hitting on all cylinders? You really need to know,At this point i believe i would take it to someone i trusted and be sure that it is.If you have to or need to do this for yourself you can remove the wires or un plug the coilpacks one at a time and watch for the engine speed to drop. example.Disconnect 1 engine speed drops,Plug back in engine speed rises.Unplug another enging speed does not drop,Step2 remove plug examine.You may get burned or shocked in doing this,So be careful!And you could to the compression test thing fire medic suggested.If you have a dead cylinder,The injector will gas wash the cylinder leading to engine failure eventually .Far as the rubbing tire jack it up turn it to the right and rotate the tire.Does the steering pull to the right or left? Does it have a tach?And do you remember where the needle pointed before?If not does the engine tremble at idle?Hopefully you can just snap the plastic inner fender back in place and everything's ok. You've done good so far.Keeping my fingers crossed.Good luck.

steering does not pull much at all when driving. tachometer, yes. not sure what you mean by poiting needle, as far as rpms? seems normal. engine does not tremble at idle, sounding normal as the day I bought it.
not sure it is inner plastic fender, everything seems to be in place in that regards. i'm not sure best way to demonstrate the noise to assist in diagnosis....can I jack car up and turn it on and put in drive and spin wheels and turn as it sits on jack stands? doesn't sound smart, lol. but there's got to be a way to get you to hear it....

 

[poppop]

won't help to jack it up,That will remove the load from the bearing.Yo will need to drive it and figure out which side it is.Me and the other's on here can guide you through that.Or the alignment shop can tell you.The leak! This method may work.Get 2 cans of cream, can of pepper,May want to get you a gallon of anitfreeze drain the cooling system.Add 1/2 can of pepper 1 can of cream.Top off with water drive around about a 1/2 hr,Engine may have a air bleeder to remove excess air from cooling system open bleeder till coolant comes out.top off again.don't remove radiator cap from hot engine!fter you ride around a half hr or so take it back home add the rest of cream and pepper,Do this one step at a time of not it can make your thermostat stick closed and will overheat your engine!This is a backwoods stop leak that i learned about years ago,I have had about a 85% success with it over the years.The engine will leak a lil stop.And will finally stop altogether,Iv'e been doing mechanics for 40+ years and have done this several times,With good results.My lil shop is named possum tree eng.Kinda suit's me.May get a lil ragging over this but it does work.O yeah lil can of pepper.Best of luck.Terry.

 

[poppop]

Forget the compression test,If it is running as well as before just keep a pluggin.You should take it to the alignment shop If it;s pulling either way it will eat your tires up.Check your oil if the stick looks milky you need to change it.Hope it all works out.Poppop.

 

[poppop]

Again if it is not leaking don't do the cream and pepper thing,I read your post again and thought your head gasket was leaking.Sounds like it was just a hose.Ill try to pay better attention.

 

[caseyjones955]

With 262k on the clock it owes nobody nuttin'. That being said if you hear the rubbing on a R turn than likely a L wheel bearing. CV joints tend to make more of a clacking noise when turning only. Im fairly sure your wheel bearings are the sealed type where you just replace the hub assembly, if they have never been replaced its no stretch that they could be noisy. X2 if it runs like it did before no need for comp test. Just drive and enjoy knowing that it has already exceeded the life expectancy of a FWD GM by a fair margin.