Car died after going through high water
 

Friday night I got stuck in some nasty rain. I drove through some water which turned out to be deeper that expected. The car died while going through the water in the parking lot.

The engine would not turn over at all each time I tried on Friday. I left the car to return Saturday afternoon so I could try without getting rained on badly. The starter sounded like it was pretty much on its way out so I replaced it and began to deflood the car. I got it started up and running rough after about 15 minutes. I had to give it gas to keep it from stalling and drove the car roughly 20 miles to my fathers house. It was very down on power and slow to accelerate and was misfiring on the way.

I have the AEM intake and BHR ignition. The BHR kit was bought used from a member here and installed less than 15k miles ago on the car. The wires and coils look fine and I replaced the spark plugs since they were past due anyway. I have a midpipe and not a cat on the car.

I have cleaned the MAF, although it did not look to be very dirty. Cleaned the ESS (was very dirty). I have not yet had time to check the fuel pump. There is plenty of 93 octane in the tank. The car has been running fine and was running fine up until we went through the water.

It will now consistently start and idle, fluctuating anywhere from 800 to 1500ish rpm and the engine shakes considerably. When I press the gas at idle, it is very slow to rev and will misfire. It seems to be running very rich and is slightly smoking from the exhaust.

As far as CEL codes, I had p0113 after cleaning the MAF but not before and it has since gone away after I cleared the codes with my Cobb.

If I am missing anything, I apologize. My time is unfortunately scarce and I will hopefully be able to take a look at the fuel pump later on this week. Also possibly worth mentioning is that my alternator died a couple of months back and was replaced. The battery seems to be fine and is putting out a little over 14v while the car is on.

When was the last time you changed the plugs?

Pull them out and check them. also get a spark plug tester

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-do-...-wires-222641/

few ppl had cracked the motor by driving through a pot of water which turned out to be deeper than they thought....

You Should always carry a cheap Spectra filter and a flat head screwdriver to make a temporary short ram, in case there's a pot of water or flood during rain seasons.

I have been having a similar issue recently, with my '04 GT with 118K miles, new engine at about 60K miles. A month or so ago I went through a puddle in a parking lot, which was a little deeper than expected. It seemed to be running fine until I went to pull out on the main road. It immediately started running really rough, and sounded like it was down a rotor. As soon as I pushed the clutch in it died, but started right back up. All the way home it alternated from running fine to running like described above (usually after having to stop at a light). Since then it has been sporadically doing this, usually on rainy or really humid days. On drier days it runs well. I cleaned the throttle body, which seemed to help quite a bit, actually drove it for about 2-3 weeks with no problems what so ever. Then the battery died, and I went out of town, and the car sat for about 2 weeks. Now the problem is back... Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am considering replacing the coils, wires, and plugs, but if that's not the problem I can't afford to spend the extra money right now.

Last April, I also drove over a deep water (I knew the water was deep, I did it intentionally for fun) and the only problem afterwards was a bit more difficulty in the clutch disengaging. There was already a problem in the clutch pedal and master cylinder and that driving over the water made it worse. No problem whatsoever in the engine.

My brother thinks this could be being caused by a damaged O2 sensor. Any thoughts?

I've never had a problem with the engine after water either, until this particular time.

Let me get this straight. You drove through deep water FOR THE FUN OF IT?????!!!???????!!?????!!??? :wallbash::cussing:

In a [sports] car and not a jeep or lifted truck??

I've noticed your post just now. Oh yes, exactly. That was a fun which I used to have with my previous cars on rainy days. Actually it's got something to do with flushing the underside of the car, when you drive through some deep (but clean) water, the underside gets cleaned a bit. And I also like the sound of the water splashing.

But I did that only once and at a time when I didn't know much about the rotary engine. I can never do that again. Rotary engine is such a precise machine.

it doesn't matter if it has a rotary engine or not, any low to the ground car can be damaged by high levels of water.

my BMW E36 for example cracked the header in 6 spots during a heavy rain and deep water that simply splashed on the exhaust while driving modestly. after rewelding it of course it had no problems in the weather, the metal had already been fatigued and it only took the one shock to crack the stressed metal.

Plus the fact our engine is mounted very low. Nothing to do with being a rotary