92 DX RUNS BAD ONLY IN RAIN please help

[92DXCB7]

first off i searched and couldnt find exactly what i was looking for.

hey guys, ive got a 92 dx coupe, f22 automatic, cold air intake, nology wires, ngk plugs, my car runs great normally... but in the past few months, every time that it rains, or more like, is raining, my car will run great for a while but then it wants to stutter and nearly shut off, i have to floor it and it will clear up and go, but then it will do it again and a again...it did this last night during a heavy rain and i started it up and it ran just fine today in the sunshine.

i was thinking maybe i am sucking some water up in my air intake... but wouldnt that cause severe damage the first time it happened? i checked the oil and there is no visible "milky-ness"

my car is lowered about 2 inches and im thinking maybe it is sucking water up into the engine compartment somehow??

perhaps i have a bad sensor or something?

its so annoying and its been driving me crazy..


any and all help would be greatly appreciated,

jesse.

[C91BLX7]

Spray your engine with a hose and see if the something happens

[Brandoncb7]

Is your cai a two piece or do you have a short ram laying around? If so you may to try running the short ram even your stock intake next time it rains and see if that helps any. I would think if you were sucking up water that it would hydrolock though. I'm not sure what it would do if you were only sucking up a little bit of water but it couldn't be good no matter what. Maybe you have exposed wiring or something somewhere that the water is screwing with.

[sideshow]

Plugs wires- coil. If they see moisture it can cause an arc that would not be noticable in dry conditions

[batever]

Plugs wires- coil. If they see moisture it can cause an arc that would not be noticable in dry conditions

yes.

but most likely dist cap.

you could be getting H20 in your air intake. If it's not a lot it will mix with the gas in the combustion chamber and affect the combustion but get burnt off. If it's a lot you would hydrolock. The difference is in the quantity of water.

I'd try changing out the dist. cap first. because I'm guessing this is a new problem and your air intake has been on longer than you've been having the problem.

You could test it by stopping the car when it's having an episode and taking the dist. cap off, then drying it thoroughly with compressed air and reinstalling. If the problem is gone, the dist cap seal is your issue so replace the dist. cap.

[batever]

be i am sucking some water up in my air intake... but wouldnt that cause severe damage the first time it happened? i checked the oil and there is no visible "milky-ness"

the air intake goes to the combustion chamber and if it's not a lot of water it wouldn't get into the oil but get "steamified" by the combustion process and get vented out with the exhause.

If it's a lot of water though you could end up locking up the cylinder by filling it with water (hydrolocking), which will stop the engine because water doesn't compress and you would stop the piston motion.

Neither would necessarily cause a "lot" of damage but the second one would be kind of a pain that's for sure.

[92DXCB7]

thanks for the responses, yeah i didnt even think to check the distributor cap..im gonna go out and do that in a minute, my intake is a 2 piece so im also about to try running it short ram, hopefully it will make a difference.. ill be sure to let yall know

[RiceKillinSi]

I am willing to be the distributor cap gasket is letting a little water in. Any water inside the distributor cap is really bad.

[92DXCB7]

ok so i checked the dist cap and visually it seems fine, is it something that i could silicone around to make sure? im runnin short ram now, which is cool anyways cuz i like the sound haha. but it hasnt rained yet so im not sure if its made a difference

[batever]

ok so i checked the dist cap and visurally it seems fine, is it something that i could silicone around to make sure? im runnin short ram now, which is cool anyways cuz i like the sound haha. but it hasnt rained yet so im not sure if its made a difference

Well of course if you have silicone you could use that on the dist. cap sealing surface, I see no reason why not. As long as it's the kind that will come off so you can get a good seal next time you change to a new dist cap.

But first

Take a hose and (gently) spray around your dist. cap or take a cup of water or two and go to it.

Then try and start the car.

The truth will out.


Also, take some dielectric grease and make sure all of the spark plug wires and all the wires at the dist are sealed off at the boots. Put it on the rubber part so that the grease seals against the plastic of the dist. terminals.


Electricity doesn't flow through grease, especially dielectric grease. If all you've got is regular grease you can use that too, it's just not as good.

Incidentally, I looked it up and you don't want to hydrolock your engine, it will be major damage. So if you think it's an air intake problem you'll want to fix that. and the cylinder doesn't need to fill with h2o, there needs to be relatively little H20 or water vapor in comparison to the cylinder volume to "hydrolock" at high rpms

[batever]

i have to floor it and it will clear up and go, but then it will do it again and a again...it did this last night during a heavy rain and i started it up and it ran just fine today in the sunshine.

Ok, forget the dist cap, I think.

I reread your post and realized that the above quote I took from from your original post is the key: if it was your dist. cap, flooring it wouldn't temporarily clear it up because it wouldn't dry the inside of the cap.

however if you have too much h20 in the combustion chamber it will interfere with combustion by cooling the chamber too much. When you floor it, it burns the vapor and exhausts it, thus temporarily clearing the situation up. What's probably happening is you're getting a steady small intake of h20 in spray or vapor form into the air intake and eventually so much gets in the chamber that it messes up with your combustion.

Check all of the attachments of your air intake and make sure they are watertight.

Also,
is there a water drain hole in your setup to let H20 out??? If not that could be a problem for you.

YOu don't want to run like this and hydrolock the engine, I'd take a look at your air intake setup and find a way to keep h20 out of it, or provide a way for h20 to drain from it.

[EJX_Michael]

I say spark plug wires.
Same thing happened to my moms CR-V.

Get a mist spray bottle and mist water on the wires at night. Its a cool little light show of arcs.

[92DXCB7]

ok so i think i fixed the problem, i sprayed the dist. lightly with some water and it didnt arc or run bad or anything, i shortened the air intake and i popped a small hole just behind the filter so that any water that gets in can escape. i drove it the other day in the rain and it did just fine. thanks for the suggestions guys i think i finally got it haha.

[92DXCB7]

ok.

i spoke too soon. it rained yesterday and the car started to f**k up on me again. it stopped raining and it cleared up. ran fine today for a while and then it started to do the same thing, sputtering, wanting to cut off...the idle started to jump up and down, only this time, it was completely sunny and dry out, this time the check engine light came on. it stayed on until i shut the car off. the light is off but the engine just doesnt feel right sometimes, theres a good bit of hesitation under 2000-2500 rpm but after that its like it just catches and goes all out. maybe i have a bad sensor or something?? this is driving me bat shit crazy..


any ideas??

[Brandoncb7]

You could always take it to auto zone and they will hook it up to their computer and diagnose it for free. It might help. I don't know how to read what codes it's throwing so I always just take it there and let them do it lol.