Wife hydrolocked her RSX last night

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FLounder

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She was out with some friends, I was at home sleeping. I wake up to the sounds of a nasty lightning storm, so im a little worried that shes still out. Few mins later she calls saying she accidentally drove into a knee deep puddle "because she was in an unfamiliar parking lot, and it was dark". The car has only one modification, an injen cold air intake, the kind that goes down into the front bumper pretty low. She has driven the car for 3+years in the florida downpours and has always done well avoiding deep puddles, until now.

So its 2am and Im in the parking lot having her spin it over repeatedly, while I use my compression gauge hose to try to blow the water out of the cylinders. I have dealt with plenty of boat motors that have sunk or otherwise sipped water and this seems to be the best technique for getting the water out. You can use your thumb on the small hole (male side of quick release) of the comp gauge hose to make compression and help force the water out. I was getting worried because I put the plugs in and tried to start it a couple times and it kept locking back up (maybe just pulling more water out of the intake manifold), but eventually it fired up and ran smooth. I drove it home, less than 2 miles, and it ran perfect and smooth :)

Shitty part is that the oil light stays on. Im about to go get some oil and filters and change it a couple times, it definitely has water in the oil, its milky brown. Hope this damn light will go off and that it didn't fuck anything up! wish me luck!
 
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Update: changed the oil and filter twice with a short drive after each time. Car is running perfect, so thats good news. The oil looks pretty good now, I think ill do one more oil change tomorrow. The bad news is the pressure sender appears to be done. I took it off and cleaned the watery oil out of it, but the oil light remains on. Luckily, its a cheap part. Hopefully I can find one locally tomorrow. I plan to drain the oil again, and then change the sender. Also at that point im thinking it wont hurt to reset the ecu. I hope that will do the trick!
 
When I hydrolocked my crx I blew 4 holes in the block. Right after the puddle I heard a loud pop and said fuck it trying to make the 4 mile drive home. I made it 2 miles after several other loud pops.
 
Yeah, I'd be worried about if she shut the car down right away or not.

there may be some cracking or other things that are not 100% noticeable.
 
Ive put about 20 miles on it now. The oil light went off on its own... mostly. it still flickers here and there. im replacing the oil sender today after work. Oil still looks clean, CEL never came on. One weird thing that has me worried, one time when I started the car it idled rough, but then cleared up once I got underway. Another time it had some stumbling or hesitation accelerating, but then it started running smooth again. Im wondering if the tps may be fucked up? but wouldn't that throw a code?
 
Yeah, I'd be worried about if she shut the car down right away or not.

there may be some cracking or other things that are not 100% noticeable.

she didn't shut it down... it shut down. I know, I was worried, but it appears that no internal engine damage was done. Just a nice steam cleaning im hoping!
 
Oil light is staying off completely now so that's good. New problem now though, clutch is slipping in higher gears with full throttle. I think its coincidental, and not related to the hydrolock.

Its official, once I get it all sorted out, this sucker is getting traded in before anything else can go wrong. We almost bought a new car a few months back, some of you may remember the thread where I was comparing accord coupe, FRS, etc.. guess I should have got rid of this car then.
 
I'm a little worried that it slightly bent a rod or two. Or bearings are scratched and might spin later. But I've only heard of nightmare hydrolocks. Never heard of a car fixed after this.
 
Yes its going bye bye asap. Car is running really well, put about 75 miles on it since the incident. CEL came on last time i drove it, though. Going to scan that and see what the problem is now. Im guessing o2 sensor didnt like all that water. Think its a good idea to try to get that light off before trying to trade it?

Also, ive never bought a car from a dealership before. Think im going to get a loan from my bank first, so i can go and compare against dealer rates.
 
I've traded in a few cars. They never even drove it or looked inside. My friend traded his GSR in (with a fat dent in a 1/4 panel) and they just looked at it from the window. Gave him good money for it too. Crazy.

My wife's jetta TDI (lemon) was traded in with a bad sensor (inside trans) and metal shavings inside trans. Never took the keys until we were done and settled. But they gave us peanuts for it. I didn't argue too much because it's a lemon. They're point of view was they refuse to resell a car on their lot with over 100k on it. They have other avenues they use to make profit off their trade ins.
 
they tested the hell out of my m3... gone nearly 20 minuets, up on the lift... etc...
 
Dealers arn't that bad, but always make sure to look em over. We had a 2012 wrx on the lot and I think every employee took it for a rip before they put breaks and tires on it... One test Driver complained of a trans grind... Brought it into the shop and they said seems to be alright.... Beginning to think the figure 8 doughnuts they pulled an hour before the kid showed up, showed during the test drive. They assuered him the car was good he bought it. I've seen it in twice, once for a clutch replacement and another time for a drive shaft... always be careful or get some warranty on the new car..... Hope the RSX behaves for you till ya decide on what u want
 
My old s10 zr2 I had to tow a car up a steep twisty driveway in reverse. The car was a used kit car my buddy got that the transport company left on the road. The car had no steering. It took 45 min to get it up the driveway. The transmission was acting up so I traded it in on a Silverado a week later.
 
Cleared the code, hopefully it wont come back... something about irregular idle, which it doesnt have, its idling smooth at about 7 or 800 rpms depending on AC. Going to start actually going car shopping tomorrow. Ive done lots of research online.
 
same same for me. when i traded in my corolla and 1st veloster they were put up on the lift and taken for a ride before i was offered a value.
 
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