Hey,

To begin, I put in a new car battery and put in fresh synthetic oil about a month ago. Only modification to the car is a Z-tube.

It was -27 celsius outside today, as usual I plugged in my car for 2 hours then took it out to go for a car wash. It is an AUTO, and I was driving in DRIVE but shortly after starting down my bay it lost power to the wheels and would just rev like it was effectively in neutral, even though the gear was D. So I had to stop it. I tried putting it in reverse, which worked, and then starting driving again in D. Following this transmission hiccup everything seemed normal.

I get to the wand wash car wash - which is extremely humid as opposed to the -27 celsius outside and wash my car. After I'm finished, it won't start. All of the lights on the dash light up but the car won't even turn over, and the break pedal is stiff. I disconnect the battery and reconnect it out of desperation, no better. Even worse, in my flustered state I reconnected the battery terminals in the wrong order, first NEG then POS so it sparked. So I call someone to bring me my spare key praying it is an immobilizer issue, and sure enough with the spare key, it starts up. I get home and try my original key--the one that didn't work before, and it works fine. Boggles my mind.

But anyway, now I have a "Service Engine Soon" light, any idea why on earth that would show up from what I've done? I'm hoping I only blew a fuse by screwing up the battery connection.

I'll have to take it in when I get a chance in the next few days. If anyone has any idea what happened here, or if you suspect I may have electrical problems, please let me know.

Thanks,
Chris

 

Start by grabbing a scanner and having the code read. No point guessing until you get that done.


Washing the car in -27C (-16F) conditions? That's hard core

 

... i really don't know what to tell you.

 

Ya I'm an idiot for washing it in this weather but what's done is done.

 

My concern with cold weather washing is forcing water into an area it shouldn't be, and then having it freeze up. That could potentially cause some electrical issues.

Are the temps going to be above freezing anytime soon?

As for your initial issue, it's possible the cold weather caused a transmission issue. When we are getting that cold, cars tend to do weird things. Again, wait for warmer temps and see if the issue repeats.

As for not starting in the bay after washing, that could very well be cold/ice related, or it could be unreleated and be a bad/corroded connection on the battery, or a bad battery.

Either way, I would not wash a car again in that cold of a temp. If anything, i'd do a hand wash, but to use a power sprayer and spray water into areas that could instantly freeze just seems too risky to me.

Either way, get that code read

 

For sure, and thanks for your analysis. It won't be above zero til probably March. Northern hell

 

Washing the car has nothing to do with the issues that your car is experiencing, unless you are doing so with the hood up and the windows down.

Your transmission is crapping out. My S13 did the same ****, and it kept gradually getting worse and worse. Eventually it would actually slip out of drive and into neutral while I was driving down the road so all of a sudden la'de'da drivin like normal then BOOM.

 

"Washing the car has nothing to do with the issues that your car is experiencing, unless you are doing so with the hood up and the windows down."

Yep, 100%.

 

Which i have seen done before.

 

Well got it fixed today. The code was read, came back as having a voltage problem. One way or another, probably due to ice buildup, water got into my engine bay and saturated the wiring just inside of the drivers side quarter panel.

So in my opinion, don't wash your car if it's colder than -5 degrees celsius. The $2 car wash I did effectively cost me $97 after all is said and done because of this.

As for the transmission, I attribute it to extreme cold, as no sensors are detecting problems with it. Especially since if I warm up the car for at least 5 minutes prior to driving, things are asymptomatic.

So basically best case scenario today. Thanks again for everyone's help.