Hello,

I took my car to one of those do it yourself wash wand places just to hit some of the bugs off my car before I give it a real wash by hand... After I left my car bogs at 2500 rpm and starts to shake pretty violently. The engine just won't go beyond that mark. I have an AEM aftermarket intake and dryflow air filter. I am stupid yes, and i THINK i might have gotten the filter a bit wet, afterall it ran great before the wash. I took care not to hit the area directly but I am guessing I must have wet it anyway. Did I do any serious damage or can I let it dry out? I am also quite capable to take it apart and dry it by hand if necessary. I am looking for suggestions before I do anything since I have only owned the car a month and you guys are the professionals.

 

Your sparkplugs are not firing cause you might have gotten it wet--try not to wash the engine compartment in the future! You need to pull the sparkplugs and also change the oil. Make sure to regap the plugs if you replace with new ones or dry the old one. This should take care of your issues, good luck!

 

As far as I know, in order for you to mess up your engine your filter has to be fully submerged in water. A lot of people think that just splashes of water will mess it up! That’s wrong!
Now, if your filter got soaking wet and you drove your car like that, then it could have done some damage!

 

The engine runs fine until the 2500rpm mark and then it lags/bogs.... Is that still a spark plug issue? I would have thought the car wouldn't run at all with water in the plugs.. I was going to rip the cai off and dry it all out if theres any moisture. I didn't spray water directly on the filter but i'm pretty sure it got wet from the surrounding sprayoff of bugs...

 

yes, it's not a big deal, my jeep used to do that all the time if i went through water too fast (before i waterproofed the distributor). It will be fine. Do what that guy said above or take it somewhere and tell them what happened.

 

that's true. a bit of water won't hurt.

 

Sounds like you're in limp mode. Do any other lights on the dash come up? Such as the slip light, engine light, and vdc light?

More than likely if you sucked water into your engine you would not be able to drive at all, so I doubt you got water into the engine. But I don't know a lot about that subject so take my words at your own risk.

 

MAF you're welcome.

 

beat me to it

 

It was service engine light and slip light... Now it is just a service engine light. Would reseting the ecu turn the light off?

 

A little water will just burn away. Might not burn clean, but it'll just burn away. If there's enough water to do damage, then your car wouldn't start for a while. And, if you got enough water in your motor to where it won't start, if it didn't do any damage yet, all you need to do is change the oil immediately, and change your plugs. You'd hear it if you did damage to your motor.

Check your MAF like everyone else is saying.