Water Gremlins

[AZPartsGuy]

Hey Folks!

So last night I was cleaning my condenser/radiator after I had seen SteetCreeper's write-up as well as a few other members doing this. Everything went smoothly and it worked as advertised, I think I could store frozen meat in this thing if I had to!

Anyway, while I was in there I sprayed off the engine bay (lightly, no jet/pressure) because it was a covered in that lovely AZ orange dirt we get everywhere. All is good, I'm test driving the vehicle but I notice it starts to have some hesitation. The CEL starts flashing and all the familiar signs of a water-induced mis-fire begin. Now, I'm no stranger to this issue because both my motorcycles had issued like this as well. It would seem when you combine a vehicle, a garden hose, and myself things start going awry.

So I pull over and check everything out, nothing seems out of place and the water has evaporated by now. One of my headlights blew out, bummer, whatever. Go to Oreilly's and replace that and have them pull codes. This is what I got:

C0210 R. RR. WHEEL SPEED SIGNAL MALFUNC.
C0215 L. RR. WHEEL SPEED SIGNAL MALFUNC.
C1201 ENGINE COMMUNICATION CIRCUIT
C1223 ABS CONTROL SYSTEM MALFUNC.
P0306 CYL 6 MISFIRE
P0300 RANDOM - MULTIPLE MISFIRE DETECETED

I read that and thought "Well, it's about what I suspected. Water got in somewhere it shouldn't have and the gremlins are at play."

First things first, I have ordered new NGK plugs, wires, Coil boots, and the Bluetooth OBDII adapter everyone on here runs. If I'm pulling coils and plugs to inspect the tubes for water intrusion I may as well replace everything while I'm in there.

It is worth noting that the longer I drove the vehicle the worse the symptoms became, to the point of struggling to get up the drive-way. I also noted that the issue did not persist in park or neutral, only while in drive/under load. Symptoms were the most harsh between the RPM range of 2,300-3,500.

So I have started this thread to document my findings and see if anyone has any input. I will update it as I inspect the vehicle and track down what has been infiltrated/damaged by a garden hose. If you guys have any ideas they're greatly appreciated.

 

[nissanh]

I am sorry to hear what happened.

Any wire plugs that you can see, open those and let those to air dry. Take a note about how many wire plugs you remove. Also open the fuse box cover and let it to dry.

I owned my car and truck for 9 and 7 years respectively, and till this date I NEVER washed the engine or surroundings. However, I clean the AC condenser after engine cools down and I do this often

 

[Herculean T4R]

what's the best way to clean the engine? Vacuum off the dust and wipe down with damp cloth?Just got back from Moab and engine bay of my 4runner is covered in orange dirt.

 

[AZPartsGuy]

Update as promised:

So I let the vehicle sit all day while I was at work with the plug boots off so evaporation could do most of the work for me. When I got home I used one of these guys down the cyl 6 tube and sprayed the remaining water out:

I also sprayed off just about every plug I could find. The truck seems to be working now and I have no additional codes. I cleared the codes using my fancy new BT OBDII reader and I will monitor it going forward. I'm still going to install the NGK plugs/wires/boots because they should do a better job at sealing the tubes from weather and it's over-due anyway.

I guess as long as I avoid extreme river crossings I shouldn't expect this issue again.

what's the best way to clean the engine? Vacuum off the dust and wipe down with damp cloth?Just got back from Moab and engine bay of my 4runner is covered in orange dirt.

I'm going to use a cloth and regular spray cleaning products that I can wipe off. Or just let it be dirty.