Drove Through Some Water
 

I did something really stupid the other day. With all of the rain that we had here, one of the streets that I drove down had some water on it. It was dark and I couldn't see exactly how deep it was, but I knew it was less than 6 inches deep because it wasn't overflowing the curb. Well about half way through it, my 98 Z/28 started backfiring and running really rough. I drove all of the way through it to get to dry land and had it towed. I was only going about 5 mph so I find it hard to believe that any water was sucked up into the intake. I am wondering if there is a sensor that could have gotten wet or something? Does anyone know how I should proceed with this? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Your O2 sensors probably got wet. I would let it sit and dry out for a day or two in the sun and see how she runs. Sometimes water will get splashed up on the coils and such and cause issues until it dries out. Let it dry and see how it runs or if it throws codes. If it does start with the bottom sensors first and work your way up my guess those is that your O2's are toast

let it sit for a while, so everything can dry up, turn it back on and see what happens

Thanks for the replies. How hard would it be to have gotten water in the intake under those conditions? My guess is pretty unlikely, right?

haha kid at my school totaled his M3 this week driving threw water.... i just parked mine and got a ride

you pretty much would have had to go in so that the water level was up to your airfilter. Cause a splash here or there wouldn't have gotten it sucked in. And if you did suck some water in, your engine would start knocking.

If it backfired enough, could I have bent something or caused further damage? The reason I ask is because i did drive it out of the water while it was still running.

More then likely no it was just your O2's going "OH SHIT!!" and overfueling your car causing the backfires. Other then scaring children and birds I doubt anything major happened.

Actually it did get water into the intake and now the motor is seized. I am guessing bent connecting rods. With the sparkplugs out you can't turn the crank pulley.

Check with your insurance company they might pay for your motor. If there was a lot of rain the day you locked your motor up you might get it covered as being flood damage. My father had this happen to his 01 Zo6.....he got $11k for his motor.

I did file a claim with my insurance company since we got over 8 inches of rain that day. It is covered under my comprehensive coverage. The question is how much they will cover. I won't know that until the adjuster looks at the car.

^ My "friend" got $3100 after his $1000 deductible. As long as your car isn't a piece of shit they shouldn't total it. As long as the damage is isolated to the engine you're fine.

Dam that sucks time to build a stroker..