last night i had to drive home from work in a downpour and about 5 miles from my house my car wanted to die at a light, it started shaking so i pulled over on a side street and let it idle a few minutes and it idled fine. as soon as i put it in drive again i had the same problem. when i tried to get on the gas it felt and sounded like the engine was being suffocated, it would accelelerate about half as much as it should then would randomly jump a bit to where it should be, i couldnt really get above 30 mph. i thought maybe the air filter being soaked might have something to do with it but today the same thing was happening. the opti could have easily got wet so thats what im leaning towards the problem being.

any thoughts?

 

Is the Check Engine Light on?

 

Either the opti got wet or your fuel pump is Starting to go out

 

I think the guy above has a good idea, but i never had a fuel pump start to go, mine have always just died, my best guess is something go wet, does it still do it after things have dried out

 

Either the opti got wet or if you have an aftermarket cai, it could have possibly sucked up some water...

 

Sounds like something in the ignition system got wet, causing a miss.

 

thanks for the replies. yes the ses light is on but its always been on because i dont have rear o2 sensors tuned out. yes its still happening today when everything is fully dry. i have a moroso cai and the filter was pretty wet. i think i might just go ahead and order a opti off ebay from chandler motorsport. seems like there are alot of mixed feelings about that company but they are cheap. what do yall think?

 

I vote opti got wet, this happened to me in texas one evening. After plowing through a puddle and water basically going over the hood the car didnt want to move under throttle. It would idle rough, and then idle fine after a bit of throttle work but never drove the same in traffic that night. After drying out for a day it was fine and lasted another 10k miles and then I sold the car and it was still working fine. Daily drivin too.

Hopefully you get lucky and this is it!

 

How do you have your upstream O2s hooked up? Did you buy extensions or did you solder them yourself?

Before you go buying anything I'd scan for more codes. There are a bunch of different things it could be.

 

An opti that got wet inside wont simply dry in a few hours parked, and wet does not mean dead. Any distributor will act up if wet internally.

 

Happened to be before and water was getting into where I spliced and extended my O2 wires. I bought actual extensions with weather pack connections and have never had a problem since.

 

alright guys so after letting the car dry a bit more the issue seems almost gone. the idle is still a little rough at times and i noticed the rpms jumping back and forth between ~1000 and ~1500 when in drive just rolling along at 10-15 mph. idk if the wires in the maf getting wet could cause this, but i doubt it has anything to do with the o2's (i have extentions). i'll make a trip to autozone tomorrow to see if i have more codes. thanks again fellas

 

So this is the infamous problem of the LT1, the opti? Interested to see what it really is though.

 

Could just be wet ignition wires. If it is the opti it should be throwing a 24x code.

 

ok so im about to make a trip to autozone this morning, i start the car, put it in drive, and the same issue is back! so i drive around the block and shut the car off, restart the car, no change.

what could cause this problem to happen only at certain times?

i'd still like to try and get a good start so i can go and get scanned before i just buy a new opti. unfortunately its pouring rain again so i have to wait.

 

It was wet both times. When was the last time you replaced your ignition wires?

 

the second time it wasnt wet, it was before it started raining today. i put msd wires in about a month ago

 

Maybe something is going on with your catalytic converter. If it's collapsed, you would probably have little metal flakes coming out the rear of your exhaust.

Nevermind. I see that you have no catalytic converter/s.

 

OP- get some MAF cleaner and clean your MAF as well as your TB/IAC. I bet it will fix the issue.

 

well it finally stopped raining so i tried maf cleaner as well as throttle body cleaner and no such luck.

i've determined its all about the start. sometimes it will start up just fine and drive just fine as well. other times the start will be a little rough, and then i have my problem where it feels like the car doesnt want to accelerate.

but heres the thing, if i have a bad start and i have this problem i can just pull over and shut it off and restart it and sometimes it will run fine, sometimes it will take 2 or 3 restarts.

so it depends on how the car starts. i feel like its something so simple like something is just loose, but i just can put my finger on it.