My car doesn't like rain anymore.....
 

I wrote a thread about a month ago similar, but now its consistant. I was driving in the heavy rain and the car started running like shit. I made it home, popped the hood, and let it sit there overnight. The next day it was just fine. Just this weekend, it happened again. My opti and coil were both dry. I use the SLP cai and with 2 K&N filters. I noticed water in and around the area the filters are located.

Can water be getting through the filters and into the intake? I disconnected the intake from the MAF and didn't notice any water (while it was still running). It could be atomized by that point or maybe too fast to see???

No check engine light either.

It's not water in the intake - it's water in the Opti.

Yes, I read your post, but Opti's don't like water - if I wash my engine (and completely avoid the Opti area) within 5 to 15 minutes it runs like poop until the engine's heat finally causes the water within the Opti to evaporate; in half an hour or so - driving two footed!

BTW - This is with a new, sealed, aftermarket Opti - the stock unit was even worse! If it got wet I was stalled w/o hope of a restart.

There is a reason this ignition system was ungraded when the LS came around!

When's the last time you changed plug wires? Old wires with dried up outter insulation can crack over time and when you drive in rain, they can arc badly causing a misfire. Also, even if the plug wires are recent, you may still have one or two bad ones that are arcing.

Next time the problem occurs, you could try popping the hood with the car running at night with no lights near you, and look for blue arcing from the wires.

Thanks for the info. I just installed MSD 8.5's about 3 weeks or so ago. They were cut to fit since I routed them over the valve covers. I even installed a new coil wire that came with the kit. While I was down there, I clean everything with a paper towel, and sprayed the inside of each wire end with silicone spray.

Thats what helped me find my original problem. I had a burnt wire arcing to the header. I think I'm just going to wait until the next night time rain and try it out then. Its my daily driver.

TTT Please.... It rained again early in the night, but quit about 3 hours before I drove home. During the drive home, the roads were not even wet from the previous rain. The car started bogging out again and the SES light came on this time. But at 3am, autozone wasn't open to give me a scan. I pulled it into the garage and turned the lights off and popped the hood, woke up the whole damn neighborhood trying to find an arc ofsome sort. No arcing was found in the dark. I'll take it and get it scanned first thing in the morning. Anybody got any codes in mind to watch out for?

yeah man i have the same problem and it is the opti. you have little vent holes on the bottom of the opti ,three small ones, and of course these let i moisture.and unfortunately the front end of my car is no where near as low as an fbody so its almost a straight shot for overspray and rain to get all over my opti.honestly i can only think replacement of te whole thing would fix it.I was going to just replace the cap and rotor but, it probally needs the whole thing rebuilt or replaced.

I might get slammed for this one, but I threw the car up in the air and got underneath and used about 2 cans of carb/choke cleaner on and around the whole area. I think I knocked of over 3lbs of shit under there.

My logic here is thinking that the vents were clogged. By cleaning the opti, it may be able to do as its designed and "vent".

So far, it runs great, but hasn't rained again yet.

fucking lt1s.

Now that I'm reading this, it makes sense to me. The other day I went in for a quick touchless car wash. I the engine started idling funny and wasn't smooth. It went away after a few minutes. I was kinda scary though.

stupid opti.

I need an ls1. LOL

mine does the same thing, even in high humidity... damn lt1...

-rick

ps, its been nasty humid all week, ran like crap until today, and also got about 5mpg...

-Rick