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Alright, so here's the deal... well, it was pouring like crazy today... and i was at a light behind a car and when i started taking a left turn i realized that was a pretty decent deep puddle.. i have cars behind me and in front of me so i thought i might be able to make it (i know i'm gonna get flammed for driving through a puddle), it was my first time anyway. Well, i have an ebay cold air intake... the thing is... once i went through it... the engine just died. (i have an atx). So stupid me... not knowing what to do when there's a possiblity of a hydrolock... i tried to start it... but i hear clicking noise... just like when you had a dead battery... So me and my friend had to push it to a parking lot and we're both pretty much soaked. So like i said (don't flame me for this) i don't know that i should not start the car... so i give it about 4 or 5 more start... but each start is only like 3 seconds long or so. Well, it's too late for me to see anything right now and it's still pouring outside... so my question is... does that sound like i hydrolocked my car? I mean when i tried to start it... the cluster flickers "fuse"... and i took my gf's neon there and tried to jump it... but it still does the same clicking sound... So, do you guys think that i hydrolocked my engine? or did i maybe blew a fuse when some part of the electrical parts get short circuit when i went through the puddle? I will take the spark plugs out tomorrow morning and also change them... but i just wanted to see if you guys think i really did hydrolocked it. Thanks!!

If you have a CAI and the water was deep...

When you get the plugs out, disconnect the coilpack and see if the engine cranks. Hopefully it cranks and water comes flying out and you haven't bent a rod or cracked a piston.

ok, so in addition to taking the spark plugs out... i need to disconnect the coilpack? like that plastic connector to the coil pack?

dodgeneonzl wrote:ok, so in addition to taking the spark plugs out... i need to disconnect the coilpack? like that plastic connector to the coil pack?

Yes, you want to disconnect the coilpack connector when you crank so that there are no sparks jumping around when you crank the engine.

Remove the sparkplugs and the passenger front tire. Support the car with a jackstand. If there is a splash guard for the belts/pulleys remove it also. A couple of 10mm head screws. I don't remember the bolt head size for the crank pulley, but get a socket that fits it and a ratchet. Turn the enging clockwise with the ratchet. If alot/any of water comes out the sparkplug holes (have someone watch) you 'locked it. If it turns easily by hand for a few revolutions the damage may not be too bad. Crank it with the starter to get the rest of the water expelled. (If the starter is working)
Reinstall dry plugs. If it starts, listen for any unusal sounds. An oil change would be recommended, too. I would also recommend taking it some where to have the pan pulled, and the rods inspected. If you aren't familiar with any of this have it towed somewhere.

ok, sounds good... i have to work all day tomorrow though... so i guess i'll wake up extra early to check it out... but you guys do all agree that more than likely i hydrolocked it right? probably not a fuse problem then?

I peefer the term water injection malfunction over the hydrolocked term. with hydro it auto makes it your fault. when you say H2O malfunction it leaves it open to what happned. just say that you hade a H2O injection malfunction when you talk to people. your malfunction was that your car dosent have it and that was the cause. lol I call it honest deception.

caustic neon wrote:I peefer the term water injection malfunction over the hydrolocked term. with hydro it auto makes it your fault. when you say H2O malfunction it leaves it open to what happned. just say that you hade a H2O injection malfunction when you talk to people. your malfunction was that your car dosent have it and that was the cause. lol I call it honest deception.

lol these sound like the words of a politician to me

Kill it! Kill it with FIRE!

when typing incident reports you tend to find a better way to say (he resisted so I beat him with my asp until he quit moving) keeps you out of trouble. lol + I had a water injection malfunction (hydro'd)with one of my motors once. lol

There is the possibility you overloaded something trying to crank it. Not sure what tho. If you're getting the "fuse" message check the fuses in the PDC under the hood. I remember some threads on that subject too, and IIRC it is one of those fuses.

Hey I hydrolocked mine the first year i owned it. it was spring break and i was new to the whole car thing. but i had a clicking just like you described and when i tried to jump it i had smoke coming out of the engine. i had a bent rod. but just disconnect the coil pack and see if it still cranks over and if there is a bunch of water in there you probably locked it up. After i got my new engine i stayed away from the cold air intakes amd got a short ram and added a diaphragm to keep the water out. the short ram is right up by the battery tray so it keeps the filter further from the water. It sucks but you prolly did lock it. it is quite the learning experience tho! good luck with it.

alright, so i went back and did all the things i that i should do... took out the spark plugs... disconnect the coil pack... and tried to crank it with the jumpers on it. So it still makes the clicking sound.. but after a few like .5 second crank it sounds like it is cranking... but no water came out... and when i took out the spark plug earlier... it was dry... So i started cranking it but it still won't start... so now i get two error codes...
P0340-CAMSHAFT POSITION SENSOR CIRCUIT
P0335-CRANKSHAFT POSITION SENSOR CIRCUIT
so that does that mean i have a bent rod or something? Thanks man, i'm still all new to the whole inside the engine stuff...

anyone?

if you have comprehensive insurance. call your ins company and let them fix it for you

Well it sounds like you hydro locked the engine but it's strange that the plugs were dry and no water came out of the engine, are you sure the engine cranks? Try pulling the dipstick and see if you can see any water in the oil. If you broke a piston the water in the cylinder will drain into the oil pan.

I dont think you hydro-locked it, sounds like you douched your engine bay so well it caused an electrical malfunction somewhere. If you had any loose fittings you could have got water into a connection or you starter motor and shorted something, you might want to check all your fuses, connectors etc:. Your starter clicks and its not cranking the engine, check the connectors to the starter, check the voltage to the starter and grounds too, as well as the battery.

well, i don't have full coverage... i only had liability... because apparently full coverage was gonna be pretty expensive beacuse of the aftermarket parts that i put on... Anyway, yeah.. i'll check the electricals and fuses on monday when i get the day off... so, i know there are 2 fuse box... basically the one in the engine bay right beside the battery and one in the driver side's side panel... are there anymore fuses that i dont' know about and that i should check out?

Also, 04rt, if i broke the piston i'm assuming only one of them would drain right? i mean i would have had to break all four pistons for water to not come out of any of the spark plug hole right?

one more quick question... do i need to take out the whole engine to check if i bent a piston? Is it possible to open up the engine from the top down? I mean i've replaced valve covers before... but that's as far as i've gone... is it possible to open into the engine from there? THanks guys...

you mean bent a ROD, not a piston. i'm gonna be completely honest. i'm not trying to be an ass. it sounds like you can do basic stuff on your car, but when it comes to the engine internals leave that stuff to the guys who know what to look for. there's a million things that i'd look for if i was lookin at your engine internals. it's way too complicated to discribe. it takes time and practice to learn.

but to answer the question, the quickest way to get a general idea would be to just drop the oil pan and look up in. that'll give you a slight view of the rods and bottom side of the pistons

also, on the insurance note... to your insurance you should have a 2004 Dodge Neon SE. nothing more. just some advice for the future.

the codes... because they're BOTH there. my first guess is that the 5v referance wire is grounded out. they share a wire and if it's grounded out anywhere it'll throw both those codes. the FSM has like 3 pages on each of those codes. it's just another thing i'd leave to the pro's. it's alot of testing and such

dodgeneonzl wrote:Also, 04rt, if i broke the piston i'm assuming only one of them would drain right? i mean i would have had to break all four pistons for water to not come out of any of the spark plug hole right?

Usually if you are going to break something because of this it would affect what ever cylinder was coming up on the compression stroke, it doesn't take much water to do it. The reason only one cylinder would be affected is you weren't at high rpm and the engine would lock within one crankshaft revolution.

With an engine that has hydro locked you would expect some water to come out of the cylinders when you removed the plugs and cranked the engine, or at least see some water on the plugs. You say there was neither so there is a chance your engine is ok and your problems are electrical. A quick way to check on the health of the engine, if it cranks over normally, would be to do a compression test.

A cylinder should be able to take on as much water as there is volume at the top of its stroke. On an sohc, that would be a few ounces (maybe 4), who'd should be aleasy to take in a second of submersion of the intake. Drop the oilpan and see if there's water in the oil or if you can see a bent rod. That will take less time than searching out a short, plus an oil change never hurts if it is just an electrical short.

alright... so apparently i did hydrolocked by engine... because when i opened up the throttle body (finally off work to have the time to check it out)... there's like 2 cups of water that flowed out....

So with that for sure... i guess now i can hope that there are nothing wrong with the connecting rods.

So, how do i go about drying out the cylinders? I can take off the intake manifold using my haynes manual and clean it up and dry it... but i tried cranking it with the spark plugs off and i can see there's water down in there but it's just not shooting far enough for it to come out of the spark plug tube. I put a cloth in it and it just popped it out when i cranked it.

So would taking off the intake manifold be enough to clear out the water?

I wanted to break into the engine this time if i really do have a bent rod... i mean what do i have to lose since i have a bad engine now... i might as well get another used engine and swap it in if i screwed up anything.

You're using the word "hydrolocked" incorrectly. Try a heat gun and a siphon. For god's sake don't put a fucking cloth in there!

ok, first... relax man... i put it on the tip... just to soak up the spraying water... i didn't push it all the way to the bottom.

Oh, gotcha. I thought you were shoving a rag inside your cylinder.

You can get an NGC engine fron LKQ off ebay for $250 - $400. But I would try to get this one running first. If the water isn't coming out when cranking, stick a piece of 3/8 plastic tube from Home Depot, or your local hardware, onto a shop vac. (duct tape it to the vac hose) shove it into the spark plug hole, and get it out that way. Then spray some penetrating oil in there, put the plugs back in.
Remove the IM, and clean the goo out of there, reinstall and try to fire it up. Once it runs, and seems to be fine, change the oil, and hope for the best. used NGC engines are dirt cheap, compared to the "01 - '02s. so if it is in need of repair, you could prolly get one with less miles for far cheaper than rebuilding.

dodgeneonzl wrote: So, how do i go about drying out the cylinders? I can take off the intake manifold using my haynes manual and clean it up and dry it... but i tried cranking it with the spark plugs off and i can see there's water down in there but it's just not shooting far enough for it to come out of the spark plug tube. I put a cloth in it and it just popped it out when i cranked it.

I don't want to sound like a , but STOP trying to start it. if something is bent you could possibly make it worse.

Inserting an irrigation syringe or turkey baster fitted with a flexible plastic tube on the end, you can suck out the liquid that infiltrated the combustion chamber. Once all the fluid is removed, the chamber should be sprayed with a liberal coating of a water displacing lubricant such as WD-40, and allowed to sit until the remaining water has evaporated. Once the water or coolant has been removed, inspect the combustion chamber for rust. The best option would be to remove the head, but a borescope or small flashlight and mirror will also work. Light surface rust will be normal, but if you see any heavy corrosion, it should be gently removed, and vacuumed out of the chamber. After inspection, pour a tablespoon of assembly lube (such as Marvel Mystery Oil) or clean engine oil into each combustion chamber. Attach a socket to the crankshaft, and slowly rotate the engine through a few revolutions. (Make sure that you turn the engine in the proper direction, see a service manual for proper rotation direction.) If you hear any clanking, or harsh scraping, you should bring the engine to a competent mechanic. After verifying that the remaining systems are free of water (electrical, fuel delivery, air intake, distributor, etc.), re-install the spark plugs and wires, and attempt to start the engine.


WIKI>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrolock

If it were my car I'd just crank it to get as much water out as possible, spray some WD40 in there put the plugs back in and try starting it. If you bent a rod or cracked a piston the engine is screwed anyway.

i didn't read all the posts, but I had this happen to my neon before the accident, but it happened alittle differently, I it had been pouring and I went to leave my complex and had to pull out rather fast like because I car i didn't see came around the corner. well when I got to the median I could hear the belt slip a bit, then my battery light came on for about 5 seconds, after that it was fine, well later that day I kicked it into passing gear to pass a car and then it died. I too tried to crank it and it wouldn't turn over after trying 3 dif times...

I had it towed and they told me those two same censors your talking about blew (plus the timing jumped a tooth due to me trying over and over to crank it) well they replaced them and it ended up costing like 200 bucks I believe maybe less, and then it ran like new...

hope I helped ya.

EDIT: just saw that you "H2O Malfunctioned" your motor. that blows man

Alright guys... so i guess i screwed up something in the engine because i started up the car after cleaning the water out and replacing the engine oil... so now when i start it up, i get this loud knocking noise like the one it makes when it is cold in the morning. So, i'm just gonna assume that i probably bent a rod or something unless you guys have any suggestions?

So now i'm thinking about an engine swap (not the srt... i wish!) I dont' have enough with me right now... and i need a car soon. I've been looking on ebay for one right now and i was wondering would a neon 2004 sx manual work my my current car (dodge neon 2004se)? i mean i wanted it to be as similar as possible to make it easier for me to swap it. Thanks!

Also, how hard do you guys think it would be to swap out the engine? I know you guys would ask me to leave it out to the mechanics but i wanted to give it a shot with a few friends first. As long as i don't start disassembling the engine block it shouldn't be too hard right? along with following the haynes manual and fsm?