jSpOt7

long story short....had the car sitting outside under pouring rain, my mechanic started it...started then died. he suspected that it might be a dead battery, but it wasn't. pulled out the piping on my aem v2 and found a grip load of water on the secondary piping and filter was soaked. checked the spark plugs and it was wet. he cleaned out everything and even changed my oil...car starts and runs like nothing happened. been driving it for 2 days now and the engine seems to run smooth. can someone tell me what just happened? my mechanic tells me it didn't hydrolock. although there was water inside the engine.....oh i did search btw!

Shadow_S2K

It was because your filter was wet, so when the car started it sucked up some water and stalled. Good thing your Mechanic new what was going on and prevent any further damage.

I would change my oil again to be on the safe side. Alot of AEM users have had this problem when parking outside in pouring rain on a incline or decline. It seems that if the car is parke on a incline or decline the water gets trapped in the intake tube. There are some ways to prevent this such as putting a plastic sheild over the top part of the filter, and pluggin a hole in the engine bay that drains the water directly to where the AEM/INJEN CAI filters sit.

xviper

I'm going to change your title so it's more descriptive. I appreciate your faith in me by calling on me but there are many, many well informed contributors here as you have just found out.
I'm glad you caught this little mishap in time and hopefully, no permanent damage has been incurred.

jSpOt7

thanx for the response guys! i will definitely change the oil once i get back from work.
xviper-my mechanic did save my car from further damage but he could've prevented this thing to happen in the first place. he knew i have a cai but still parked it outside under pouring rain. i told him i never park my car outside if its raining due to the fact it might cause hydrolock. he said he's never seen this before. anyways, i'll keep checking my spark plugs and monitor the filter since it will be raining here in socal agian.

SPLNDID

Here's my 2c... Brainstorming... if you will.
I would bet that the rainwater is entering the airbox via the hood fender water channels. Why not use some weather stripping to block the water - and find a way to re-route the water? Maybe one small drain hole in the "gutter" with a tube to drain away from the engine compartment?

freq

Is this your daily driver? Does it ever see rain?

What are you going to do to prevent this from happening again?

jSpOt7

splndid- i did that already.
freq- yes its my daily driven car and nothing like this happened when the car is with me. my mechanic should've known better. i never park my car under pouring rain.

S2000Shifter

Here's what I would do... Install the AEM CAI bypass valve. I think its something like $45 (well worth it). When you install it you end up having to cut a 1" gap in the CAI and placing the bypass valve in between. What happend in your situation was the water ran up the side of tude. With the 1" gap in the tube, water wouldn't be able to pass that point because it would fall through the bypass filter. However, I would still take precautions when your car is out in the rain. Don't rev her high when driving in wet conditions (the S is tricky to handle in wet conditions anyways...keep it safe). Avoid every puddle if possible. Also, if you happen to know its going to rain and you can't park your car in a dry spot, make sure that the car is either level front to back or sloped downward to the front.

Do all that and you should be fine.

Shifter

XclusiveAutosports

Did you plug the drain hole under the hood on the inner passenger fender?

jSpOt7

we'll the time has come...i was driving back from huntington beach and on the 101 N, my car suddenly bogged down and started sputtering. i pulled over and checked to see if any sensors or hoses were off but everything seems to be in place. i fired it up again and it backfires a lot. i reseted the ecu and even did a map whack but to no avail. im having it towed to my house and proly check the codes tomorrow. hope nothing serious is damaged...