misfire when driving after car wash

[yellowsport182]

yesterday i went to my local carwash asda to be precise and soon as i drove out the other side and started driving it started misfiring under load or when i put my foot down a bit, then it clears and goes fine but when you change gear or take your foot off throttle and back on it keeps doing it. does any body seem to have had the same problem before ????? Please help .....

 

[Oldtimer49er]

Not to sound daft, but stating the obvious, waters got in the electrics and now causing the misfire, have you tried letting the car idle amd getting the engine right up to temp, had the same problem years ago, when car electronics and electrics wern,t as complicated, hopefully it should sort itself out, when it dries out

 

[MicKPM]

Either the coil has gotten wet or the plug wells are full of water.

 

[imprezaworks]

Mine does it on the odd occasion, clears within a minute or two. Never take mine through the car wash though.

 

[15MAS]

I think I have done the same trick. Tried to carefully clean the grime off my engine. Went to use the car a couple of days later and misfired. Just assumed it would dry off, driven 300 miles to Scotland and still doing it. It's intermittent, but mainly misfiring. Will it sort itself out as I am working away from home with no tools??

 

[MicKPM]

It won't magically sort itself, no. You'll need to get involved I'm afraid

 

[15MAS]

It did nt sort itself!! Got worse. Had to call out the RAC from M73 services south of Glasgow. The guy was good, checked for fault codes and none showing. Took the inlet manifold and found water in the spark plug well nearest to battery. Used compressed air to clean them out and then took all plugs out, they had rusty coloured water marks implying they had all been wet. Put it back together and it was fine. Nice fast journey back home. The lesson being never bother cleaning the engine bay! Not much snow on the A66, did nt get to test my winter tyres.

 

[15MAS]

 

[Commie VID]

I made the exact same mistake with ours. Gentle hose down with gunk. Didn't even clean it very well. Was misfiring all the time. Took out three injectors, and the spark plugs had rusty threads as mentioned, with wet HT leads down the spark plug holes.
Brake/machine/parts cleaner, scrubbing and shop towels to clean things from now on!
I think given the way the manifold goes over the top of the engine, I think it's simply out of mind in regards water getting in there, certainly the case for me. I covered up the fusebox, battery and coil pack, thought nothing of the other bits.

 

[VR46-G@Z]

After going through an auto car wash id say its more probable to be the coil pack and leads connected to it got wet... Do you have an engine cover fitted?if not even more probable as it'll be exposed more...

 

[15MAS]

Mine has an engine cover. Dry clean only from now on.