Possible hydrolock

richyfingers

richyfingers

richyfingers

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Glasgow
Very heavy rain and lots of standing water on the way to work this morning, didn't drive through any deep puddles or anything but the road was extremely wet. All of a sudden car cut out and lost power. Pulled over and tried to start it again then realised it may have hydrolocked so stopped trying.

Phoned my brother in law who's a mechanic and he said just to leave it for a few hours and try it again. Failing that get it towed to a garage.

Car is a Honda DC5 with cold air intake, sits quite low down the nearside arch. As I said wasn't any deep puddles I drove through but plenty of standing water so worried some waters been sucked up. Reading horror stories about the damages caused and basically needing a new engine.

Any other possible causes or do you think I'm screwed?
 
Electrical circuit getting wet? I wouldn't have thought that a wet road alone, even if it was saturated, would be enough to cause a hydrolock.

Also, aren't hydrolocks pretty catastrophic? As in, something mechanical usually bends and breaks in spectacular fashion, rather than just cutting out and losing power.
 
Personally I'd pull the plugs and crank it rather than just attempting to start again after a few hours if you suspect it's decided to drink water.

Take it no Christmas tree lights and aux belt is still intact etc? As above not noticed any water sitting anywhere ornodd electrical behaviours before?
 
Conscript said:
Electrical circuit getting wet? I wouldn't have thought that a wet road alone, even if it was saturated, would be enough to cause a hydrolock.

Also, aren't hydrolocks pretty catastrophic? As in, something mechanical usually bends and breaks in spectacular fashion, rather than just cutting out and losing power.
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That was my thoughts as well, there was no catastrophic failure and the car wasn't even remotely close to submerged. I would never attempt to drive through anything that was remotely deep. It was just standing water on the road.

Car has been running spot on pror to this, zero issues and just had oil filter change done and quick inspection and no issues found. Belts intact, no electrical issues. May be worrying about nothing but didn't want to take the risk if it doesn't turn out to be hydrolock. Didn't have any tools or time to get a look at the plugs. Fingers crossed.
 
Conscript said:
Also, aren't hydrolocks pretty catastrophic? As in, something mechanical usually bends and breaks in spectacular fashion, rather than just cutting out and losing power.
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Bend your rods. Doesn't mean you hear a bomb go off in the engine bay though.

Doubt it will be that. You would have to go through a decent puddle at speed for it to shoot up the cold air pipe. The filter will sort the bit of spray that might shoot up from the wet road.

Would be very surprised if its a hydrolocked engine, given what the OP has said.
 
You aren't going to hydrolock an engine by driving out in the wet -my car has an external air filter sitting outside the bonnet and I can drive that all day in a downpour.
 
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My experience of hydrolock is that the engine immediately seized and was reduced to a lump of scrap metal. I suppose it's possible to do damage but not destroy it completely though. It's not going to happen just from driving in heavy rain though.
 
Clarkey said:
I suppose it's possible to do damage but not destroy it completely though. It's not going to happen just from driving in heavy rain though.
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It's definitely possible to bend a rod and still have the engine run afterwards, though usually more of a problem with diesels.

I agree it's unlikely for even heavy road spray to cause a hydraulic lock, normally the air intake needs to be actually submerged. That said, it does tend to show just how silly these low mount induction kits are.
 
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A hydro locked car will stop fairly quickly and abruptly. Most of the time you will get a bent rod, if you leave it the water will drain and you will probably be able to start it however don't run it like this you will blow a rod straight out the block!
 
Just a blocked ICV, caused some weird behavior. Engine has been inspected and all is spot on. Back on the road. Looking at getting rid of the CAI now just to be on the safe side after reading the horror stories.
 
A hydrolocked engine will stop dead, usually with a rather large clatter of internal parts..

You say you tried starting it afterwards... What made you think it was hydrolocked at this point?

When putting the key to the start position did it turn over normally, wah wah wah wah wah etc and not start or did it not turn over at all (just click)???

Edit... Oh fixed. :rolleyes:
Missed that post :D
 
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