Engine idle problem on non-turbo sz auto

[magic]

I hit some water 3 days ago on the way home from work , a couple minutes after encountering it the engine wouldn't pull anymore to the point where to start off i have to go in "low" then 2 then to drive to actually make the car get up to speed fairly quick . I drove it back to and from work for 2 days ( about an 8 Mile return trip) thinking thats its probably water related so i was hoping it would dry out and clear , nothing has changed so far ?

ive checked the ht connection from the coil ,that was a little rusty so cleaned that and sprayed it with wd40 along with the supply to the coil.

Ive checked the distrubutor cap that was bone dry

the cone air filter was damp the day after so i removed it to see if it would make any difference but it didnt , so dried it and replaced ( thats the only modification on the car)

Any other ideas greatly appreciated ?

[Martin F]

I think you're probably right when you suspect something electrical, and in all fairness I don't think an eight mile journey every day in the current damp climate would be enough to dry things out.

Think i'd start unplugging a few more electrical connections (although most are water resistant) and checking them.

How is the car idling now?

[magic]

car now okish, it was idling all over the place for the next couple of days , more so between the 1000 to 2000 rev range instead. seems to have died down okish now , just some lag when i put my foot to the floor, not too bad though.

[magic]

spoke to soon, just came to work if i take my foot off the accelerator the revs keep dipping intermittently and when i stopped in the car park and put the gearstick into park the revs climbed to 2000 , i get it a quick rev but it made no difference, very strange il see what its like on the way home,wish i could locate the fault grrr

[Martin F]

As a quick thing to try it may be worth resetting the ECU. Remove the EFI1 & EFI2 fuses for a minute and then put them back.

It's not very logical to do this, but it may just help.

[magic]

ok will try that , is that the same thing as disconnecting one side of the battery , as i did try that for about 5mins and it went back to the first fault, but that was last wednesday .

[Martin F]

Yep, it's the same thing

[magic]

cars now fixed , i think, took it to a mate of my father inlaws , he had it a while but didnt charge me much it was a fault with the ecu , the fuel pump one, i think.

Anyhow thanks for the info, it was electrical as we guessed.

[Martin F]

Glad you're sorted.

[magic]

the fault is back . i went away for a week without car , came home put £20 of unleaded in it , popped home breifly got in car turned key , and for first time ever the engine management light came on, the car would start but idle low and cut out if i pressed the accelerater . anyhow i worked out if i left the car for 10 mins it would start no probs, the car seemed to get better after 20 pounds of super unleaded. it waasnt till last thurs i filled it up with 30 pounds of unleaded drove about 3miles popped in tesco's for 10mins got back in car turned the key , enginemanagement light came on ,only this time it wouldnt go out , had it towed to my local garage , they tried there snap it computer but it wasnt capatible. left it overnight , next day it idles and drives as though id been through that original puddle. left it for a day and it seems a lot better until i turned the engine off then back on and the light came back on . any ideas apart from gettin rid of ?