Base 2006, 32k miles, MT

I had the oil changed in it today and ran it through a car wash. Oil pressure is normal. After the wash, the car was surging a little while it was going down the road. I had read some things about the maf sensor getting wet and it possibly causing this, so I didn't worry about it much. It seemed to clear up in a mile or two.

On the way home today I took a turn and the car stalled out. Figuring a missed a shift or something (I hadn't stalled the car one time until today) I pulled over and cranked it. It started right up but was, and still is, idling very rough. There are no CEL and the idle is a little low, rough, and seems to want to stall out just sitting there. When the car is turned off there's a rough "clacking" sound coming from the bottom of the car that slows down and stops in time with the engine. It would do this intermittently but I never saw any negative effects from it.

When you push on the accelerator and come off of it the engine almost dies as the rpm dip down to around 600. It almost seems like a fuel or air starvation problem, right? I've had MAF sensor problems with cars before and sometimes they would act like this, but this came out of nowhere and the symptoms got worse in a hurry.

The car has about 1/8th of a tank left and I've run it down much lower than that without a problem. The trip meter says I have about 60 miles left.

Any ideas? It's under warranty so I plan on taking it in Monday if this doesn't clear up. I could put some gas in it to see if that clears up the problem but even if it does, why would it idle rough and stall with 1/8th of a tank left?

Thanks for any help you guys can provide.

Rob

edit: hope this is the right forum for this. Mods please move it or let me know and I'll repost, thanks

 

To me it sounds like you got a lot of water in your air filter. And it's still in there slowly running into the intake threw the MAF sensor too. Do you have an aftermarket filter also? Did you take the filter out and check it? You probably need to remove it and the intake tube and dry it out. Be careful with the MAF though. Let it air dry overnight if wet. And even then it might need to be cleaned. For dirt could have also got in there.

Side note, always wash your own car. Take some pride man. LOL. Just messing with you. Maybe someone else can give a further insight of other possibilities.

 

Haha. I hear you about the car- we are under severe water restrictions here in FL at the moment and can't wash cars cept during specific times on the day twice a week... I just couldn't take it anymore and had to do something about it.

I do have a K&N. I'll try what you said tomorrow. Thanks a lot for your help, bro, I appreciate it.

 

You just have the replacement filter for the stock air box or actual hole new intake system with exposed filter? I was just try to justify the amount of water that could of got in there. To me an exposed filter could of allowed more than the stock box. But not necessary since there was pressurized water being shot in there. Just check it out. I hope that is problem.

If your going to try tomorrow, it might be dried out by then if that was indeed you problem in the first place. But I'd go threw the system anyway to inspect

 

Just the drop-in filter. Stock intake.

I really hope that's the case, it'll save a lot of trouble.

 

Anybody else have this problem? Could really use some insight, even if it's just a couple of points. Thanks guys

 

Any updates on your car?

 

Just got in it today and it's working like nothing happened.

Looks like you guys were right about there being water in/on the maf/filter. That could be the only reason at this point.

I'm glad it's working... thanks for your help!

Rob

 

Glad to here it.