jreiter

iTrader: (6)

Unfortunate thing happened recently. During last week's big rainstorm here in my area, my darned Nismo intake sucked up water. I'm not terribly sure how it happened with that water bypass valve on there, but I'm working on a theory.

Strangest part is that I didn't even go through a deep puddle... or any puddle at all. It was raining pretty hard and I was just driving up a local street. It was a small surface street and with the rain dumping so much I was only doing about 15-20 mph. I started to go up a hill on the street and gave it a bit more gas due to the incline. That's when the whole car started shuddering. At first I figured the wheels had started to slip and vdc had kicked in, so I let off the gas a bit. However, the vdc light wasn't flashing. So, I gave it gas again and it started shuddering again. Oh boy. At that point it was getting worse and I could barely give it any gas at all without it seriously complaining. That's about the time I figured I must've sucked up some water. I was only a couple of blocks from home so I immediately limped the car back there and parked.

When the rain died down a bit later I went outside and popped the hood. Disassembled a couple of the pipes on the intake and, sure enough, the insides were wet. I figured the engine wasn't hydrolocked since the car could run (albeit barely), so I figured it must've gotten the MAF all wet. Per the recommendation of a few folks around here, I pulled out that MAF tube and took it inside where I blow-dried the thing off and set it out to dry.

The next morning, I reinstalled everything and the car started up and ran fine. Seems a tiny bit rough, so the MAF might not have fully recovered from getting wet. Needless to say, I re-installed the stock intake in case it rained again any time soon. (And it did just yesterday!)

A few questions for you all:

1) Has anyone else had a Nismo or AEM intake (with the water bypass valve) actually suck up any water?

2) After a MAF gets wet like this, is it a good idea to replace the thing regardless? It seems okay, but if it's even a little messed up, I don't like the idea of it making weird A/F ratios due to slight errors in its air flow detection ability.

I'm going to go down to my dealer and see what they say. I'm not going to lie, but I'd like to see if they can maybe help me out. If it needs a new MAF maybe they can sport me one, or maybe give me a good deal. (Yeah yeah, I won't hold my breath.) Heck, my service writer kept telling me I should get a Nismo intake, so maybe he'll have mercy on me since I did get one and it messed things up.

jreiter

iTrader: (6)

Oh yeah, forgot to post my theory on how it happened.

I figure, the intake filter had probably become pretty soaked just from the sheer amount of rain we'd been getting, so I was probably already using the bypass valve a bit at that point. Somehow, though, when I started going up that hill and gave it more gas, maybe that made just enough vacuum in the intake to overwhelm that little bypass valve and cause some suction on the main filter. That could suck some of that water that was soaked into the filter into the pipes. It wouldn't take much; just enough to get the MAF wet.

Probably just a fluke occurance, but enough of one to make me not trust those CAIs in heavy rain anymore, bypass valve or not.

Street Visionz, Inc.

iTrader: (68)

i've hydrolocked my car with the injen cai. However I went thru a huge puddle, more like an ocean of water and that caused it to hydrolock. Simply shooting water at the filter won't really do anything, it is my undertstand that it has to be submerged in water.

jreiter

iTrader: (6)

Yeah, that *was* my understanding until now.

XBS

iTrader: (29)

i have the injen CAI and i sucked up water twice now what i did was i went to the short pop charger set up ( you can use the injen both ways) since it is also raining alot here in LA area, my CEL is and my idle is really roof so i think i either put too much oil on my filter when i cleaned it or the water damaged the MAFS anyone know hwo to clean it out?

THX723

iTrader: (3)

The bypass valve will not prevent you from ingesting water vapor into your engine. It is there to prevent a 'hydro lock' which is an engine stall that occurs when the intake is choked or a large column of water being sucked up from being submerged under enough water.

What you've experience is likely excessive water vapor ingestion ... the bypass valve is as good as having NO bypass valve in this case. Let it idle long enough for the water to vaporize and you should be fine. In an actual hydro lcok ... the outcome's far more devistating!

jreiter

iTrader: (6)

I agree with you. I know it wasn't hydrolocked, or I wouldn't have been able to drive it the few blocks home.

In this case idling it for a while wouldn't have helped. There was a significant enough amount of water that got sucked up that it got the MAF sensor completely wet. The car wouldn't even idle for more than 10 or 15 seconds before dying. The computer basically had no idea how much air was flowing. I just removed the MAF tube and used a blow dryer to dry it out completely. After that, it started working again.

However, even now (over a week later) it is still idling a bit rough. I'm guessing the MAF is permanently messed up. It obviously works enough to get the job done, but things are no longer smooth like they used to be.

Barzten1

iTrader: (18)

I used to have the Nismo CAI ver2 and totally put it through the test. (Not on purpose though) I was caught in a crazy rain storm this summer and was terrified because of the hydrolock possibility. I had no choice because of flash flood and traffic situations and was surprised something bad didn't happen. Sorry to hear about your misfortune but glad you didn't mess up your engine.

King Tut

iTrader: (1)

Hmm, maybe it is time to turn my Nismo CAI to a short ram. Just need a hacksaw.

Jason@Performance

iTrader: (11)

Just because the instide piping is wet does not mean it actually sucked up water... If it is very humid out even on a day when it isnt raining the inside of the tubing will be a little bit bit moist...

Did water pour out? Was there like a small puddle of water infront of the Throttle Body? Probably didnt check but was there water inside of the upper intake plenum?

The slip light does not have to show for it to be functioning. When I had my NISMO Rims on my car if I was driving in the rain even now while its raining now with my new rims on traction control will sometimes kick in if the wheels slip alittle bit.

I also have started thinking that the T1S 275.40.18 is a bit taller then some other 275.40.18 tires... just unfortunatly havent had a chance to measure

I have a fully open hood, its been pouring... First time ive had to use the wipers at full blast... at WOT I know Im sucking in water through my JWT pop charger, Filter is always soaked, even dripping... Never experienced shuttering like you described with the VDC Turned off... But while going onto an on ramp and seeing how fast I can get the wheels spinning before I start to gain traction (ie really going 40MPH but at the top of 4th gear and the speedo says 100 something) the VDC light some times flickers...

(gotta love rain

im not saying you are wrong... just saying it might not have happend... a little moisture isnt a bad thing... it will burn up before it even gets anyware to cause harm...

VandyZ

iTrader: (2)

I am not alone . . .haha

Jason@Performance

iTrader: (11)

are you looking for stock heads?

i may beable to help you out... (if we still have them)

jreiter

iTrader: (6)

Hey Jason, I'm the guy that IM'd you last Monday night saying my MAF was toast.

Like I said in my first post, this was definitely a MAF problem, not wheel slippage or anything else. Heck, I barely made it home, and once I was there the car would barely idle without dying. Definitely not wheel slippage. I removed the MAF tube and the sensor unit was indeed all wet. Dryed it out with a blow dryer, reinstalled it, everything worked.

I know some moisture won't hurt the engine. I didn't submerge the filter and suck up any substantial amount of water. It was just enough water to soak the MAF sensor which rendered the car undriveable. The only problem now is that the car still idles a bit rough, so I think the MAF sensor never fully recovered from the ordeal. I'm sure everything else is fine, but I might, worst case, need to get a new MAF sensor.

On a different note, it's interesting to hear that your filter is dripping wet on occasion and you never have problems. Geez, I would've thought that you would've sucked up enough moisture to soak the MAF at some point. Crazy.

zxsaint

Hopefully you didn't use the any heat w/ the blowdryer possibly overheating the MAF sensor destroying some of it's components?

uplz4588

as jason said a little water injestion wont do anyharm, dont know what happened here, just look at people using the aquamist waterinjection systems on there high boost street motors

jreiter

iTrader: (6)

Nope, no heat. Just air. I assumed heating the thing up really hot probably wasn't a good idea.

jreiter

iTrader: (6)

That's a good point. Do they squirt the water in before or after the air flow sensor? I don't really know where you install the injector on kits like that.

uplz4588

im pretty sure it is after the MAF, before the Trottle body

jreiter

iTrader: (6)

Makes sense to me. Getting your MAF wet definitely affects its ability to correct measure air flow, as I've recently demonstrated. It's similar to people who over-oil their filters when cleaning them. That excess oil can sometimes get sucked up and cover the MAF, which also negatively affects them.

alphaz

Hey jreiter,
Have you checked your oil to see if the water got into it ? I read on another post where the oil was a milky color ?