Had water in plug well, now backfiring...

[DDakRT]

There was a really bad rain storm about a week ago that I drove through. The next day it was running really rough and missing so I parked it until now when I finally had time to look around today, sure enough there was a bit of water in my cylinder 6 plug well (as told by the cylinder balance test)

I got it drained out and it's running on all 6 cylinders now, but it's back firing both in the intake and out the exhaust and has this hiccup under normal acceleration.
Now did this water foul my plug and ruin that one plug wire? As I said the car had sat for more than a week after that rain storm.

Some new codes I have are:
176 (M) Oxygen sensor not switching - system is or was lean Left or Front HO22SSS - Fuel control
167 (R) No Throttle Position sensor change in "goose" test (must get at least 25% rotation) - TPS
411 (R) Idle speed system not controlling idle properly (generally idle too high) - ISC

 

[Mr Anonymous]

Did you check the rest of the plugs?

Backfiring is caused by either mis-routed plug wires, or by the car being out of time. If you are 100% sure all 6 plug wires are routed properly and free of oil, water, etc., then you'll next need to check timing belt alignment.

 

[DDakRT]

Rest of the plugs wells were dry, and the wires are connected to the right cylinders.

I'm not positive that the cylinder 6 wire was dry after getting all the water out of that plug well, but the car never had any backfiring issues prior to this water in plug well incident.

But ya, will the water ruin the plug and plug wire or can I just wait for the water to dry up?

 

[SeanMc]

Check the wires themselves. Same thing happened to me after I washed my engine.

 

[LeddZepp8687]

Whats the deal with code 411, I have the same code and I do have a kinda high idle. I mean I know my SHO isnt misfiring tho. Outta curiousity what kinda noise does the SHO make when it misfires??

 

[DDakRT]

Check the wires themselves. Same thing happened to me after I washed my engine.

Any ways I should go about that? I know they're not cracked or anything because they're a 3 months old set of Taylor wires.

I mean I know my SHO isnt misfiring tho. Outta curiousity what kinda noise does the SHO make when it misfires??

Well when it's running on 5 cylinders it's really rough, where as the normal tone is smooth. It's hard to describe, but you'll know it if it is.

Right now my car is much better than when it was running on 5 cylinders, but still not great. The exhaust kinda remotely sound like a lopy old muscle car right now.

 

[SHOZ123]

Pull the wire off and spray it down with WD 40.

 

[SolidState]

yep...the wires just likely need to dry off.

the day before I went ot Lapeer, my buddy washed my engine bay...and the ensuing drive home was full of misfiring and loss of power...

when I got home I removed all the water from the plug well and fired it up. Still misfired a bit, but I drove it around a little bit and noticed ti getting better..

by the time I got to waterloo, the plugs and wires had dried out and the car ran fine...

 

[smak]

hrmm i could have sworn 411 was the "goose test not received" code.. my bad.

i think stuffing an absorbant paper towel in the plug well and bore of the plug wire will remove any residual moisture that may be causing problems.. then some dielectric grease should get her good as new. those napkins we used were kinda flimsy..

any maybe scrubb the metal end of the plug (end that wire connects to) with light sandpaper or a fine wire brush to abrade away any possible corrosion?

i was there when the water was cleaned out of the plugwell and his backfiring sounds like someones trying to escape out from under the hood.. just an occasional thump or dull pop that you hear from the engine bay while driving.

went from infrequent to occasional in the two short test drives taken after removing water from plugwell, i'd assume it will go away on its own but probably not the best idea to neglect the issue.

hows your fan issue kris? turning on again now? gotta be CCRM cause the click is very audible when it tries to turn on. i'd guess ect is okay still and since the fan motor was recently rebuilt.. its a no brainer.

 

[djnoir]

I'm having the same problem, could this have a serious effect on the cat? I noticed the one cat getting very hot last night after about a 10 minute drive. Once the water is all cleared out(only one plug well actually got water in it) could my car be fine? Or could the unburned fuel really have done a number to the catalytic converter?

 

[sperold]

May be unrelated, but I had all those symptoms when I filled up at a gas station that had water in the gas. It did not go away until I ran some gas-line antifreeze through it. You could have picked up bad gas at the pump or the condensation in a partly filled tank added-up to give you grief...... or not.
Sometimes problems come in pairs, so try the anti-freeze just in case.

 

[hawkeye18]

Tampons. Down in the plug wells. Do it. You won't regret it.

 

[Irish Pride]

There was a really bad rain storm about a week ago that I drove through. The next day it was running really rough and missing so I parked it until now when I finally had time to look around today, sure enough there was a bit of water in my cylinder 6 plug well (as told by the cylinder balance test)

You might want to check the condition of the cowl seal while you are at it. If driving thru a rain storm got water into the plug well then its not fitting correct, or maybe its missing all together.