[ULink]

So, I completed my home made CAI and routed 3" piping from the lower driver side fog lamp to the intake. Works fine.

However, in my infinite wisdom, I drilled out the lamp opening for some forced air action and forgot to put a cover over it during a recent heavy rain.
Question is, what potential harm was done? There is at least 4 feet of 3" tubing to traverse before seeing the TB but moisture inevitably made its way I am sure.
Does the moisture simply become evap and make its way out the exhaust while running.
Should I be draining oil and flushing the beast?

Thanks for your feedback.

 

[jtispoindexter]

My 2 cents

there is varied moisture in air humid to dry that the motor manages to deal with , there are water injection systems used on motors to increase economy ( water to steam expands 1200 times by volume ) unless you have come close to stalling the motor from running in near hurricane . I would not worry too much , perhaps a drain hole along the way ( lowest point ) would assist in shedding moisture in the system , but I doubt the air intake is running like a shop vac , sucking up noticeable water through to the air filter , ( the best place to look ) if the filter is wet / soaked then you have potential issues. :smile:

 

[Serj22]

IF the filter remains submerged it will cause hydrolock, If you drive through mud or standing water high enough to flood the filter (not just little drops of water on it, I.e. rain and puddle splashing) then you have a problem. You stand the risk of locking with that filter so low there, it would have been better to mount the filter a little above the hole, but still cut the fog light hole out.

Edited.

 

[Island E]

IF the filter remains soaked it will cause hydrolock,

Sorry to say, but you're full of crap.

I've driven in some serious torrential downpours with my civic that had a cold air intake directly in front of the passenger side tire and didn't have a fender liner in there. So that filter took on every bit of water those tires threw at it. This went on for about an hour. Not just putting along city streets. This was all highway driving. The car never sputtered one bit.

Simply having a wet filter will NOT lock up your engine. I'd venture to guess that you could probably put half an ounce of water into each cylinder per combustion stroke and be fine. The water would just flash off into steam and go out the tail pipe.

Soaked filter hydrolocking an engine....please.

 

[Island E]

Does the moisture simply become evap and make its way out the exhaust while running.
Should I be draining oil and flushing the beast?

Thanks for your feedback.

See my post above about driving in the rain.

Your car is fine. No need to drain anything. Any water droplets in your intake or on the filter will get sucked up and spit out like it's nothing. Give the throttle a few decent romps if it makes you feel better.

 

[Serj22]

Sorry to say, but you're full of crap.

Sorry, rephrase that to "submerged" not soaked. Had a few people hydrolock from driving through mud with a CAI or driving through deep water. I knew what I meant because I said that water hitting the filter makes no difference, but submerging it is a problem. Thanks for pointing it out.

 

[Island E]

Completely submerging the entire filter is what it's going to take to hydrolock and engine. Even if you have half the filter above water you'll still be fine.
A quick splash on the filter also isn't going to do anything in the case of the OP.

He just has to remember that he can't go driving through any 2 foot deep puddles.

 

[demasih.]

Im an auto tech and many rainy seasons ive had people that drive through and obsurd amount of water or even an extremly large puddle and it ruined their engine. engines cant compress water...if you get rain like ai am in ny today which is about 6 inches in one day and yer not careful youll find out what happens.

 

[Blue Devil]

in an MAF car you can get a check engine light if the filter is soaked. Water droplets can hit the hot wire of the MAF, causing an "MAF out of range" error.

Since you are an '04, you've got no problems though.

 

[Snavta]

High water drive through (05 element)

Im in Texas and we just had a big rain.
On my way home from work I had to drive through some high water for a few feet. The engine knocked, the battery light went on and the steering stiffened. After I had gotten to normal ground it stopped.

After that I had just pulled it into the garage and freaked out. I called my local dealership and they told me to check the air filter to make sure it wasn't wet but when I went to uncrew the casing I found that all the screws were rusted and stripped. (Obviously won't be taking my car to Firestone for oil changes anymore as they are not checking my filter)
I can't get the damn thing off and won't be able to get to the dealership for a day or so. I drove it around the neighborhood and it runs like normal now but I'm wondering if there is water in the air filter how long would it take to F my entire engine up?

Thanks for any feed back!
(Sorry for spelling errors)

 

[Island E]

If your car is running like normal now you're more than likely fine. If your filter got wet and you drove around, it's dry now. If you want to be on the safe side, do an oil change. But unless you actually locked up your engine (hydrolocking) to the point where it died and wouldn't even crank over any more, you're fine. People get wayyyy too paranoid over a few droplets of water in their intake system.

 

[Snavta]

Thanks

Thanks so much for the response!

I'm from the Chicago/Milwaukee area and have driven in snow up to my knees. This rain BS is new to me. I'm a middle class gal and love my
Element. I just want to keep it in working order!!!!

I made an appointment for Wednesday at my dealership to have them get those damn screws loosened (or at worst casing replaced). (I didn't want to break anything and be more over charged then he says I'll be.)
Funny thing about this is that I had bought new engine and cabin air filters via Amazon two days before this happened and was planning on replacing them myself. I guess now I'll only be doing the cabin filter. Do they charge you some odd fee for bringing your own parts into the dealership? Labour??

It's been such an eye opener reading all these posts. There is so much you can do without "quick lube" help.

 

[Island E]

My stealership up here charges $99/hour. Just to bring your car into the door and having somebody touch it, it's at LEAST an hour. So I'd venture to guess that your screw job thing is going to set you back about $110 with the $2.50 you're going to fork out for each "specially made Japanese screw". I'd seriously reconsider taking the car to the dealership for this. Unless of course you have one of those money tree things in your back yard. In that case, give me some.

 

[lizzurd]

Ypu can always do what the tech at the dealership is going to do.....Get a pair of vice grips and take the stripped bolts out yourself. Make sure you spray the bolts with some penetrating fluid ahead and time. With a bit of time and patience you should be able to do it yourself.