So i was at the g/f's house a couple hrs ago and i had the great idea to degrease my engine cause there wasnt too much to do and my place has no hose. I live in Anchorage, Alaska and its 30 degrees F out right now. I knew it probably wasnt the best idea because the water would freeze very fast. figured that probably wasnt the best thing. But nooooo that couldent be true.. Besides it was just a feeling that was telling me no. I decided that it was unlikeley anything would happen. So i wash the engine up and all that good stuff and it looked all pretty. When it was time for me to go home i got in the car and started it up.. It made kind of a chokeing sound and didnt start as effortlessley like it usually does. So im like WTF i shut it down and tryed it a few more times. SAME results so now im like "this is bad. What did i screw up now?" It seemed to be running OK though i figured id take it home and park it and have my uncle come look at it tomorrow. On my way out of the residential area i stopped at little 4 way intersection. When i started to accelerate the engine made a grinding sound. It kinda reminded me of the sound that a starter makes when you keep holding the key down after whatevers been started. So im like this is really bad. I pull over and call my uncle who is being a d1ck and was no help at all. So i sat there thinking what am i going to do now? Only thing i could do was try to make it back take it real easy and slow. After i got on the road the car started to shake pretty good, it was almost backfireing, and it was being very sluggish. So i put on my hazard lights and pulled into a culdesac (sp?) where i immediatley shut down. Tryed to start the car up again and got nothing but the lights. After a minute or 2 I gave it another shot and it would TRY to turn but would clank and get real shakey. Sounded pretty bad. I went and knocked on theese people's door that i was parked indront of to see if i could use a phonebook and possibley a flashlight to see if i could find anything wrong.. Pretty rude people but they let me use their phonebook. I called a towtruck and went back out. Tryed to start it AGAIN this time it actually turned over but still had the chokeing sound. It shook pretty good and then died after about 5 seconds of being at idle. The towtruck got there after an hr of freezing my @ss off and we got the car to my place. So now its sitting in my driveway and i dont know what to do.
The guy said a couple weeks back he had to go get an 02 SS from mc donalds where the guy had just took his car through a car wash and then shut down at mc donalds and couldent get it to start back up. He said it didnt sound as bad as mine. All it made was a clicking sound.
What do you guys think?

 

Sounds like a typical water + opti failure to me A search should yeild many results.
The other SS sounds like the battery or starter is dead lol

 

Thanks toby. I appreciate your help very much. After doing the search you told me to do it looks like this is probably it. I sprayed that degreaser evreywhere and hosed it down real good. So is this opti thing dead now? Should i take it to a heated garage and let her sit there for a day or 2 so the water can thaw out and evaporate? Thanks
-John

 

Very strange if it's making all kinds of racket. However before replacing the opti go ahead and let it sit in some heat for a few days and try starting it again. If it is your opti it isn't necessarily ruined.

 

Let it dry for a couple days.Spray WD 40 all over the plug wires..If you are lucky it will be fine.Prolly just wet wires.

 

soooooooo worst case scenario?

 

I don't know worst case - have to replace opti?

I did the same thing before I knew better. Same things were happening, but I just kept driving but taking it easy. Once the engine got regular operating temp (hot) I think that helped dry out the water on the wires, etc. Eventually the shaking and poor running went away. Its been about 40K miles since then. Hopefully this will be your case - good luck.

 

Thanks evreyone im going to take the car to a heated garage tonight and let it sit there.

 

clicking = clean your battery terminals, if it persists to click, needs new battery. if it THEN turns over but won't start, go to the starter. Then onto the opti.

 

Someone else will have to respond to this since I have never looked at my OPTI, but can one remove the cap and spray something like WD-40 in there to displace any moisture?

I have do this many times over the years with a std distributor when it got wet.

Just a thought.

 

Removing the cap not nearly as easy as letting it sit and thaw lol and I believe the opti is a unit that can be taken a part but not without removing it.

 

If u had any compressed air... such as at a shop, I'd remove the intake below and spray around the Opti/Waterpump with it... or get a hairdryer with an extension cord and use that.

Specifically check where the Ignition Coil Wire Goes into the Opti as water has a habit of pooling there... and drying it up may help with the sputtering. You may have also sprayed the computer and shorted it too.... but you can only do one thing at a time to figure it out. So start with the easiest... dry it up and consider this as a learning experience.