Alright guys. i need big help on this one. first off i have a 95 z28 camaro m6 with a ligenfleter cai. ok so when it is dry outside no moisture or rain the car runs fine. no missing runs through gears great. starts up fine. now after it rains and i try to start it the next morning or a few hours after it rains pretty hard. the car wont start. it struggles and keeps cranking and cranking. now it has done this a few times before but it did it the other night when i got off work. so what i did was after i started cranking it, i pumped the pedal a few times so it wouldnt flood and it would start and run for a second or two stumbling struggling to idle then die.

so i tried it again pumping the pedal and then it started stumbled for a second then idled and ran fine all the way home. now i did open the hood and there is water on the guard toward the front of the car that covers the radiator the one with the caution signs and the diagram of a/c and stuff that plastic guard. i didnt see water by the opti. there was a little bit of water on the intake on the passenger side by the two rear injectors. now i didnt see any water by the air filter either. but heres the thing. i never had this problem before until about a month or two ago now its doing it everytime it rains a good amount. now heres my thing. my air filter is dirty very dirty i know it needs to be cleaned just dont have time to do so. do you think water could be in the air filter and sucking in water to the maf and causing it to not start. and when i pump the pedal it tries to suck in more air and drys the maf out and then starts fine? or do you think it has nothing to do with my air filter/cai? i really hope its not my opti. i am waiting until my house gets built in about a month or month and a half before i replace my opti/waterpump if i have to. i have a two car garage waiting on me. but i did replace the plugs and wires about 20k ago with ngk tr55 plugs and taylor otvc wires.

do u think it could be a split wire somewehere where i cant see that is getting water dripped on or do you think its bad plugs? after it starts whether dry or wet after it has rained it runs fine. runs great. just having the problem starting after it rains. i havent replaced the coil i searched on here and some people said it could be the coil or coil wire when getting wet causing problems. but like i said it starts up fine when its dry. also after it rains and i try to start it and it doesnt start, if i wait till it drys up and warms up and dry out, then it will start up fine llike nothing happened. so this scenario leads me to the opti getting water/moisture in but i am not sure cause it runs great when dry. do u think if there is moisture in the opti when i crank and give it pedal the intake is sucking in air through the vented opti hose and blowing/drying the opti out at the same time? i dont really know what it is but i need to fix it asap. how do i stop water from getting in the engine compartment? as long as its dry or doesnt rain a lot it will start up fine like normal and run great drive great. im stumped. please help i know some of you guys have had the same problem. thanks in advance.

 

I had a very similar problem in my 94 Z. I have a small miss anyway, but once it rained, my car idled like it had an 847 in it, and also surged. I looked around for water, and saw some on the flatform by the filter, and saw the filter was damp. So I put an RTV seam around that hole that you can see, and touch your filter through, and covered it with sheet metal. I still have a small miss, but it isnt worse in the rain now. I also found my miss. Burnt plug wire. I couldnt see the burn, but I was told to go out to a really dark place, and rev your car while looking under the hood at the plug wires on each side. I saw a faint spark which meant that one of my wires were burnt. I would try sealing that hole first, then check plug wires. After that its time consuming and expensive. Hope this helps

 

hey thanks for the info. but would your car still start? just ran rough and surged? mine wont start at all after rain unless i pump the pedal. then it starts stumbles and then dies. start it again stumbles then clears up and idles just fine. i hope its just my filter is dirty and getting a little wet. i will make a plate out of abs and seal it around the filter so no water will get into it. i need to clean my filter bad as well. got one of the recharge kits just need to find time to do it.

 

Check and make sure that the vent hoses coming off of your opti are nice and tight and that the hoses are in good shape. It could be that you are getting moisture in your opti causing it to stumble and not start. Thats what happened to me.

 

ok. i should be able to just get underneath the car and check those hoses right? i think there is just one vent hose coming from the intake i believe. so yours was doing the same thing that mine is doing? same symptoms? wouldnt start after raining cause the vent hoses were loose? it has to be something simple like that because everything is fine when its dry.

 

Mine would start but basically it would sputter, and run like crap. However mine would throw a code 36 which is an opti code.

 

i dont have a scanner. did u use a scanner to check codes or something else. i think on shoeboxs site there is something to do to make the obd2 plug that i have read out codes cause its an obd1 computer. i will try to check the hoses today. mine wont start though unless i pump the pedal. if i dont do that it keeps cranking and cranking.

 

I don't know about the pumping of the pedal... I have a LT1 scanmaster hooked up at all times so thats how I pull codes.

 

to answer your question, My car started, just had longer cranking time. I also have the a 94, so my opti isnt the same. I would suggest just try the simple, and easy solutions first. then have it scanned, and if nothing comes up, its probably what quiksilver said

 

yea im hoping it will just be the vent hose. but not sure no time to look at it. drives fine though man when its dry. its been pretty hot today and dry and it runs great. driven it all day. if its not the hose i will try the coil and a new coil wire. cause it wouldnt make sense if the opti is bad that in dry weather it runs fine no missing or hesitation right? so i am hoping i can say its not the opti. i will replace it when i get time and my house with my garage. but right now i just need it running fine like it used to in rain and dry weather. never gave me a problem starting until now.

 

ok i just checked underneath the car. the vent hoses are good and tight. plug wires are nice and tight at the opti. the plug wires were tight against theplugs no signs of water anywhere. it rained a lot last night andthis morning i tried to start no start and i just got out of school about an hour ago no start so thats when i finally had time to get underneath it to look. does it sound more opti related or you think its thecoil? i think its the coil. how do i check forspark coming from thecoil? i donthave a spark tester or anything. as far as i know it has never been replaced. but i didnt see any moisture or water around the coil at all. i hope that when it dries out it will start fine. it only acts up after it rains a lot. when its dry and fine. the car starts up and runs perfect. this hopefully rules outthe opti. if its just the coil i can replace it. it doesnt look hard at all to do. any more insight i would appreciate it.

 

ok i have a huge update just got the car started after two days of sitting. so its at night and its dark. after i got it started it stumbled and ran rough for a few seconds than ran fine. i was happy that at least i got it started. so i poppedthe hood and looked for arcing. guesss what. its arcing pretty bad at the coil. like the top left of the coil theres a metal rail it looks like and its arcing on that rail so i think its the cool. can someone please verfiy this and tell me the coil is bad and it was just gettin moisture and water in it and causing it to not start and arc like it is doing now when running or is it the dreaded optispark gettin moisture and water in it to stop it from starting. i hope its the coil i can get one from gm and put it on no problem. but the opti will cost a lot more and take a lot more time. please tell me its the coil! thanks.

 

hope someone knows if its the coil for sure or not. it has to be. car drives pretty well when dry and all. arcing at the coil would hopefully mean just bad coil. and moisture or water getting into that ciol and causing it to have no spark at all. soudn right guys????

 

how much is the chapest to get an ac delco coil. i hae read on here that many people have gotten the msd blaster and the accel coil and having problems after install of the coili. i am going to stick with tthe ac delco as i dont have many mods just basic ones. i really hope this fixes my problem. thanks guys.

 

ok guys havent gotten on here in a while and i just now had a few minutes to look at the car again. it has still been not starting after it rains so i havent been driving it. how much is an ac delco coil and coil wire. also i looked and the coil wire looks like it goes to the top of the opti and below the water pump. it looks like its tight to get in there to replce it. how do i go about doing so? any more ideas would be greatly appreciated i need to get this ifixed asap thanks.