Well it was mild this weekend and roads were dry so I decided to take the car out for a short drive and it ran great. Then I took it to the carwash. I washed it and then sprayed underneath the car to clean off any salt and stuff. When I started it up it would barely run. Would start fine run for sec or so and then die. It seems I got something wet, but I can't figure out what.

 

did the alternator get directly sprayed?

 

Check that no water has got under the boots of your spark plug and coil leads, or into the distributor. If you have an inline supressor fitted into your coil lead, check it.

 

after you check the coil leads,
then open the hatch check the ground connection see if there is water on it ,
also open the CE panel cover look for wetness on the floor mats,
if any of the fuses are wet then they need to be removed and the Ce panel dried out,
also remove the relays and check them for corrosion ,
any relay with corroded pins should be opened and cleaned.
Also open the 14 pin connector above the hot post if you dont have a hot pot cover then you need one

 

Thanks to all for the advice on things to check out. I will take a look at those and post an update. I have always made sure not to spray the engine compartment directly. I really didn't think spraying underneath would cause an issue. I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

mine did the same thing. I found out that water had gotten into the intake tubes..... it cleared out after a little while

 

Also near the hot post cover you could add a 6" length of slit tubing on the fender seam to keep water from the hot post and 14 pin connector and channel water past this stuff.

 

No water in the back hatch or the CE panel. In fact those areas appear really clean and dry. I do have the hot post cover on as well. However, from where I was spraying the alternator would have been sprayed and it is possible that spray could have got into the intake tubes. It seems to be running fine now. Idles at 700 and revs freely. I will be more careful next time for sure.

thanks again.

 

The most common problem is that wash water or rain water runs down the ledge on the inside edge of the front fender and falls off directly on the ignition coils.

Well worth carefully cleaning the tops of the coils and all connections. Make sure that the coil wires are routed so that they don't touch any metal or other wire harnesses.

It can help a lot if you add a piece of split rubber or plastic tubing to the edges of each of the fender ledges so that water running down the ledges is prevented from falling or dripping onto the coils, jump start terminal nexus, or the 14-terminal connector.