Wow man that sucks big time. Thats why I took the safer route and went with Injen as short ram. Hopefully everything gets fixed and good luck.

 

...sooo sorry to hear man, i feel for you


...the Comptech icebox (CAI) doesn't have the same risk (as injen and other true CAI's) do they?

 

Yeah, my CRX had a short-ram and if i accidentally hit a deep puddle, i would lay off the throttle so it doesn't suck up water.

My buddy hydrolocked his Eclipse one night, and the storms were so bad that it took a tow truck 6 hours to get him because there were so many accidents and disabled cars.

 

I think it takes in water from higher up, so almost no chance of that

 

Do as JTso said, also drain the oil and look for water there. If you find some but not much, leave the sparkplugs out and the oil out and with a compressor blow out the cylinders....it will get messy and make sure you wear eye protection . Let it dry overnight, blow it out again, if there is little to no water left, oil it up and start it. I mean if you broke/bent a rod and kept trying to crank a hydrolocked engine, it's already damaged and you just wasted some time and oil, but if it's not, then you should be good to go.
Worst case, you need a new engine and Acura or your Auto ins. will pay for it or part of it. If you did hydrolock your engine, any engine tech will know as soon as he pulls the head. So trying to hide it would just make matters worse. I have heard of Acura replacing engines for customers who hydrolocked them....even with a CAI installed.
Good luck

And for others out there, if you are driving in deep (6+ inches) of water and your engine suddenly dies, DO NOT try to restart it, do as described above.

Coast through deep water...always

 

first off, sorry to hear about your troubles..

second, i REALLY REALLY hope you didnt try to crank it too many times..otherwise, its in bad shape..

heres what happens... water is NOT combustable or compressable... sooo.. when you suck water into the air intake, it goes directly into the head. and mixes in with air & fuel. now, on engines, air and fuel go into the cylinder hole(forget what you call it) and the rod pushses the cylinder down. BOOM, the gas and air compress. Water will not.

so, what happens, water gets into the hole, the rod pushes the cylinder down, but since the water wont compress, it usually makes the rods snap due to the enourmous amount of pressure from the water.

like Tsxx536 said... your BEST and only hope is, as soon as the car locks and dies, you turn off the motor and DONT TOUCH IT.

get it towed. once thats done, pull that spark plugs out and try to crank it. you should see water spewing out, once it looks like the waters all gone, dump the oil pan. put new oil in, replace the plugs, and count your blessings!!!

this is why my dropped TL with CAI was OFF THE ROAD today.

Best of luck to you!!

(P.S., i live in long island. this storm was out of control)

 

^--- TodaSI

guess you typed that will i was typing. took the words right out of my mouth!

 

yea. and big puddles, ALWAYS coast through water. the higher the throttle, the more air you suck in, the more OPEN the throttle body is. if you are @ 750rpms (idle) as you go through a puddle, your chances of getting out are MUCH MUCH better


btw dont feel bad. alot of cars had this problem today. even without CAI's or drops. my sister works in insurance, the phones were ringing off the hook!

 

sorry to keep posting,

but when you see those old off road pick up trucks with the 'snorkel' pipes coming out of the hood (like an 18 wheeler) thats there form of air intake. Thats why they can go really really deep into the water without troubles. people who had hummer H2's could have hydrolocked their engine today with the size of those pubbles

 

crazy day... not just cars.. basements got flooded all over the place...

 

you dont want to use cai during the winter. it is best to make it the short ram for winter and cai for summer.

 

wow, funny because i was driving 9W -> GW -> Hudson Parkway /9-A this morning and water was killing me. it was raining CRAZY

i have injen CAI with no hydroshield, and i was trying to stick to the middle lane (less angular road, less pot holes) and trying to accelerate softly

let's meet somewhere and convert ours to short rams together lol.

good luck, and keep us updated.

 

isn't the converting a PITA? like days like these...we got a huge thunderstorm yesterday, it's supposed rain again today and tomorrow.

do you guys really watch the weather reports, see rain, and decide to convert to SRI for the rain, then put it back to the CAI when the weather is better? i can understand the seasonal changes (CAI for summer, SRI for rainy springs and winter). but to do it daily or even stretches of days seems like a nuisance.

 

I also have Geico (have had them for about 7 years)... Asuuming your CAI is street legal ( I know AEM is but not sure about the Injen CAI's), you won't have a problem with Geico. If you have Mechanical Breakdown Insurance it will be a very easy process and you'll only have to pay the first 200-250 out of pocket for repairs. Otherwise it will be considered Comprehensive


Best of luck!

 

I took out the Injen CAI earlier and there was a lot of water that poured out of it. My guess is that my engine is deff fucked. Geico adjustor is coming sometime in the next 5 bus days. I hope they total the car instead of just replacing the engine but I doubt that will be the case. Is the engine rebuildable if the rods are bent or an all new engine is required?

 

How many miles on it?

Geico suck balls...5 days just to come look at your car?? Ridiculous...

 

More than likely if the engine is locked up it broke a rod or piston. Pretty much assures the engine is not rebuildable as either wipes out the cyl. bore. Best to replace the shortblock and reuse the cyl. head after inspecting it carefully for damage (sometimes a chunk of broken piston can get pushed up in the valves/combustion chamber in the head)

 

I had this happen in my vette with a CAI a couple years back.

First step to to pull the plugs. If you haven't bent anything you can turn the engine over and the water will come out the plug holes. Drain the oil and replace and then you can attempt to start the car.

If that doesnt work, most likely you bent something and it means a new short block at the least. That's going to be a comprehensive claim. Ran almost $10k to replace the engine on the vette. Insurace didnt give me any hassle about the CAI I had at the time though.

Good luck with this, but chances are you're in for a new engine.

 

[QUOTE=(P.S., i live in long island. this storm was out of control)[/QUOTE]

I'm originally from Long Island as well, and my friend got stuck on the LIE. In fact, they closed the road and there was lots of property damage and 2 confirmed tornados (Amityville & Islip). My friend and I are meteorologists, and we don't exaggerate this sorta stuff b/c we've seen crazy weather before. This he told me was INSANE. Sorry to hear that you got a water clogged engine, that is the worst but may be fixable. Good luck.

 

If you guys don't drop your cars, I wouldn't see how you can hydrolock. Also, if you did drop your car, they may still deny you even if you put the stock back on. First, the car was dropped, which decreased the height of the resonator to the floor. Second, they wouldn't see any water in the resonator, so that means it was never used during the rainstorm.

 

Sorry to hear about your troubles man... you can sure try to switch the CAI with your stock air filter box, but I doubt that an experienced mechanic would not notice that...

Try the great suggestions by JTso, ToDasi and company, and hopefully, the engine just stopped, but wasn't cranking enough to break/bend a con rod or the crank/bearings. if you're lucky and were idling or just taking off as you described, you might be in luck. This being said, do not try starting it until the plugs are off and the water out...

Good luck with that and keep us posted!

Chris

 

Sorry to hear about your car man . Even though it's too late to make a suggestion, i was thinking you should have at least tried the dealership, and when/if they turned you down, then gone the insurance route.

Anyhow, how deep of a puddle is considered too deep for a stock TSX? I'm scared now. I've always just blazed through puddles and not even batted an eye. (Partly because I didn't even know the details of hydrolocking a vehicle. )

 

I don't think there's any chance of hydrolocking it with the stock intake, unless you're trying to drive through stupid-high waters

 

22,751 on the odo. As far as I understand after the adjustor comes I get to have the car towed the shop where I would like to get it repaired and then we go from there. I dont think they would care if I had a CAI installed and like I mentioned above they wont be the ones inspecting everything closely. I drive a Mazda 6 as a rental right now and let me tall you what a POS. It deff makes me miss my TSX.

 

Hey Dice...dont worry...you'll be getting your car back in no time!

I drive through puddles like nothing and I have the intake too....hmm I usually never really get a real story about people hydrolocking their car. I think I'm still going to blast through puddles...just maybe order a hydroshield?

 

since the car has been sitting with water in the engine i'd make sure they give you a new motor. water + metal = not good

 

Worst scenario is you bent the piston rods due to inability of compression, but this could've happened without the CAI in deep water also. It could've happened to any of us.

If you were to switch out the CAI with the stock intake, you may be surprised that Acura would take care of you. It seems you are assuming the worst and feeling you are guilty of something, when this is all accidental. Afterall, the dealers are in the area where you live, it rained there also, they won't be ignorant of the fact that there was a huge rainstorm.

If Acura won't cover the repair, minor or severe, then I would resort to using your auto insurance. Good luck.

 

In my experience Honda/Acura will not cover damage like this under warranty....stock intake or not. It's not a defect with the car. If you drive the car into a lake or off a cliff into the ocean, is the damage covered under warranty??? No.

 

Slightly OT but if any of you have ever looked at the bottom of the stock airbox there are vent holes. That means if the stock intake or even the icebox(as it utilizes the stock lower airbox) snorkel hits water the engine shoudl start to suck air through the vents in the bottom of the airbox.(Path of least resistance..easier to suck up air than water)

Theoretically with the stock box or icebox you should only be able to hydrolock if the water level is all the way up to the bottom of the airbox.

Now I really dont' want to test that theory but hey....

 

Should be the same way with a CAI. The filter is some 18" off the ground; unless it's submerged in water, it shouldn't suck in water any more than a stock intake should. The OP must've barreled through a seriously deep puddle.

 

If they replace your engine, try to keep your old engine, it will be worth some $ if there is not too much damage like a cracked sleeve or bent crank ( unlikely). You could always just give me your block Would be nice to have a spare to build up for later

Good luck with everything.

 

UPDATE::

I figure I would let you guys know what happened with my car after everything. I just got off the phone with the adjustor and my car is a total loss. I am shopping for a new car now, I dont think I can get another TSX it would just bring up old memories. Thers a thread in car talk feel free to chime in about suggestions on a new car purchase.

P.S. Any1 in tri-state looking for new Tein SS w/ new honda top mounts pm me. Never got a chance to put them on.

 

so what is the insurance going to pay you?

 

sucks. sorry about the car.

 

oh wow!! this is the first time I ever seen our car getting hydrolocked. I'm so sorry to hear that so what you planning on getting now?

 

Total loss? I dont seem how that much be. My dad is a Mechanic and even if you get a BRAND NEW engine it shouldnt cost more than $10k with labor to fix.

Replacing internals would no more than $5k.

Get an IS350. I have a IS250.

 

Ditto; pretty depressing they're going to total the car. Geico must use the 50% rule. That would make an 05 TSX worth about $20K if you figure $10K for a new motor, I guess. I can't imagine you couldn't re-power the car for allot less than $10K though. Even assuming the worst, I'd think the most you'd need to replace is the long block. Everything else should be reusable. Too bad the car will have a salvage title cause you could buy it back, fix it, and probably sell it a reasonable profit.

 

Sorry for the loss...would this happen with the icebox mod as well or is it more prone to happen with the injen?? I was thinking of getting an icebox is why I ask.

 

They said they are giving me about $24k. 05 TSX 6mt with 22kmiles . I think I got a nice adjustor, the car could have problems down the road plus I would never be able to sell it since the car would have flood damage on carfax. I am probablly going to get an 07 G35 sedan or a 328xi. I woudnt mind getting the IS350 but dont think it would fit within my budget so no point in driving one cuz thats just another car I would want and couldnt get. All my friends keep telling me to get a cheap POS but I am deff spoiled by the TSX and any car I drive I keep comparing to the TSX. I drove a lot of cars in the last week and not one can compare with the nimble handling of the TSX and driver feedback and our wonderfull 6MT. I cant get another TSX since that would be like cheating haha.

 

Check out the TL-S 6MT.