So I drove from Boston to Baltimore Sunday, during the big rainstorm. About half way home, I lost all but one cylinder or something. No acceleration what so ever. I made it to a rest stop. "Service Engine Soon" light was flashing and the car was barely running. I turned it off and let it sit for about 30 minutes. Everything seemed to be okay.

My guess is I got too much water in the CAI, it was soaking wet. Can this be prevented somehow? And do I need to do anything, like take it to the dealer for some servicing? The engine light turned off today so does that mean all is well?

 

What kind of CAI do u have?

 

My guess is that your MAFS got wet. If you got any sizable amount of water in your intake, you would have hydrolocked your engine (Water can't be compressed, so your engine basically just blows itself apart).

I'd look at your CAI design if you enough water into it to cause an issue like that. What system are you running, like Thumper said?

 

if your going to the dealer i would probably take the intake off and put the stocker back on. and if there is no SES light and it is running fine think you should be ok

 

First of all, WHENEVER the SES light flashes, turn the car off immediately. A flashing SES light is not good for the converter, "cat killin'" is what i've been told.

Second, i've had the same problem, and only in the rain. After pulling the plug wires, I found out that I had rust on the terminals to the plugs. I changed the plugs and wires and the problem is gone.

The MINI doesn't use MAFS(Mass Air Flow Sensor), they are MAP.

 

Holy crap, you guys are scaring me

I have an Alta system, w/o the shiney lid. The filter was soaked when I checked it that day at the rest stop. It's been a week now and everything seems to be okay. The SES light went out a day or two after that frightening day. I'll probably take it in to Lucky Dog to get my belts changed before the dragon and have them look at it real hard.

 

Whatever it's called, I meant the sensor in the intake system that measures the volume of air entering the engine