I drove through a big puddle and experienced a loss of power, the car got very sluggish and would not rev above 3000 rpm and Service Engine Soon and EML lights came on.

I pulled over and turned the car off then started it again and it revs normally and no EML light but I still have Service Engine Soon lit.

Has anyone experienced something similar to this.

 

Yea,

THis happened to me twice.. the CEL will reset it self in a short while, and a couple restarts.

If not, then bring it into the shop.

Thanks
Dan
Pilo Racing

 

Dan thanks for your reply and you are right the light has gone off and all seems to be ok. I guress I will need to be more carefull next time and stay away from those big puddles during the next blue moon when California gets 3" of rain.

Peace!

Matt

 

The MINI's owners manual warns againt driving the car on water puddles a foot or more deep. Never blow through water puddles on this or any other car.

 

There have been numerous cases of MC motors being ruined by high water gaining access to the engine via the air intake. As water is not compressable, major malfuntions have been reported. Do not drive through high water in your MINI.

 

It's raining pretty hard in Hawaii now and I cannot drive my 540i in the rain as the Dinan intake is positioned in the fenderwell. Whenever it rains hard, the intake gets soaked and there are driveability problems. Beware of your MCs and MCS' and the addition of rain.

 

The same thing happened with my MC today too and it isn't the first time. Both times I've had it towed to the dealership becasuse the EP light came on and it wouldn't go over 35mph. And both times the dealer lookedat it they said the car is running fine. Sometimes it's inevitable you hit a big puddle, shouldn't there be a fix for this?

 

Jennybeth

When it happened to me last night I also could not get much power so I pulled over and turned it off, sat and thought about what to do in the pouring rain for a minute or two, then turned it on again and I was able to drive normally. After 4 or 5 starts the Check Engine Soon light has gone off and all appears to be OK.

However I did lose power to my A/C and defroster for awhile but that has also come back.

All of this happened because I wanted to speed through a puddle or two in the parking lot. Bad move on my part.

 

I have had the same problem that each of you have reported. I have brought the car in 5 times now to the dealership over the last 6 months.

I have the Mini Pilo Intake, but I have not gone over puddles with the car when this problem has occurred, although it has been damp outside (i.e. light rain, mist or had rained). It tends to happen after I let the car sit a day or two in these conditions.

The code that keeps coming back is a misfire in one or more cylinders. Since mine doesn't appear to be puddles, could it be something other than intake? Maybe a short in the electrical (i.e. wiring harness). I am at my minds end trying to resolve this. It has been pretty much raining here for the last two weeks, and the dealership said that they have another car in for the same problem.

Any input would be appreciated.

 

I picked up my car from the dealer yesterday for a problem I had with water, or atleast part of the problem. I was out of town on vacation on the gulf coast and Monday there were heavy rains. The roads were holding a lot of water but no deeper than around 3 inches on the side of the roads. I had stopped at a light and when it turned green I went a few feet and several lights came on and the car lost power. Luckily it's a very maneuverable car so I shot across a lane into a parking lot. The service light would never go off but the eml light did after the first restart.

Now what happened next has me still wondering if water had anything to do with it or if it was a coincidence. I pulled in a parking garage to go have lunch and I noticed before I turned off the car that there was a knocking noise. I got out to look under the hood to see if something was pushed into the engine bay by water but I didn't see anything. I decided to start up the car again, and ..... very loud knocking, similiar to a rod knocking. I turned it off immediately and called roadside assistance, or as I call them "%$#$%#$% joke" and they came to pick up the car. The knocking turned out to be a broken Harmonic Balancer.

Coincidence or what? The Harmonic Balancer broke and caused the belt to tear a CV joint boot. Both were replaced but I found this to be a very weird problem. I was in the car that morning for maybe 30 minutes and the day before I was driving for 6 hours at interstate speeds. I didn't notice a thing on the long drive.

_________________

 

Ive had my harmonic blancer break as well, i hav eno idea why, i still have it to show people....ripped halfway around.........

 

SB, you heard a knocking noise too? After my car began having trouble, I was at a stoplight and heard a horrible knocking noise too. I had never heard this before when I had a similar water issue, the knocking didn't make sense. Since the dealer can't find a problem, I will tell them to check out the harmonic balancer. Maybe they haven't checked that out..

 

On a related matter, I once had the check engine light problem you described after washing the car and opening the bonnet to clean underneath. Apparently, the leading edge of the bonnet lines up perfectly with the spark plug boots and a small amount of water dripped into the boots causing the problem. The tech at the dealer had heard of this before and it cleared up by itself once the water evaporated.

 

We got a call from the crew at Downtown MINI in Orlando and they think they were able to solve the problem. Apparently there was a transmission sensor wire that had for some reason or another got stripped of its insulation. It was rubbing on another wire and sparking when it got wet and causing the malfunction. The only way they were able to see this was to run water over the trans. and put it on a lift and start it up. Although the trans. never switched into safe mode(ep) and ran funny for them, they say that they cant imagine it being anything else but those bare wires touching. A new wiring kit had to be overnited so we remain without a car until monday. We'll see if this does the trick. If not, it will be the fifth time we've had it in for the same thing.

 

That's good news. Hopefully they have finally found the source of your problem. :smile: