Help! A non starter...

[MarkJ]

horror of horrors my car let me down tonight for only the third time in 11 years  :(  I had parked on a fairly steep hill and we got hit by 2hrs+ of torrential monsoon style rain this afternoon. I think a lot of water must have got in through the rear grill on the ducktail lid. There was no standing water in the engine bay but plenty of moisture/drips even 2-3hrs afterwards, and even the air filter foam felt damp to the touch. Anyway the car fired up initially but then kept conking out even if I gave it some steady pedal. This went on for a dogs age, catching then petering out. Eventually it wouldn't fire at all and I was getting the odd whiff of petrol so wondering if it was flooding? (Can an injection car flood ?)  My car also has Motec just to complicate things. After a good hour of trying every 5-10 mins the inevitable battery slumped. So I had to abandon it overnight (secure carpark thankfully) with plans to return in the morning and re-try armed with some jump leads and hopefully it can dry out unless it pours down again overnight.

Is it likely to be just water ingress? Any part of the engine bay likely suspect for water getting into it?  Also hill was quite steep and both my IB and the CR have never liked being left on this hill, often stuttering a bit on fire up at end of day. Car was nose up the hill, could it be fuel starvation/over fuel through gravity combined with the water ingress? Don't even know if that is an issue, just asking.

Any help/advice appreciated. I probably wont sleep tonight now!

[Dr Rock]

Take the dizzy cap off and dry it. Before doing that though, get some sleep 

[Phill]

I was going to suggest same as Fraser. On a slope that is a prime spot for water to drop on to. If there was water in there then lots of turning over is likely to have spun it into all the fiddly bits.

Edited August 13, 2020 by Phill

[MarkJ]

thanks guys, will try that when I get back over to the car in the morning.  The rain was biblical and seems a coincidence that car wouldn't start after that downpour. Had no issues on way in or hints of anything amiss.

[Phill]

I seem to remember someone else having a similar problem after heavy rain, it may have been Henry but his was wet ECU I believe. Have you checked under the seats?

[MarkJ]

No I didn’t look under the seat but car hadn’t been driving in the wet. Guess it could still have leaked in via usual spots and accumulated because of the gradient. Assume motec is better sealed though than our old 80’s box’s ? Another place to look tomorrow thanks 

[SP72]

Doubt you have a dizzy cap if running Motec?

What is your starting procedure?

[MarkJ]

Prime the fuel pump, then usually two steps on the throttle before firing it up. When it was catching it was a little rough/throaty but the revs would just slow down and conk out. If I tried any squeeze on the throttle it died. When I left it 5-10 mins it would catch but then not be able to hold on enough. When it wouldn’t fire at all I could smell petrol. 

[SP72]

Fuel pressure regulator maybe?  Unsure if you can rule out fuel pump or relay if you can smell fuel 

[MarkJ]

Bloody hope not, had one of them go about 7yrs a go and was a nightmare to replace. Think it’s pretty rare for them to fail. Fuel pump is only about 3yrs old too.

could be DME maybe? Think I have a spare in the glovebox. But I think it was to do with the rain & gradient 

[Nige]

Pop the dizzy cap, dry off and blast everything with WD40.

[MarkJ]

and the winning answer was......water in the dizzy cap   Even next day it was still really damp inside the cap. Once I gave it a wipe inside and sprayed some wd40 into it, the beast fired up first time 👍

Will add a can of wd40 to my everyday kit in the car.

Thanks for all you help gents, very much appreciated. 

One thing that threw me, was I no longer seem to have a DME relay, its been replaced by a pronged relay & multiplug of some sorts. Must be part of the Motec setup.

[Dr Rock]

I'll claim my 20 pints of Boddingtons some Friday night sometime, if the Macc Lads are to be believed. 

[Phill]

Cool beans, the best solutions are the simple ones 👍

[SP72]

2 hours ago, MarkJ said:

and the winning answer was......water in the dizzy cap   Even next day it was still really damp inside the cap. Once I gave it a wipe inside and sprayed some wd40 into it, the beast fired up first time 👍

Will add a can of wd40 to my everyday kit in the car.

Thanks for all you help gents, very much appreciated. 

One thing that threw me, was I no longer seem to have a DME relay, its been replaced by a pronged relay & multiplug of some sorts. Must be part of the Motec setup.

Im surprised you still have a dizzy cap - has your Motec only replaced ECU? Do you still have AFM?  
perhaps an Alpha N setup

[MarkJ]

Yes still has dizzy and custom AFM & custom injectors. I cant remember the details as it was a couple of years ago now, probably listed in my long engine build thread at the time.