Drove the car all day long yesterday she ran just fine like she always do. But conditions were a little different, weather based conditions, if anyone has been keeping up with the news they would know that Colorado is getting hit pretty hard by some flash floods. Anyways I drove through a few puddles, the biggest one being maybe half a foot of water. Definitely not more than that. Still drove just fine. I made it to dinner with my friends and made it home.

The next day I try to start my car and it tries to crank but no luck. The interior lights on the dash dims like crazy and I just hear a winding noise like it wants to crank but its not getting a spark. Then I tried jumping it and the same thing occurs, then I tried to push start it by popping the clutch. Next thing you know I hear just hear waterfalls and my car reeked of fuel. My car was leaking fuel but from where? I popped the hood wiggled the intake that goes to my turbo and fuel dumps out of there like crazy. So my turbo is flooded with fuel and the intake.

Next up I decided to check my spark plugs, pulled each one out and cylinder number three was full of fuel the rest were dry. There was no signs of oil in the cylinder or the turbo.

I know I posted a long story but hopefully this gives enough background knowledge for anyone to help me with diagnostics and the next step I should take.

Now I assume that injector number three must have been leaky? or just stayed open some how. I bet my entire inter-cooler along with the air intake manifold is filled with fuel as well. So my plan was to take apart all the bolt on stuff, air intake manifold, turbo manifold, turbo, inter-cooler and piping, and drying out the cylinder (not sure how to do, rumor has it is that you disable the ignition coil and crank-need more info on this). Then from I guess I would need new injectors (310cc by the way) and a new intake manifold. And I would do an oil change as well just to hopefully get all the fuel out. Along with all that cranking I did I probably fucked the ignition coil so I would replace that as well?

Please let me know if my plan would be wise and let me know of the precautions I should be taking next and known causes as well as how to prevent this from the future.

She is daily driven! Pics? I have some motivate you guys to get her up and running again! Sorry I don't have pics of the damage it's raining like crazy still 3 days in a row! And yes that is a Corolla and it is beautiful .

 

Buy New 310cc injector(s) (I would swap them all out) Buy new spark plugs, Unbolt all spark plugs for a day or so for the fuel to dry out. Then go from there.

Ps, That's way too much pic's. (and the pics aren't helping anything out)

 

Alright I removed most of the pics lol.

So as far as the intake manifold goes and inter-cooler piping, you think they wouldn't be flooded as well?

 

Doubt it. Sounds like one of your injectors stuck open. All fuel would be dumped into cylinder/turbo Manifold/downpipe

Still Pic's are point less, they have nothing to do with the problem you are having. Plenty of turbo cars on here doubt your impressing anyone. (not to sound like a dick)

 

When you say FULL of fuel, like hyrdrolocked with fuel or wet spark plug?

Unplug the injectors, pull all 4 plugs out then crank it over. it will shoot any liquid out of the cylinders. With the injectors unplugged the fuel pump will still pressurize the rail. check for any new fuel accumulation in the cylinder. Then with the ignition still on plug in the fuel injector and see if its firing fuel.

 

Fuel shouldn't be making it to the intake of the turbo. That's just physically impossible. That would mean the intercooler was full of fuel as well.

I think it's just water but it smells like fuel because of what it has come in contact with

What kind of catchcan/crankcase ventilation system do you have? If it routes back to the intake on the turbo then that's why the water smells like fuel

The motor draws a vacuum when cranking making it physically impossible for fuel to go up the intake manifold runners and into the charge piping. Gravity never stops working..... unless you've lost timing and the motor is blowing compression out of the intake valves but that's highly unlikely

 

This sounds like a simple case of motor sucked up a lot of water. It might not have made it to the motor yet but if you sucked up enough to fill most of the intercooler then when trying to crank the car instead of sucking air into the motor (it is a glorified air pump basically) then it's trying to suck this huge column of water up the charge pipe, hence the low cranking rpm and high load on the starter and why it won't start

Take the intercooler off and drain it. I bet there's at least a gallon or two of water in it. And does the intake side of the turbo look really clean? Normally when a turbo sucks up water and tries to compress it everything winds up looking really clean

It's very easy to misjudge how deep water is from inside a car while driving. That puddle you thought was a few inches deep could very well have been a foot deep and from the wheel displacing all that water at speed could have very well forced most of it into the engine bay. Where your intake was just waiting to suck it up

 

Well when I pulled the third spark plug out, fuel just filled up the entire chamber. I'm not sure if hydrolock refers to all of the cylinders or just one.

I can see that how explains the water in the intake and turbo but what about the fuel in the cylinder?

It looks turbo intake side looks clean to me but I'm not sure if that's clean enough.


It's day two, outside has continued to rain like crazy so I still haven't gotten the chance to really remove anything but the spark plugs. Cylinder three seems to have completely evaporated even though it's humid outside (is that an indicator of fuel instead of water?)

 

Because there's so much water in the intercooler and charge pipes that when you crank the car it's trying to suck up this huge column of water instead of air. That's why there's so much load on the starter and why the cranking rpm is so low. Don't keep doing it or you'll suck water into the motor

Since the motor can't get any air into the cylinders the fuel cannot ignite to start the car, so with every cycle of fhe engine it keeps injecting more and more fuel that still can't burn. Hence the flooding

Take your intercooler off and drain all the water out of it and use a haird dryer or heat gun and use it to dry any remaining moisture by running it along the front and back of the core along the tubes that move air through the intercooler. I suggest checking your charge piping for water and CAREFULLY remove the compressor housing off the turbo and make sure there's no water in the housing. If there is dry it off

Reinstall everything and I bet you it will crank right up the first time... unless some of the water got into the cylinders. Then you have a bigger issue

 

When I turn the key to the on position are the injectors suppose to be shooting fuel that that point without cranking?

 

No

 

I took the fuel rail out as one unit with the injectors still in there and then i turned the key to the on position, no cranking and they're shooting fuel like crazy.

 

LOL is the fule coming out from the o ring? between the fuel rail and injector?

Theres a reason that gets bolted to the manifold and has an o ring.

Sounds like you hydro locked your motor. Stop driving through puddles

 

I took wantboost's advice and dried the hell out of everything and I just want to make sure my injectors were fine before I started her up.

Fuel is coming straight out of the injectors. The point between the rail and the injectors are fine. Seems like my injectors or stuck open but I'm not sure why or how to solve that.

I wish I could have avoided those puddles =(

 

Sounds like either water is in the harness shorting something

Or

You've got a serious wiring/ecu issue

 

Alright so I got a new ecu and the injectors don't shoot fuel at on anymore. Completely dried out everything. But I'm still getting that winding noise but no start. Could it be the ignition coil?

 

if the ignition coil were bad, you wouldn't even be getting the winding noise.

 

Starter is probably shot from putting too much load on it. Try to bump/push start it

 

Thanks for all of the replies! Turns out the ECU was shorted so I swapped that and fixed the injector problem and the other problem is that water made it to my motor and it won't combust the fuel. Got her fixed and runs great!