Last night I cleaned my engine bay using Simple Green and water. I did not cover anything in the bay, but I was also careful not to directly spray the distributor or the battery. The car ran fine last night.

This morning on my way to school, the car feels like it "bogs down" when you press on the gas. If I'm just slowly accelerating, there's no problem. But if I shift and touch the gas (not much) it bogs down or if I get on the gas it'll bog down. By bog down, I mean it loses all power and has lots of vibration and makes a disturbing gurgling sound.

What's happening to my car? Need to fix it quick. Bad distributor, misfiring, water in the spark plugs, etc.?

Ben

 

Check your distributor cap & plug wires... Wait till after dark, engine cold. Take off your spark plug cover (if DOHC), start the engine & look for arcing. Sparks or a dull blue glow around the wires or cap is what you're looking for, if they're bad.

You may just have splashed some dirty water on your cap or wires, but since you didn't spray them directly it never got washed off. When my cap & wires get dirty I take them off & wash them. If you ran it long with arcing across the surface of the cap, then the surface probably got etched by the arcs. Time to get a new cap (&/or wires).

 

Might want to let the engine sit out in the sun with the hood open. So any water that may have accumulated will dry up, and then give it a try.

 

you might have to check the spark plugs water might be in there and the coil in the distributor cap

 

Turns out... water got in the spark plug wells from when I washed the car. Some may have gotten in the cylinder too, I'm not sure. Anyway, several times throughout the afternoon I pulled the plug connectors out and let the wells dry out - it took a while. When i got home I yanked the spark plugs themselves out, cranked it without them in to blow **** out, then cleaned the wells with a Q-Tip on a plier, installed new plugs, and reconnected everything. Its all good now!

Ben