Help! Please Read, Need Help Quickly.

[Alex Devlin]

So here's what happened....

Last Sunday morning, my wife woke me up because our floor was wet. We quickly realized that our apartments were being flooded. My car was parked out front of our apartment and the water was already near the top of the headlights. After several hours the water subsided enough for me to get the car to higher ground.

Now I know that I should have just had the car towed and taken to the shop to be checked over, but I didn't. The car started ok and ran ok and both my wife’s and son’s car were not running, so we used my car to move our stuff to a hotel until we could get back into our apartment.

Apart from being dirty inside, the car drove fine for a day or so. Then it started to hesitate and had no power and eventually the transmission started to slip and wouldn't shift out of first. We crawled the car to our mechanics and left it there overnight. In the morning the mechanic checked the car and it drove fine. No hesitation, shifting fine, lots of power, everything as it should be. Then a few days later I had to break suddenly and turn sharp right into a parking lot and the car suddenly drove like crap. It has no power, takes forever to accelerate. It shifts ok but a little jerky. Runs ok, starts ok. The mechanic says it sounds like the timing belt slipped and the timing is out. It actually feels like it may be running on 4 cylinders although doesn't sound like it. There are no warning lights on the dash but I've yet to take it to get the codes read. I just don't want to drive it in case I'm wrecking the car.

Now here's my dilemma. The car is a 1990, has 256K miles and cost $3K. I love this car and just can't afford to get another one just yet. I need to take it into the shop to have them check it out but I just know it's going to be $$$$'s which I don't have due to this situation costing us pretty much everything we had.

So before I decide what to do next, and I'll have to wait until we have the money to take it to the shop, does ANYONE have an idea of what could be causing this? I guess I'm really hoping for someone who has come across this problem or these symptoms before and knows what to do. I can't afford to throw money at it or trade it for another car, and on top of all that my work fired me for taking 3 days off due to the flooding.

Well gee boss, I'd love to come into work but my apartment was flooded and my wife and I were wading through water/sewage and had to take some time off to clean out our house and find a place for us and our kids to live. :chairshot:

Anyone in Oklahoma City area hiring while I'm here? :whistles:

[qha_vn]

you have my sympathy Alex. i am sorry for your difficult situation right now

regarding the car, i think it should be taken thru a thorough cleaning before trying any engine start to prevent more severe problem. make sure you NEVER EVER try to start the car again before you have it clean up or you may end up killing the electric systems

the ECUs located under globox were probably soaked with water, first thing is to remove, clean and dry them all.

next is to remove the air filter, replace it if its wet

next thing would be the engine compartment cleaning, make sure all electrical plugs should be un-plugged and clean (a RP7 can will do this great)

next thing is to replace all oil: engine oil, tranny oil

to save money, you can diy all those things with some helps from the forum people (i.e. service manual, tutor links etc.) thats why we are always here

regarding the boss who fired you coz of this, he is a monster with no heart. by the way, do you have any insurance covered?

hope you will overcome this soon

[nc211]

1st up.... Call the OK Employment Commission and file a complaint right away. You just got screwed, and you have legal recourse big time for this!!! I don't care if you work for the biggest company, or pumpin' gas at the stab-n'-grab, under law, you were under distress by a natural disaster created by "an act of god". They still have "God" in Oklahoma, especially in Edmund.

Second. You have water in the engine. You need an oil change pronto, and a few bottles of HEET and Seafoam in the gas tank. When you started the car, you probably pulled in some water through the air filter. You need a new air filter too. You're going to have some problems with the car now, but remember, it is the LS400, and they're about as durable as any car ever made yesterday, and ever will be made tomorrow. But you need to get the water out of the oil and out of the fuel system. Once you've got that taken care of, you'll probably need some new spark plugs. The fact that you made a hard turn, proves that it's water somewere, sitting at the bottom of something, and when you turned, it swished around and got into the engine again. HEET is great at making water combustable, and seafoam will clean out any junk. I'd buy two bottles of each. Run the HEET first with a 1/2 tank, then seafoam with a 1/2 tank, then heet with a full tank, then seafoam again with a full tank.

I would also find a steep incline, park the car nose high, and rev it good. No doubt you have water in the exhaust system too. I'm sure you've probably got so much that when you stomped on the brakes and made that turn, that water went rushing towards the engine, and created an exhaust blockage, which prbably caused the engine to nearly stall. The steepest hill you can find, nose high, put on the brakes, and rev it up. I bet you get water pouring out of your tail pipes.

You guys out there have been getting pounded with rain this year! My parents spend the summers on Grand Lake, outside of Tulsa, and the water was nearly 18 feet above normal! A total loss of summer fun on the lake, thanks to all the debrie in the water.

[GKLCPA]

I'd also be wary of any electrical system problems that might crop up. I don't think there's much you can do about those until when and if they crop up.