# A cautionary tale...



## Frank Martin (May 28, 2009)

I know this may sound like i'm preaching to the converted but thought i'd share this with you guys...

One of my bosses at work drives a limited edition Mondy Mk2 ST200. 
Prior to a show meet a few weeks back he thought it would be prudent to give the engine bay a last minute jet wash.

What he wasnt so prudent about was the protection of the electrics... and didnt take any precautions. 

Suffice to say after much post-wash-diagnostics the car still only runs on 4 cylinders, tho the ignition and fuel systems check out.

Its looking likely that the issue may even be a wallet crushing bent conrod or two following water ingress into the cylinder heads...

watch this space as they say


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## badly_dubbed (Dec 11, 2008)

ive heard of cars misfiring after an engine bay wash, and once fully dried out they ran fine.

water in the spark plugs was the problem

though i dunno if your boss has the same problem


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## Frank Martin (May 28, 2009)

well he said there's a healthy spark and i think he's swapped out the plugs, plug leads and the coil pack etc, y'know process of elimination 
I think he's running out of avenues to explore...


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## egon (Apr 25, 2007)

I'm confused as to how he managed to bend a rod, by jetwashing the engine?
The engine is gas tight (other than the oil filler and the breathers) and theres no way-unless he put the jet wash UP the inlet pipe or exhaust pipe-that he could have hydraulic locked the engine....


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## Frank Martin (May 28, 2009)

funnily enough I was kinda thinking the same but i didnt want to get into it as i'm not supremely confident talking about the workings of engines.
But i'm wondering if he removed some plumbing prior to washing? 
His theory is if water had got in the compression chamber with the valves closed all that expansion has got to manifest its self somewhere.
I think this weekend he will be mostly performing a compression test...


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## magic919 (Mar 11, 2007)

Water got into the cylinder heads? Not sure how he'd get it in there. And what that has to do with electrics I don't know.


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## Dodo Factory (Apr 11, 2007)

Yup, maybe if the spark plugs were really loose, but with that lack of compression it would have run like a dog before hand anyway. Water down the spark plug holes is a well known issue, especially with multivalve heads having the plugs so deep in the head, but rubber grommets and channels are designed to stop this and whilst misfires are common due to water down the sprak plug holes it is because the leads or coils arc out, not because water got in the cylinder head. Very odd indeed!


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## weemax (Sep 30, 2008)

one bad word in that - "jetwash". Now, in my humble experience there is really no need for a jet wash in the engine bay - just incase. Bit of a sh1tter, hope everything comes good.


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## -Kev- (Oct 30, 2007)

why the 5* rating? :lol:


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## RandomlySet (Jul 10, 2007)

fear not, i gave it 1 star to bring it down a notch


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## Frank Martin (May 28, 2009)

ok all resolved now... I dont know what planet he was on when he was fretting about ingress in the cylinder head but a diagnostic session highlighted that the ecu was overcompensating for a damp component somewhere even though he had dried everything...?

Buying him cling film for Xmas and maybe a brain


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## Dodo Factory (Apr 11, 2007)

LOL, bit of a spanner assuming water inside the cylinders and bent conrods etc. Mechanical failure like that from water ingress is highly unusual, but electric tomfoolery of a high or low voltage circuit kind is quite common.


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## Ti22 (Mar 24, 2009)

the only ones I can remember dying from stuff like that are the clio's with the low air intakes sucking up flood water and hyd. locking..


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## [email protected] (Jan 9, 2006)

Ti22 Vehicle Services said:


> the only ones I can remember dying from stuff like that are the clio's with the low air intakes sucking up flood water and hyd. locking..


And the f7 motors dont like getting wet with the spark plug cover hiding water, even after an exterior wash when water gets in the rain catcher the power steering struggles to begin with


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## MK1Campaign (Mar 27, 2007)

It would be pretty impossible to bend a con rod by washing the engine.


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## details (May 13, 2009)

Sounds like a wet air filter.


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## Sp3no (Jan 4, 2009)

Pug 306 TD's suffered from Hydraulic lock, the air filter location is under the front panel, a bit of flood water would bend the high compression engines in a heart beat.


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## TeZ (Oct 28, 2007)

More than likely the water has just got into the ECU case or into some electrics, very highly doubt its ****ed a conrod.


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## Ash-Lee (Jul 29, 2009)

You would know about it if he had bent a conrod, thats if the engine would even turn.

We get lots of injectors stuck open at work that fill the chambers with diesel and hydralock the engine, just a case of removing the pressure, 90% of the time nothing actually breaks.

The other 10% all that diesel does actually ignite and something breaks, bigtime.


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## diesel_dog (May 14, 2008)

Something about mondeo's ive done a couple and they alway's seem to run like dog's for a little bit afterward's but once they've dried out they seem to be fine.


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