Not wanting to run after going through water/mud.

[ShaneA319]

TL;DR Went through deep puddle, alternator quit, fixed alternator, jeep idled fine for 30min, now won't idle or drive well.


So here's what happened, last night I was on some trails just riding around, hitting some small puddles here and there. Then I hit one and drop almost to the top of the hood and got stuck, I was in there for about 10 minutes.

My alternator got clogged with mud from that, so we took the jeep home and parked it for the night. This morning I took off the alternator and cleaned it out, now it's fine and I let the jeep Idle for about 30 minutes in my driveway just to make sure it would keep charging and not break down again.

Then, when I am pulling out of my driveway I stop to shift from reverse to drive and the whole thing shutters and the engine slowly sputters off. Now the engine won't idle and I also can't drive it because every other minute the jeep shutters, rpm's go down and it acts like it wants to die until I pump the pedal a few times to revive it.

What could be going on?

 

[ParadiseXJ]

Sounds like you got the TPS soaked.

 

[8Mud]

Have you looked at the air filter yet?

 

[ShaneA319]

Sounds like you got the TPS soaked.

That's what I was told at autozone also. Any way to fix it without replacing it?

 

[ShaneA319]

Have you looked at the air filter yet?

It was relatively clean, but I did clean it and it didn't help...

I have a snorkel, so I'm pretty sure that's not the problem even though it's the first thing I checked.

 

[8Mud]

I'd look at the simple stuff first. I've drowned a few XJ's, though not a 98 (I'M guessing that is what we are talking about). Most times the problem was basic and not exotic. Like water under the dust cover/mounting plate in the distributor where it is hard to see. Or water in the ignition cables.

 

[sandsgg]

I Hate It When That Happens 8mud

 

[ShaneA319]

I'd look at the simple stuff first. I've drowned a few XJ's, though not a 98 (I'M guessing that is what we are talking about). Most times the problem was basic and not exotic. Like water under the dust cover/mounting plate in the distributor where it is hard to see. Or water in the ignition cables.

I'll check the distributor again, but wouldn't water in the cables show up immediately? Like I said, it started and idled fine for about 30min before the problems started.

 

[beastlydumass]

if it ran fine then started then u got mud/water in something and either shorted it or just not getting the contact it needs. so start troubleshooting with a budy

 

[8Mud]

Moisture migrates due to capillary action, heat turns water to vapor.

The reason I brought up the distributor, hard to see under the mounting plate or dust shield whatever it is called. If there is moisture down there, as the motor heats up it makes vapor that will eventull settle someplace critical. Or the shaft may sling it around some. If you have access to air, blow it out.

I'm just trying to think of some simple stuff you might check before you start buying sensors.

I'm not exactly sure what water does to later model TPS sensors, on the early Renix models it usually ran the idle way high and/or made for some really strange shifts in the tranny.

Just on a hunch, get some hot water and spray it onto the CPS. I've had them get oil soaked and act up, I'm not exactly sure what effect mud would have. I'm not exactly sure why a dirty CPS would cause problems, most likely because there is metal mixed in with whatever is coating them.

Check your spark if you can. Crisp blue/white (you can hear it crack),not fat and yellow or worse yet, thin and yellow and barley noticeable. You may be loosing enough 12 volt through moisture to cause you issues. The effective voltage getting to where it needs to be may be way low due to loss to ground through moisutre.

Just a side note, voltage below 9 volts doesn't ground through moisture well, at 6 volts hardly at all, 12 volts will noticeably. Typical sensor supply voltages are between 5-7 volts. the loss is much less. But sometimes a little is alot, when you are talking about percentges of a volt messaging the PCM.

After a mud bath I start disconnecting most everything and cleaning it out. Especially moving parts, the mud dries to fine silicates and maybe even sand. Suds and hot water to rinse, works as well as anything else does.

I've seprated my aternator before to clean it out, it looked like two cereral bowls half packed with mud. Most times a good spraying out with hot water is enough.

Mud is fun until it comes time for cleanup. If you skip the cleanup you'll only likely do that once, because multiple things will begin to fail quickly and it will get really expensive really fast.

 

[ShaneA319]

I've got a guy from my jeep club coming to help me troubleshoot, I'll update later.

Thanks for the detailed posts 8mud.

 

[ShaneA319]

Update:

Been working on it for the past few days, mainly on the TPS as that's the code it keeps coming up with.
I've replaced the TPS three times now and it's pretty much the same thing every time; start it up, sounds great, drive, runs great for 10-15min. Then the problems start back up, always after I've come to a stop. First thing it does is drop to a shaky 400-500rpm idle but can be kept alive by feathering the throttle. Another minute or two the throttle will become almost non responsive except for a couple quick jerks up to 1500-2000rpm then it stalls soon after.

Once it dies, it usually won't start right back up, wait 5min it'll start but idles very low and might stall. wait about 10+ minute and it'll start and run fine for a few minutes until the process starts all over again.

 

[ShaneA319]

Bump.


Installed Mopar tps today, still having the same problems.

I'm starting to think it's not the tps causing this. :hang:

 

[DieselBomber12v]

Was this problem ever solved? Because im having the exact problem to a T. Went into a puddle that was way too deep and got the front end submerged. Sorry to bring up an old thread but its very frustrating.