MR2 Owners Club

So after reading the mixed reviews I power washed the engine bay, so it looks amazing but then the problem starts....
I had to go out and starting up initially was fine, but I got to the end of the street and it stalled, on start up again it spluttered and struggled and kept backfiring and just wouldn't run smoothly. I went for a drive hoping that the heat from the engine will dry it out and sort the problem. But acceleration was almost non-existent and kept jumping rather than powering up like it usually does. I drove around and went on some of the back road just outside of town, not too far, and eventually pulled over because it was an uncomfortable drive and I needed a break. When I try to start the car again it kept rocking over and back firing but the enjoy wouldn't start... So I slept in the sun for an hour and a bit to let the engine dry off and it started up (with a fight) and I managed to get home very slowly... I left it the remainder of the afternoon with the cover open to soak in the rays and hopefully dry out, but I've just gone back to it again and it still won't go.

I would just be fine to leave it but I have unmissable appointments tomorrow and it's not going to get chance to dry out any more before then, does anyone have any ideas what I've done and how I could make it better? You're probably all going to think I'm an idiot, which I obviously am, but aside from stating the obvious can anyone please help?

Sounds like you've got water in the distributor cap, or ignition coil.

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I would start at distributor cap ! Take it off and dry it out with kitchen roll or similar . Good luck.

Thinking about it you could have the same symptoms with plug leads ! If its not dizzy cap take the plug leads out 1 at a time and dry them out + the top of the plugs .

Before I started unbolting the dizzy from the engine I took the sparks off and guess what? water! And lots of it! I had basically flooded my sparks so I threw some rags in there and soaked up all the water except the little bits right down in the bottom of the spark sockets, I ran it and it had calmed down considerably but still backfired and cut out after a few minutes. But the engine is hot so hopefully that will dry out the little bit thats left and I'm leaving the sparks out for the night.

I'll let you all know what happens and thank you for the fast responses!

Next time you think about power washing your engine bay, don't!

HM

Cheers Kiz haha, I'll have to bare that in mind! Even though its nice and clean I could have done a better job by hand anyway

I properly cleaned out the engine today, I took the engine valley plate off and stuck loads of cloth in there to soak up the water. I also took apart the dizzy and no surprise, water... Once it was all fully dried out I reassembled it all and it ran really well But I started it again a while later and although it runs its a bit sluggish and can complain at acceleration, could it be condensation forming in the dizzy and I need to open it again? If not is there anything I could have missed that the water has only just got to?

TigerTebb wrote:I properly cleaned out the engine today, I took the engine valley plate off and stuck loads of cloth in there to soak up the water. I also took apart the dizzy and no surprise, water... Once it was all fully dried out I reassembled it all and it ran really well But I started it again a while later and although it runs its a bit sluggish and can complain at acceleration, could it be condensation forming in the dizzy and I need to open it again? If not is there anything I could have missed that the water has only just got to?

Always a lottery if you power wash an engine.

Think you will need to keep drying out the dizzy, plugs , igniter and coil. What will help you would be WD40 or similar to get rid of the damp and put in a protective layer.
In the past when ever I did a power wash - plastic bags over everything electrical that could be an issue (taped or zip tied). Still had issues on a couple after that needed drying out.
Only done my V6 once and it ran home on 4 cylinders for about 2 miles. Never again.

Ok thanks Pete, I'll go over it all again tomorrow and make sure there's no water anywhere I don't think plastic bags are going to sell it I'm afraid haha I'm going to stick to hand washing it as I can get a much better result from it It's amazing what a bottle of panel cleaner can do in the engine bay

I cling film all electrical components when I jet wash my engine. Even then I'll only do it when the engine is hot, still running, and only spray it for a couple of seconds.

WD40 will help after you've removed as much water as possible. I don't think I'd go near an engine with a power washer.