I have a Injen CAI and my S2000 was sitting outside in the rain for the weekend. I started it this morning and the engine started to turn, then shortly after it suddenly stopped after an abrupt metal snapping noise. I had it towed to the dealer and a huge oil stain was left on my driveway along with parts of the broken oil pan. The dealer said that the car had hydrolocked. I'm having trouble understanding how it is possible to hydrolock an engine knowing that I have driven this vehicle in the rain many times before. It was only sitting in the rain.

Can anyone provide any information on this subject, it would be of great help.

Mark

 

oh yea it was just recently serviced a week ago for its 15,000 mile check up.

Mark

 

When you started it was it in standing water that was deep enough to submerge the filter?

 

nope it justed rained a whole lot that weekend...Nor'Easter types of rain in Maryland...It wasn't raining this morning nor their any flooding on my driveway around my car.

mark

 

If you didn't start the car in standing water, any water that MAY have flooded the tube earlier that night would have drained out in a few minutes once the water level subsided, so you can't blame water left in the pipe. There's obviously a bit of information missing here...

 

I'm Mark's brother, Anton. I just registered because I've been trying to read through the archives regarding the Injen intake and hydrolocking. From what I've read, I understand that most people have had trouble when driving their vehicles through deep puddles and so forth. Mark had told me that the vehicle was used once all weekend, driven home in the rain, and parked in our family's driveway which stands NO chance of any flooding whatsoever because of the elevation and grading. I'm not too familiar with the S2000, but I've seen the installation instructions to the Injen intake. It appears that the filter itself seems to reside in a fairly enclosed and protected space. No further modifications were made to that space from my understanding other than that of those required to install the intake. My questions are these:

1) Is there ANY possible way that water can build up over time in the area where the filter is located to cause such hydrolocking and catastrophic failure to the motor?

2) Are there any other known inherent weaknesses in the S2000's motor that could mimic such a catastrophic failure similar to that of hydrolocking? I've read about the #4 cylinder failure as an inherent weakness, but are there others? I'm concerned about this because perhaps some other sort of failure may have occured, and the dealer may be trying to put blame on the air intake as a cause for this failure.

Just based on what he told me, I'm having a very hard time believing that the engine hydrolocked. It seems that it would take a fairly massive amount of water to cause such a failure, especially at idle speeds. I'm hoping there is another explanation.

 

Don't think it hydrlocked and water can't accumulate in that area because plastic has tiny vent/drain holes where filter is placed. Are you sure no one took your car for a spin while you were gone and accidently ran through a puddle?

 

Yeah, I'm doubting hydrolock from this description as well. I've seen the Injen Design, and it can only pull up water while there is vacuum in the intake.

There is a vertical rise part of the Injen, which means that any water caught in there when the engine was off, would drain almost instantly as soon as you were out of the puddle.

It is possible that water had collected in the horizontal parts of the intake, but I still don't see there being enough water there to flood the cylinders and snap something.

BTW, how long was the engine running for before you heard the metal snapping noise? If it was more than a few seconds, it's almost impossible that it was hydrolock. (Unless the filter was *still* under water)

 

Have you considered that something was or wasn't done during the 15,000 mile service.
Was it serviced at the dealer?
Did they do an oil change? Maybe they forgot to fill it back up with oil.
Did they have the valve cover off? Maybe they dropped a wrench in there.
Just some other possibilities to look at.

 

1) No
2) I can't think of any...

Ask to see the head and pistons as soon as they take the head off...it's pretty obvious if it was water that caused the problem. Look for severe burning, melting, or carbon build up in #4, instead of water to support your non-hydrolocking theory. Hydrolocked engines don't take a few minutes, or even seconds to blow...once you shove water into a cylinder, it will only take one (MAYBE two) strokes before it gives up the ghost and snaps. If it ran for a few seconds, it wasn't hydrolock. However, if you pressed the button, and it almost immediately popped, you MAY have somehow gotten a lot of water in the intake plenum (HOW, I don't know)...did anyone leave the hood open during a rain storm, or did you pressure wash under the hood, do you have a vented aftermarket hood?