Leave it the garage and turn on the heat and let it sit for a couple days. You might have way to much moisture on the wiring and just needs to dry out. Or push it out into the sun to bake.

 

Did you not unplug the battery before you left it and the water came in? Salt water may have grounded some things out once it got up on the underside of the car. Salt water is very corosive and highly probable cause of shortly electricals out due to the salt. Salt is a good conductor of electricity. Hopefully it only discharged the battery and burned up a cell and didn't ground other electricals out. If you disconnected the battery, which I hope you did, this won't happen. I'm just throwing something out there.

 

Sounds like a clasic dead battery. From your description, it doesn't sound like the water reached anything important. Pull the battery out of the car, take it to your favorite auto parts center (Autozone, Sears, WalMart, etc.) and have them check it out. If bad, replace and report back.

 

Thanks everyone - I am getting ready to pull it down from the blocks and I might try to jump it after I check out everything again. I am pretty sure that no salt water (really mostly brackish water not entirely sea water) got on anything under the car except perhaps barely the bottom of the back 1/4 of the car.

I mean to disconnect the battery but I was running around taking care of a bunch of other stuff (had to get the CRX up on blocks too) and it just completely slipped my mind....

 

OK, I got the S off the blocks, got a jump and it started right up. All lights, radio, top worked fine. So far so good - I guess my bags over the exhausts didn't work out so well, as I had some water in there. I jacked up teh front end, and let the car run for about 10 minutes, and every time I would hit the gas a little water would come out, but I think almost all of it is out now.

Now for the not so good news - I still have a solid (not blinking) CEL. The car seems to run fine, engine sounded normal. I guess I need to go get the code pulled.

My question is - is it OK to do limited driving, at least as far as getting to my car guys? I can get it towed for free, so I don't have to drive it.

Thanks!

 

If there is no other indication of a problem (e.g. missing), it is considered safe to drive short distances with a solid CEL.

 

[QUOTE=Luft46,Nov 13 2009, 12:17 PM]Here's the story - I live in eastern Virginia, I just got about 2.5 feet of water (partially salt water too) in my yard and my garage from the big storm we just got.

 

I only have a few miles (about 10) to get to my car guys, I'll probably drive over there in the next day or so. Thanks!

2Kaputnik - I'm over in Hampton, I should know better but I didn't get out in time. Glad to hear you are OK too, I didn't even know there was any high ground over in Ghent.

 

Water will usually come out of the exhausts of any car when you hit the gas, unless you're talking about buckets or something.

 

Well, the 2-3 foot elevation of my garage was just enough. Next time though, I am inclined to take your approach and give it an extra boost with some ramps, or similar.