So I had a bit of a run in with a semi-flooded road this past weekend. Unfortunately visibility was horrific and I failed to spot the foot of water on the street. Long story short I nailed it, the car slowed massively, and I got on the gas to power through it before I stopped and the water actually settled around me. I made it through unscathed (I was more soiling myself than anything at that point), but it happened a second time with less deep water right before I got home. The night finished up with arriving at home without any power and the house being unbearably hot.
The next day I went out and checked out my car, it looked great assuming it had doubled as a boat the night before. The car fired right up immediately, no noises or anything. I was as thrilled as could be (as well as impressed). I went to pull out of the street and I got a loud buzz when I got on the gas with the wheel turned. As I started returning the wheel to straight the sound lessened. So I took an immediate sharp turn asap and the buzz only returned in a slight range of steering lock. I figured it was a skid plate scraping and headed for the highway since I had somewhere to be. After hitting highway'ish speeds (55+) there was a metal vibration noise. I took the immediate next exit (where I found another road that was horrifically flooded, a Tiburon was actually mostly under water on that road, scary stuff). I made it back home without doing any further impromptu boating.
I checked my intake out and the filter was a little bit damp, but not wet by any means. I brought the filter inside the house and let it dry out quite a bit. I checked the oil, no water there. I did a visible check on the suspension, nothing appeared broken there. I did find that my fender liners had popped out of place, so I fixed them (noise is still present after this). And now as of this morning, the noise is also present on cold start with the car in park.
I didnt get a chance to check any metal heat shields and I'm guessing that is what it is. Does anyone have any other recommendations for spots to check?
check the reservoir for the intake (it catches any water that potentially could hydro lock the engine when the intake can suck up water) its probably full and Im not sure from there. Sorry
Kinda hard to tell, check the C/V axles for rips in the boots and the Power Steering reservoir level.
yeah check all of that but not the power steering reservoir as we dont have one...but check all of the electric power steering components too. Steering shaft and rack and pinion
check the reservoir for the intake (it catches any water that potentially could hydro lock the engine when the intake can suck up water) its probably full and Im not sure from there. Sorry
odd question, but where is this reservoir located? if it's full of water i'd definitely like to drain it if possible. I did sop up a small amount of water in the bottom of the intake when i pulled the filter, I'm assuming you're referring to something different.
as for CV boots, i didnt notice any tears in them when i had it up on ramps last night. I'll probably get out the jack and jackstands tonight and do a better undercarriage inspection.
Last edited by chris102984; 07-28-2011 at 11:26 AM.
its in a lot of new cars now....I miss old fashioned power steering. when I get into my moms 03 4runner, the smoothness it has and the feeling is just absolutely amazing vs. mine which feels weird lol
Quote:
Originally Posted by chris102984
odd question, but where is this reservoir located? if it's full of water i'd definitely like to drain it if possible. I did sop up a small amount of water in the bottom of the intake when i pulled the filter, I'm assuming you're referring to something different.
as for CV boots, i didnt notice any tears in them when i had it up on ramps last night. I'll probably get out the jack and jackstands tonight and do a better undercarriage inspection.
if you are staring at the engine bay its next to the battery area..... there will be a lot of plastic crap for the intake most of it is tubing...so to look at it the easiest way is to take off the splash shield in the wheel well area or take off the bumper.
its in a lot of new cars now....I miss old fashioned power steering. when I get into my moms 03 4runner, the smoothness it has and the feeling is just absolutely amazing vs. mine which feels weird lol
if you are staring at the engine bay its next to the battery area..... there will be a lot of plastic crap for the intake most of it is tubing...so to look at it the easiest way is to take off the splash shield in the wheel well area or take off the bumper.
thank you very much, i'll investigate that this evening as well.
Hopefully there's nothing majorly wrong with the car, I've been considering selling it in the near future and really don't want to dump a ton of cash into it.
thank you very much, i'll investigate that this evening as well.
Hopefully there's nothing majorly wrong with the car, I've been considering selling it in the near future and really don't want to dump a ton of cash into it.
well the water catch canister was bone dry when i removed it. I really cant see much in the way of heat shields (this car is a nightmare to work under) that could be vibrating. I tried to bend back the one on the cat just to make sure it wasn't rubbing.
I also pushed/pulled the wheels between full lock while spinning the tire by hand, so far no noises other than the CV boot creaking at full lock. And that's happening on both sides so I figured that'd be typical. I'm really not sure where to go from here.
I figured I'd post the solution. The rear exhaust shield had partially torn away from the body. The shield vibrated through the exhaust system to resonate up to the cabin/engine bay. I fixed the two tears in the exhaust shield and now the sound is gone. I'd still like to thank you folks for the recommendations, they all were very helpful. I'm glad I posted on here for the advice.
The Following User Says Thank You to chris102984 For This Useful Post:
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1999 Toyota Avalon
I didn't know that.
Linear Mode
