HELP - Mud Puddle Nightmare
 

Alright folks, hang onto your hats. This story is a doozy.

So earlier today me and a few friends were wheeling on Peter's Mill Run in the beautiful George Washington National Forest (really fun run, btw). We made it about 8/10 of the way through we drove by a tempting puddle of mud. After a few minutes of consideration and some adolescent peer pressure (you can see where this is going, I'm sure.) we decided to give it a shot. I drove back around, lined myself up, got some speed, and went for it. WELP. I made it about five feet into the obstacle and my engine stalled. The water was decently high, it came to just above the top of my bumper. Another friend of mine who happened to be on the trail about 30 min behind us found us, stumbled upon our rather precarious situation, and after telling me I'm an idiot a good few times, managed to help get us out.

We let it sit on the trail for a few minutes to drain some of the water out, and then attempted to start the engine. I did not hear any clicking sound associated with water lock, but the engine would not turn over. I opened up the hood and took a look around there was mud and water everywhere. I opened up my cold air intake, and low and be hold there is about 2.5 inches of water at the bottom and the filter itself is filthy and wet. I took the filter out, and disassembled the rest of the after market intake manifold and then drained the box of its watery contents, then examined the everything. My maf was pretty dirty, and there was some more water in the manifold, however there was very little dirt and water around the throttle body. I reassembled everything, and low and behold the engine turned over. As expected, the check engine light was on. The only audible issue was a light ticking sound coming from what sound like the front of the engine. I also noticed the throttle response was very lagy.

I was able to gimp through the rest of the trail and the 50 or so miles home to Springfield. I busted out the good old code reader, and plugged it in to find a laundry list of problems. P06DD (DUAL STAGE OIL PUMP STUCK LOW), P000D (CAMSHAFT 2 POSITION SLOW RESPONSE), P0394 (CAMSHAFT POSITION SENSOR 'B' CIRCUIT INTERMITTENT BANK 2), P0016 (CAMSHAFT POSITION CORRELATION - BANK 1 SENSOR A), and P0017 (CAMSHAFT POSITION CORRELATION - BANK 1 SENSOR B). It seems to me that this could be caused by a short circuit from the water, getting water in the oil, and damaging the oil pump.

I plan on cleaning the hell out of the engine bay tomorrow, cleaning the intake, changing my oil, changing my gas, and then changing my spark plugs. After that, I'm taking it into the dealership to see what they can do about an oil pump.

I guess what I need help with, is what else could be wrong to cause the camshaft codes? And how screwed is my wallet going to be?

Thanks in advance!

I can't help you with your questions, but I'm just wondering, is this a good advertisement for why jeeps should not have a cold air intake?

Are we to guess you've got the 3.6l? Changing out the gas won't do much for you because that system is pretty well sealed. Your best bet is not to drive it until you get everything cleaned up even though you've already put 50 miles on it since the incident.

Wd-40 in the cylinder holes will help clear up water but as the saying goes "you've got to pay to play".....it could be pricy as motors aren't meant to burn water.

And that's if you can find a motor. A friend of mine did much the same thing a few weeks ago and he is not having much luck finding a replacement motor.

I know this doesn't help with your problem, but I never understand why people want to get a running start at things. Water should be a slow and steady thing....you don't want that splashing around, ESPECIALLY if you have a CAI. If you need a running start to get through some thick mud.....you probably don't need to be getting in to said mud. I know you've already gotten an ear full about that stuff, and sure you probably beat yourself up over it already plenty enough. Maybe it will help some other person thing twice in the future.

After cleaning it up, changing fluids, and resetting codes, do the camshaft codes come back? I'd probably go so far as to clean every electrical connection in the engine bay with contact cleaner and maybe use a little dielectric grease to help moving forward.

Cut your losses. Good excuse for a Hemi or LS engine swap. :thumbsup:

Uhh....why did you go into water with a CAI? Isn't that a recipe for an instant, expensive disaster? :thinking:

i wouldn't say that...a sealed intake is just like the stock one i believe....but breaths better.

We don't know the specifics of this guys setup. However, in general, cold air intakes are generally much worse at prevent water ingress compared to the stock setup. In my opinion, they have no business being on a Jeep that may be taken off road in water unless the intake opening is at the top of a snorkel.

And i totally agree with you...i have a sealed intake on my Jeep and an "open" cold air on my old Porsche....different intakes for different applications in my eyes.

A question though, if you had a snorkel set-up wouldn't you get even better performance due to it being sorta like a "ram air" intake over all the intakes that stay under your hood?:thinking: