Celica Forums General Discussion Engine and Performance Hydrolock

Well my bro took my car out on the rainiest day in MA, and he hydroplaned with the AEM Intake and it took in water. This morning i started the car and i heard water moving from the hood and my car RPMS went up to 2K then dropped to 0,000RPMs. I got it to move again though, just had to move out of the garage fast. So how can i fix this. im guesing its minor hydrolock since it still moves fine

talk to lucky

aww man that sucks. I remember somewhere someone said you remove your wires and plugs and you can suck the water out like that. When you think you hydrolocked do not attempt to start the car again until you can suction out enough water.

Good luck though

https://celicahobby.com/ubbthrea...#Post1953417994

If you don't use a splash gaurd and or cover up your wheel well plastics holes and water repeatedly splashes on the filter, small amounts of water can be sucked through the filter and accumulate in the bend at the bottom of the cai tube and get sucked up into the engine.

i mean the car runs fine after the initial startup (if it is off for 6-7 hours then it has a little trouble starting up, but the rest is ok. I GOTTA GET THAT BYPASS VALVE PUT IN AFTER I FINSIH THIS UIP

be careful with those bypass valves. I'm thinking of getting one but at the same time i remember there was a warning about them because the valve would deteriorate and little pieces would be flying into your motor. Also, someone said having the bypass would defeat the purpose of a cai's gains. On the other hand though, someone said that aem fixed the problem.

There is the AEM bypass valve, but it is reported to not work well with our cars becasuse the cai tube is not long enough.

You can read the sport compact car review of it here:
http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/tech/0104scc_tested/index.html

i took some water on this weekend also
i just took the intake off, dumped the water out and she ran fine afterwards

Lucky_317's pics of what he had to do when he got water in his AEM cai:

https://celicahobby.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/362824/hydrolock-pictures.html

IMO the AEM bypass valve won't offer you much protection from hydrolocking.

These are some of the options availible to you:

1. Go with a short ram intake and heat shield.

2. Go with the cai, with a heat shield\splash guard, plus cover your wheel well vent holes, and be careful where you drive when it rains.

3. Get on the waiting list for the TPR intake which can be converted between cai and sri mode.

4. Cut your cai in two and then join it back together with a coupling hose and some hose clamps, so you can convert between CAI and SRI mode. That's basically the secret behind the TPR intakes ability to convert between the two modes. When the weather is crappy undue the coupler and stick the filter back on the short piece.

The guy in this thread went halfway there when he converted his e-bay CAI to an SRI:

https://celicahobby.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/417230/converted-ebay-aem-replica-to-sri.html

ned ot get urself a short ram

ok this thursday im gonna go home and follow Lucky's pics. i hope it works. Thanks for all the Help guys

you need to do it asap, your doing some serious damage running the car with water inside it. you can do all 10 kinds of nasty to it, dont start the car or even run it till you fix it.

i hope you realize the severity of the situation, your looking at a new motor if you dont take care of it right away.

you'll probably have to drain the oil as well.

good luck with taht

dont let the fucking RAIN get the best of you! You just gotta be a cautious driver during the rain season.

ya i dodged every puddle and went very slow over the inevitable but i took a turn and hydroplaned. and i felt the engine bog a bit. The mechanic i called said that the car shouldn't have any water if it runs the same and you just need a oil change. I believe he is wrong but can you guys tell me what you think

hahaha i took off my wheel well plastics..and i have CAI..

Hydrolocks are not minor, it means the end of the motor.

ok, how much do you think it will cost to fix this?

Just set aside three or four hours this Saturday, (preferably inside a nice warm garage if you are lucky enough to have access to one) and take your CAI off and inspect it; see if there is any water in the bend, check the MAF for water damage or corrosion, etc.

Then take a goose neck flash light and look inside the throttle body; if there is visible water in the intake manifold then your f**ked, and unless you know how to fix it yourself then it will cost you lots of money to have someone else fix it.

If however you see no signs of water, and the engine is running okay; then do what your mechanic said change the oil and consider yourself lucky.



You still have never said what the deal is with your CAI filter; is it exposed to the open road because you don't have engine or wheel well plastics in place?

If you do have the plastics; are your wheel well vent holes covered up? Got a heat shield or splash guard? Something?

Because if the answer to all those questions is no; then you need to do something to stop wheel wash, and splashes from things like hydroplaning and what not, from so easily getting on and in your filter. Think of it like a sticking a shop vac hose under a lawn sprinkler.

ya, i dont have a wheel plastic. im gonna fabricate my own. when i rev the engine to 3-4K rpms i hear water sounds. i opened up the intake today and the filter was dry and the piping near the bottom was waterless. i wanna check the engine my self but i dont know how to do that. even with lucky's pics i dont see what to do in each step. can i call my insurance company and see if they can take care of it?

Well good luck with that, if you talk them into it they will likely just jack your rates up.

You need professional help; Figure out a way to pay for it and Take it to a certified Toyota mechanic.

To rebuild the motor, about $7,000; to put in a used motor, about $4,000. If you did it yourself, you might be able to do it for about $2,500.

Not to be a dick, but you wont be laughing when your ASS get's a Hydrolock.

Guys, it happened to me last week, there was a big flood in Jakarta and i was driving in the flood condition in desperate attempt to save my car. the water level is about quarter of the wheel high and i had just moved for about 20 meters and the car just went dead

the AEM CAI has sucked in a lot of water and the car got towed to the nearest workshor. you won't believe how much water it sucked. they took down everything, drained every thing you can think of, and miracaously the engine was still unharmed.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT NOT TO START YOUR IGNITION WHEN YOU GOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT OF WATER IN IT!!!! It took 2 days for them to do the job and now everything is fine.

Its okay to turn your motor over with the spark plugs out, that's how you get the water out.

Last week you did this? I bet you aren't as lucky as you think. Give it another some more time & see if any problems develop.

Without a CAI, I had no trouble driving through a flooded street last year, the water was even coming in the doors, LOL.

I pmed you back. I been very busy lately and my pc has been goin psycho so I havent been posting much

hydrolock sucks man. happend to me. I even pulled the coil packs and spark plugs out right there where it happend and got what I thought was all the water so I could get her home to fix the rest and she still blew up. now I have a crappy motor that has no power and is a disgrace to the celica family

my sisters b/f just had this problem with his 3.1 V6 grand am...last night, we got a lot of rain and he was driving down the road about 55MHP and slammed right into about 2 feet of water...he doesnt have a CAI on his car either and it still managed to suck up some water. we towed the car to my house and pulled the plugs out and turned it over to get the water out of the cylinders. after we got the water out we put everything back together and started it up. it ran but water got mixed with the oil. after changing the oil... the car seemed fine...only time will tell if it'll be ok tho. keep an eye on ur celica...if you notice any noises or other problems...get it checked asap...just because it runs after you got it all cleaned out doesnt mean it'll keep running...theres always a possiblity that something got damaged

ya, im bringing it to my mechanic so he can get a better look at it today