Anybody had the check engine light come on after a car wash?? - was a one of these where the conveyer belt drags the car by the driver side wheels.

Was 'cleaned' underneath and ended up with a fair amount of water in the engine bay around the battery etc. Lots of steam billowing out from under the bonnet after I noticed the CEL.

 

not sure what your problem may be but I'm pretty sure everyone thats reading this is biting their knuckles at the same time!!

 

Its an engine where the spark plugs sit towards the bottom on the side

It could be something as simple as water has gotten into the coil pack. Get a code reader on it and find out what it is. Also there could have been water on the exhaust manifold etc

I really don't know what to say mate but it was an absent minded accident so won't give you a lecture

Hope you get it sorted

 

Dam! Sorry to hear that., certainly won't be using a car wash

 

Pays to have an undertray fitted.............

 

Plaster it in Muc off mo94.Like wd40 but better Imo.Great stuff.

 

do you have a cone filter ? i went thru a mahoosive puddle once and water got in thru the bonnet and into the filter/maf which turned the cel on, quick clean and dry and all good

 

If it's newage, let it stand and "drain" for a while. Remove air filter and make sure no water in the inlet. Carefully hair dry any wet connections under the bonnet. Start car 3 or 4 times taking the key out between attempts and the CEL (if not critical) will sort itself out. If not, its off to someone with a reader. Not all CEL's are terminal

 

Buy one of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Then install this on your phone: https://torque-bhp.com/wiki/Main_Page

 

Avoid these drive through car washes in future. Will not only cause you the issues you having now but will seriously swirl your paint work.

 

Thanks for all the ideas floated.

Turns out another underlying problem was fixed when the cause of this CEL was fixed. So I'm pretty happy I went through the car wash now, but won't be doing it again!

Time to research some car shampoos etc I reckon.

So anyway, CEL went off after leaving to dry for a couple days and starting 4-5 times with a few journeys. Seemed fine, then one day mid last week it came on randomly. Got the code read, came up as P0171 system too lean bank 1.

Wasn't actually running lean at all, so code was reset. Next day it came on again totally randomly just cruising along. Seemed fine, but idle was a little lumpy.

This time CEL not disappearing, 2 cold wet mornings at the start of this week it would not stay on without me revving, idle would just drop to zero and turn off.

Back to the garage with my mechanic thinking maybe faulty o2 sensors or exhaust leak somewhere, and bingo, it was the gasket leaking on the end of the link pipe on the middle of the exhaust manifold.

Even happier with the fix because for the last few months I have had 2nd 3rd and 4th opinions about my either noisy valves needing adjusting or noisey injectors. I'd been having a loud ticking noise - increased with rpm and load, sounded like it was coming from the rocker cover area, but not too bad when stationary, only when under load. Each mechanic said it was normal noise and sent me on my way. Until I'm guessing the car wash caused the exhaust blow to get worse quickly exacerbating the P0171 problem.

Back to full boost, vrrrreeeeoooooooooooooom pshshhhht

And for info this is on 52 reg Bugeye WRX with V34, STI TMIC, cold feed from cone in fog light hole and full decat.

 

Yeah never take them though a car wash, its paint suicide.