Water-Logged Riv

Can anyone help 3 weeks ago I filled up with premium gas, and it came a down pour and I ran through a puddle of unaboidable water. Since my car has been bogging down when accelerating. We have changed the fuel filter and put in Heet x 4, and various other kinds of injector cleaners and water removers. We have tried to think of everything that could be wrong. Any ideas ?? Thanks in advance

Is this a Buick Riviera? What year?

1995 Buick Riviera Supercharged. 3800

First, I would check fuel pressure. Then, if the wires and plugs have not been replaced in awhile, that would be next.

Quote :

Can anyone help 3 weeks ago I filled up with premium gas...

Do you usually fill up with premium, or was this a special occasion?

Always fill up with prem.

Me too....

Well how much water are we talking? I think you'd have to be submerged to an extent for any real damage...or if you decided to hit a giant puddle doing like 70+...you might be a victim of coincidence. Verify fuel pressure, check spark/ignition components, check fuses.

The water was just in a low spot that was probably 6-8" deep. I questioned if I got a bad tankful of gas or if it was the puddle or just a coincidence. We have checked everything plugs, wires, changed fuel filter took it out again today to see if it was still okay. When we started her up today it smelled flooded after about 20 seconds of being started,I have no warning lights that come on, I drive it about 500 miles a week. Other than this bogging down she runs very smooth. With out being able to hook up a DX tester, we are stumped. It has us reeling....

It is very difficult to diagnose something like this. Bogging down usually means lack of fuel. That is why you must check your fuel pressure. A misfire will feel like a stutter when you load the engine with moderate acceleration.

I'm leaning toward ignition. We've seen the wires and plugs (or possibly a coil) cause shuddering on SC cars so many times before.

I really appreciate all of the input from everyone !! Y'all are the best !! Thank you

Although many of the ignition things mentioned are maintenance items and should probably be done anyway, in this case I wouldn't bother with any of them until you've run out that tank of gas and filled up with fresh gas from a quality station. For the supercharged motor, always use premium - it does need the octane. If it's still acting like this after a tank of new gas, then start looking at ignition issues.

AA wrote:

I'm leaning toward ignition. We've seen the wires and plugs (or possibly a coil) cause shuddering on SC cars so many times before.

Yup, but is it stuttering, or bogging down? I can't tell from anything that's been posted so far.

deekster_caddy wrote:

Although many of the ignition things mentioned are maintenance items and should probably be done anyway, in this case I wouldn't bother with any of them until you've run out that tank of gas and filled up with fresh gas from a quality station. For the supercharged motor, always use premium - it does need the octane. If it's still acting like this after a tank of new gas, then start looking at ignition issues.

I have ran all of the "bad" gas from when this first began out and gave filled up and added many kinds of cleaners to the fuel. Yep, it stutters and bogs down. On a long staright road, like a hiway she smoothes out until a hill or incline, then I get the stuttering and have to totally let off the gas to accelerate. I have always ran the high octane gas in my car. Never ethanol.

Definitely sounds like a bad wire or something then.....Bad wires are usually "fine" until you have to give it a substantial amount of throttle. The extra spark needed is enough to flow through the bad wire. I'd check around the backside of the engine for a wire rubbed through near the engine support.

When my ignition wires started doing this at ~120k miles, they still looked very good. Nothing physically wrong with the jackets or boots. Over time the insulation can break down and create a short under high loads.

I had a similar problem a while back, not sure what caused it, but it somehow fixed itself...

Basically, anytime I was driving 50-60+ mph and hit the brakes, it would bog down and my car would hardly accelerate UNTIL I slowed down to about 40-42 MPH. Then it would clear up and accelerate just fine. When I would accelerate during this "bogged down" phase, my exhaust would smell really nasty. I had a thread on the forum about it (not sure where it went) but sometime in the past few weeks it fixed itself. The last thing I did that I can remember was replace the O2 sensor. It has also been much colder lately, and yesterday I replaced the engine coolant temperature sensor under the throttle body...but even before that, I couldn't replicate the problem. So who knows.

Your problem sounds different than the OP's. kristi69's description indicates the stutter happens under high load/boost, not bogging down at speed. A bad wire set or spark plug won't heal itself - it only gets worse over time.

My bad, I meant to include that if I was on a level surface not having to give much throttle it was fine...but on an incline when the engine was under more load or I'd have to accelerate more, it would do the funky bogged down/lack of power thing. That's why I thought OP could be having a similar problem. Basically anything other than light throttle caused issues until I slowed down enough.

kristi69 wrote:

I have ran all of the "bad" gas from when this first began out and gave filled up and added many kinds of cleaners to the fuel. Yep, it stutters and bogs down. On a long staright road, like a hiway she smoothes out until a hill or incline, then I get the stuttering and have to totally let off the gas to accelerate. I have always ran the high octane gas in my car. Never ethanol.

Okay, that's important to know. It is very possible the ignition stuff is worn. You can't see cracked wires visibly, but what you are describing is more like a broken spark plug. Perhaps the puddle violently hit the front or rear spark plugs and the blast from the wave caused a plug to crack?

What you are describing - running okay on light throttle/flat and breaking up under medium load - is consistent with a broken spark plug in my experience. What happens at heavy throttle? Does the sputtering get worse or better?

the plug on the crank sensor prolly has moisture in it. I made the mistake of using the garden hose on my 95 to wash off the motor and all the plugs got moisture in them. I had to unplug every thing on the top of the motor and let it sit over night. since the crank position sensor is low it might of got some moisture in it as well but iv never tried to reach down there and unplug one. It just takes time for it all to dry out. pull the plug on the MAF and see if there is moisture in it.

We replaced the coils on my Riv and it runs like a race car. Gosh what a differnce, thanks foe all of the help.

kristi69 wrote:

We replaced the coils on my Riv and it runs like a race car. Gosh what a differnce, thanks foe all of the help.

Good to hear you got it resolved!

Jbird