Help! Car backfiring after driving through puddle!

The message from snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com (Hugh) contains these words:

Was the water deep enough to have got some sucked in through the air intake? If so, you mave had sucked some in and bent a valve.

A big wave landed on my 405 1.6i once, and it backfired and drove like crap, turned out to be soaked leads, cos of the way they are routed one or 2 often get some of the plastic melted off, so they get wet inside.

Pull off the distrubutor cap- i'd put money on it that you;ll find it wet inside. Whilst it may not have leaked water in- when they get splashed with cold water they then tend to "sweat" inside (condensation from sudden temp drop) which causes your running problems.

Tim..

Cheers for the suggestions. The first thing I checked was the leads - bone dry and clean in the ends (I'll try and have a look for melted bits though).

The garage seems to think it might be No. 4 injector - I thought it was a monopoint injection system!!! Now they want to charge me to strip down the head. I don't have a great deal of confidence in the garage it was recovered to. I think it's time to get it towed nearer to home!

Any more suggestions would still be welcome though...

Hugh

I agree. And also water can get past the plug shrouds if there are any. So you'd need to take the plug leads off and thoroughly dry out the plug holes.

Rob Graham

half a can of wd40 over the electrics would probably be a worthwhile investment.