Engine problems after car washes

[robbieshaftTM]

The last two times I've washed my car with jet wash, driving back home the car misfires badly, then cut completley, the last time i washed it the same happens but then theres clicking coming from the throttle body, fuses, relays click, all sorts of funny noises, the guages jump, could this be water getting onto the ECU? maybe?. Anyone?

 

[Tigas Bud]

Step one; Find your radio code, if you are having electrical problems you're going to need it because you'll be disconnecting the negative terminal on the battery.
Now I'll digress to a moment of personal experience, First car was a 1973 Subaru GL it used to exhibit rough running in the rain or after a bath. It used to get water under the distributer cap and also thru the main plug wire on the cap.
BMW has no distributer but has coils 1 per cylinder in a 4 cylinder mounted on the passenger side strut tower. Take off the plastic cover and check to see if the connections are together tight and there isn't any corrosion. If those are ok then check the other end at the plugs and make sure those are tight and corrosion free. If you haven't changed plugs in the last 30-50K you can do that while your there.
Another thought if I had the problem I might try to have the car running and carefully lightly spray the wires and connections with a hand spray bottle to see if that creates the same situations as jet washing, that's how we found the trouble with the '73 Urabus.
I see you're from Dublin maybe the coils are driver side if the car is right hand drive.
Cheers

 

[MMLJTIGER]

car wash trouble

Hi there,

The DME(ECU) is located, I think, on the passenger's side, under the windshield front cowl (the piece that the wipers come through). I think that it's possible that water is coming in there and affecting your DME.
Check the seals around the firewall. You might also be looking at the windshield seals as well.

just my two cents,
Tiger

 

[robbieshaftTM]

hey tigas and mmltiger, for tigas every time i disconnected the negative it made more clicks, and then reconnected the clicks go biserk again, the first thing i checked were the coils as it was misfiring badly before she cut out, the entire engine bay was dry, i changed the plugs about 10K ago. So as the engine bay was water free thats when i started looking at what MMLTIGER is saying, what else could cause the engine to fail completley like this and for the electrics to go crazy, next morning i tried to start and everythings ok again, sounding and running perfect. If water is getting onto the DME (ECU) wouldn't it drive the car mad? thanks for your replys and suggestions