Offroad-Express

Hi I have a Vitara JX that I bought only a few weeks ago and I had gone through some small puddles and the engine started to hesitate went away and ran fine after a while so didn't think much of it but last night I was driving and went through another small lost all power with foot flat took out of gear rev up fine then stalls couldn't start checked everything only thing I could think of is distributor getting water in it (distributor and surrounds wet) it has all new cap, rotor and leads (by the looks of them) left for a few mins then it started still sluggish after 1 min back to normal anyone have any ideas how to check thanks.

Yep will be water in ignition, easiest way I can think of to check it would be to get under the bonnet with it running and spray the various ignition parts with a hose.

I sprayed water all over didn't do it as bad as the puddle but did a little how do I seal up the dizzy? can I RTV seal it or is there a better way?
Thanks

One of the tricks I have heard is to get a rubber glove and cut the tips of the fingers off. Put it over the dizzy and cable tie the big part on the bottom of the dizzy and put the leads through the fingers and cable tie them as well.

A mates fj40 had a similar problem. The whole engine would cut out when the engine bay got wet. We sprayed water over the ignition system and found the coil lead to be faulty, we could hear the spark jump to the body just where the lead went into the coil. The lead looked new as well so it might be worth replacing them anyway.

Ignition leads.

The wifes old vitara did the same thing. Insulation breaks down and tracks to earth when they were wet. New set of leads should sort it.

Thanks yea the car just cuts if it gets wet I could hear sparks when I sprayed water over coil I also have been shocked myself and also my mate getting too close to coil while engine running when dry I will swap over coil lead and try again. coil lead doesn't look the best on ends just looks like cheap one

Check it running in the dark too.
Little blue sparks stand out well then. Old mechanics trick.
Electricity will take the easy way out.

deadduck wrote:Thanks yea the car just cuts if it gets wet I could hear sparks when I sprayed water over coil I also have been shocked myself and also my mate getting too close to coil while engine running when dry I will swap over coil lead and try again. coil lead doesn't look the best on ends just looks like cheap one

Thats what your looking for, replace that one and test it with water again.

Checking it in the dark is also a good trick.

Thank you for all your help it is now sorted it was coil lead.