Washed my car and now it isn't running right what's wrong?
I have a 2000 ford taurus with 190,000 miles on it. I was trying to pin point a leak I had so I degreesed my entire engine bay and everything and washed it. It ran really rough and had no acceleration. I then decided to let it dry for a few days. Still it will not go, when i drive it it only goes like 10-15 mph it almost went backwards on a hill and it didn't even rev the engine when doing so. I was told it may be a bad catalyitc converter but they said that would only really effect the high speeds in the car, I was also told it may be spark plugs but with it this bad all of the plugs would have to be blown and with that the car shouldn't even start. Please help I need my car to run because I move in a week. It had none of these problems before I washed it, just a leak by the engine oil pan.
Yeah. You know the idea a car engine is washable is limited. You probably got water in a connector and it has not dried up--or is replaced by corrosion. I got water in my TPS switch (at throttle) and car ran like hell until I cleaned it out.
So first look at everything electrical for anything that looks questionable. Also recall where you were spraying most heavily. The must be a few connectors that could be at fault. The distributor would be another likely trouble spot.
The easy cure for wet engine is a moisture displacer like WD-40, but you would have to open up the connectors.
It is also possible you knocked a vacuum hose off while washing.
I don't know that maybe you got water in the distributor, need to lift up the distributor and see and dry it out the best you can with paper towels or blow out with compressed air would be best, but dry it the best you can even if you can't dry it spray some WD40 in the distributor and spray some around were you think maybe you got water in like plugins and such electrical. WD40 will detisapate the moisture.
You probably screwed up a valve. That's what happened to my Expedition twice (I didn't learn the first time). The check engine light would come on and the engine ran rough when going up hills. I've washed engines from cars built in the 80s, but now you have to wipe them down with a cloth. Don't spray water no matter what the engine cleaning cans say.
You got water on something
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