Ignition cuts out when car gets wet!
 

Alright I have been dealing with this problem since I got the car but enough is enough. Last night my 94 Protege LX stalled 1/4 mi. from my work and it is now stranded in some guy's parking lot. It started up fine but as soon as some of the snow started melting off of the hood it started sputtering and finally died and wouldn't restart. This has been an ongoing problem whenever it rains or snows.

My only idea as of right now is to seal up the distributor cap with some liquid gasket. I don't see how water could possibly drip into there though because it is located near the middle of the hood. Other than that maybe I have a short circuit somewhere or something?

Any ideas?

Not sure about your electrical, but don't rule out the possibility of it being a fuel related problem.

there are wires that run along the floor on the drivers side, you have a short somewhere where the water grounds out your wire causing your fuel pump to fail.

look for bare wires and the leak , patch the leak and run a new strand of wire .

pull up your back seat to find out what color the fuel pump wires are. then trace them towards your fuse pannel, plus unplu the wires on the bottom of your fuse pannel to prevent computer damage.


i strongly suggest you replace all wires that look corroded, i had water short out my brake lights as well as many other systems and and nearly caused my plenty of accidents.

theres a white clip under the carpet driverside rear door, thats where a good chance your problem lays


good luck

I know exactly what you are talking about, I just ran a power wire/RCA's for my amplifier alongside those wires. This problem has been happening before that though. My stereo has static too since I hooked up my subs and I suspect this is a related problem because I believe the stock speaker wires run along there too. I am really kicking myself for getting rid of my parts protege because I could have pulled the wiring harness off that. Oh well, I'll start looking for shorts tommorow (what a PITA, I hate electrical problems)

Thank you so much, you are a lifesaver.

check yur disty for cracks....

I was just checking out my distributor cap and I noticed there is a hole in it; not a crack or damage but a hole that was manufactured into it. I have all four plug wires plugged in and the power wire in the middle and there is this spare hole. Is something supposed to plug in there or what? Also, I feel there really isn't a good seal between the disty and the cap, is there supposed to be a gasket there? Also, some of the insulation has worn off one of the plug wires but not to the point that bare metal is showing.

Update:

The car now misses at all engine speeds in all driving conditions, wet or not. I now know it is an ignition problem because it has worsened to the point where the engine will cut out then if I feather/let off the gas pedal POP BANG POP the engine backfires from all the unburned fuel suddenly igniting.

I guess I am going to replace the plug wires/disty cap. I already went through all this with my Ford Probe GT and it wasn't fixed until I replaced the whole distributor!