I have a 2002 Dodge Neon.

Ok, so I am driving into a hotel parking lot and didn’t realize the parking lot was flooded. I guess the drain pipe got clogged. Anyhow, I was driving about 5 mph and then the engine died. I got out and the water was almost up to my door. So I pushed it out of this puddle and tried to start the car. At first the gauges went wild. After 15 minutes when I turned the key gauges were fine and radio worked. I looked under the hood and it does not look like water got onto of the engine. I called a friend said to wait a few hours and try again. The engine was trying to crank but wouldn’t start.

After about 1 hour the gauges started to function normally. The car almost kicked over, but no luck. So waited for another 3 hours. This time the engine starts up, but there is a loud clunking sound. It was midnight at this time and now I am at work. I plan to see if it cranks again at my lunch break. Could this sound simply mean that the oil needs drained and replaced?

Any input would be great!

 

you're lucky it isn't completely hydrolocked.. an oil change would definitely be a good thing to do

 

well there is alot of things that could have gone wrong, if water was that deeep then most likely the fan sprayed water everywhere, and is your intake stock? cause if you have a CAI that runs down through the fender you could of sucked up water even stock theres a chance you did, another thing is did you check to see if you have any water in the radiator? ive seen cold water put right on a hot radiator crack it before, most unlikely but you never know, it could be a number of other things, the clunking could be from a miss fire in the plugs, you could check your oil see if water got in there and turned it to sludge, im no expert but i got 10 years of offroading experience with my truck and one thing i have learned is water is your enemy, i cant say how many times ive been left stranded and had to wench out cause i got water in somthing somewhere, ive learned from it, my engine is completly water tight i can chug through water 7 feet deep with no problem.