Just finished washing my baby, jumped in to drive her into the garage for Sunday morning detail...won't start. The car try's to start, sputter's, starts briefly, rough idle, stalls. This happens a few times. I decide to let her sit for 20 minutes, go back out and same thing. Finally it starts and rough idle but am able to limp her into the garage (figure I might as well wax her running or not). About two hours later she fires up rough but then idle smoothes out. Take her around the block and temp. gauge goes right to high. Let her sit over night, start her this morning and no problems, check engine light is on but temp. gauge stays right at about 1/3, even after a drive around the block.
Dealership wants the car towed to them and are giving me loaner. I think it was a stuck thermostat but that's just a guess. Gas seems fine (93% octane) because I drove it with about 60 miles on same gas with no problems. Fluids/oil are all perfect levels. Car has 4,700 miles so I'm at a loss as to what can/was wrong. I'll keep you posted as to what the dealership diagnosis.

 

No idea. Let the dealer sort it out and don't drive it anymore....

 

Was the battery dead or something..?

 

not yet.

 

I don't think a stuck thermostat would cause this.

Sounds like you got some of the electrical bits wet or a small amount of water in the intake when you washed the car. They should be sealed well against moisture, but maybe not.

 

This reminds me of the early 90s Trans Am and Camaros with the optispark distributor. If you got the optispark wet, the car would run terrible.

 

sounds like water got somewhere is wasnt supposed to be at !!

 

Battery is fine, maybe I just washed the thing to death! Hood was closed for washing and the engine department is sealed so well I have a hard time with the water theory. And I can't imagine that would cause it to run hot. It's at the dealership and they were as interested as I as to what went wrong...keep you posted. Thanks for the responses!

 

Keep us posted. I'm interested to see what they find.

 

I'm leaning towards water in the intake and might got on the MAF. Doesn't take much, if shot up in there. Done this on my Z one time. But I knew for a fact that was the case. No SES light in that case. I let it dry out over the next few days and it was fine. But it could be anything. Keep us udated?

 

Exactly the same thing hapened to me yesterday!!!!
Im leaning towards moisture,why?
because i got the SEIBON Hood,and i belive that water caused the problem...

SH** maybe i should get rid of my Hood!

 

i have the seibon TS hood and wash my car once a week and havent had a problem... Also drive in the rain no problem. sounds like something else. Keep us updated

 

good to know....
On the other side i have experienced my navigation system freezing on me,and nothing working except for the rear view camera,no radio,no ac nothing.Then it reboots itself after a few minutes and everything is ok.

 

Service Dept. called and said diagnostics found many codes relating to "electircal". They cleared the ECU and are going to keep it for a few days, drive it around with pc attached and see if they can replicate problem. Told me the car is running fine. I'm leaning towards the water where it didn't belong theory at this point.

Side issue. They gave me an "08 G35 sedan" as a loaner. This car's throttle response is so much quicker then on my G37. WTF? The car "feels" quicker then mine. It just feels quicker to down shift (in sport or auto mode) and screams into the next gear. It has 20k vs. my 4700 miles. Any ideas?

 

I wonder if it's your G37 that is not quick to start with, becuase when I had the g35 loaner the throttle didn't feel as responsive as the G37 and in terms of acceleration it wasn't as quick either. I just wanted my baby back asap! some thing that makes you go Hhhmmm