Hi. I am trying to sell my 96 accord and I was trying to make it look its best for a potential buyer by washing under the hood with plain water(which I was told by my Honda certified tech man that doing so was perfectly ok). After washing it i drove it around for a few minutes and my temperature gauge shot up all the way to the H. So i immediatly went home and popped the hood. Smoke started rolling out from the fuse box. I took the cover off and didndt see any damage. I called my honda tech man and he said that it just needs to dry. So i let it sit with the hood up for about an hour or so. Everything was dry but once i started my car up the check engine light was now on and the car started Idling VERY oddly up and down up and down. There was also a not so good sound coming from the result of shifting into reverse and D3. I didnt know so much bad st uff could happen just from spraying the engine compartment with water. I was told by 3 or 4 "car people" that it was perfeclty ok. Any ideas on what could be causing the problem? I relaly dont want to have to spend another 300 dollars just to get something fixed before i can sell the car. Any help or thoughts would be appreciated. thanks

 

The most common problem from engine washing is water getting into the dist cap.
Remove it and spray it out with some brake clean to evaporate the moisture.
Also pull the plug wires from the valve cover to be sure the 'wells' aren't full of water.

 

right on

 

[quote]ORIGINAL: deserthonda

i would do as Dude suggested and see if that helps ........