Re: car won't start after engine cleaning (archive)

The car started today! Whatever I got wet has apparently dried and the car runs as good as it ever did! I appreciate all your feedback and suggestions, luckily for me it fixed itself. Thanks again!

Mark '83 533i 286k
OK, here's the situation. Earlier today I went out and bought a can of STP engine degreaser to clean my engine. I made sure that the distributor cap didn't get wet, and the spark plugs too. I went to my local car wash, cleaned the engine (btw STP works awesome!) and went to start the car to drive home. It sputtered when idleing, and I had to keep it above 2k RPM to keep it from dying. I was able to drive it home (occasionaly having to restart at a stop light) and noticed that it was mproving as I drove it. So I continued to drive an additional 15 minutes at so at high RPM's (about 3k or so) and by the time I arrived home it was much better. It idled rough, but at least it stayed running at idle. I figured give it a little time to completrly dry whatever got wet, and it should be back to normal in a short time.

Well, I went to the garage about 5 hours later to see how it was, and now it won't start! It turns over, but will not start at all. It almost sounds as if it were flooded, but I only turned her over 4 or 5 times so that should not be the case.

Is there something else to worry about keeping dry besides the distributor and plugs when cleaning the engine? Did I majorly screw something up? I have done this on several other cars with no problem at all, but this is the first time I have done to my 533i. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Mark '83 533i 286k

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