1.8 petrol not starting after car wash

[volvopilot]

hi all,

I thoroughly washed my car yesterday (2006 S40 1.8 petrol). Today I was starting her up again and it was cranking fine, but it did not fire up.

The startermotor was strong, no dips. So battery and starter are 100% fine. I replaced my battery about 2 months ago.

After about 5 attempts of prolonged motoring it finally fired up. It smoked a little bit and smelled a little bit odd. After 1 minute of idling it ran like nothing happened. After turning it off and on again it fired up without any problems.

Now I'm a little worried about washing my car next time. Anybody had a similar problem before? And where does the intake air comes from? I think some soap/water/foam got into the air intake system somehow.

[StatusRed]

Originally Posted by volvopilot

hi all,

I thoroughly washed my car yesterday (2006 S40 1.8 petrol). Today I was starting her up again and it was cranking fine, but it did not fire up.

The startermotor was strong, no dips. So battery and starter are 100% fine. I replaced my battery about 2 months ago.

After about 5 attempts of prolonged motoring it finally fired up. It smoked a little bit and smelled a little bit odd. After 1 minute of idling it ran like nothing happened. After turning it off and on again it fired up without any problems.

Now I'm a little worried about washing my car next time. Anybody had a similar problem before? And where does the intake air comes from? I think some soap/water/foam got into the air intake system somehow.

Interesting..

The air intake is under the bonnet, so it gets air from the top of the front grille, unless I'm mistaken.

Might be worth checking all that plastic housing for cracks which could have led to water leaking in? Otherwise maybe you sprayed water directly into the top front of the grille?

I've never had any problems after washing my car though.

[Austin160]

Was the car washed with a pressure washer by any chance?