I wanted to get the salt off my truck so I was pressure washing the undercarriage and decided to rinse off the engine. I was careful not to spray the fuse box but I didn't think about the truck still being warm when I rinsed it and the water being pretty cold. When a started the truck up and put it in drive the truck had this very slight shudder while it was idling. Al I decided to drive it to let the car dry off a bit and when I drove off the shuddering stopped. I put it in reverse to check it out and it shuddered a bit while I backed it up. I drove it an hour later, now it will not shudder driving forward or while it is in reverse but when u stop the car and go from drive to reverse it does the little shudder, it's more of a slightly off idle really. Please tell me I didn't ruin the truck.

 

My 01 did that also before I changed the plug wire and plugs. Good news is that even before I changed the wires, the next day the truck had smoothed out.

 

Something got wet.
You must always let the engine cool at least 15 min before washing it and never use the high pressure to do so.

 

every connector under my hood has been douched in di-electric grease. i also clean and coat everything in wd-40. all the plastic lids and aluminum. i off road the crap outta my truck and nothing sticks to my engine compartment

my logic is that the body can stay filthy all it wants. but when it comes time to crank on things under the hood. the cleaner the better. less filth and crap that will get in your eyes and all over you.

 

Is your CEL/SES light on?

Open your air box, check your air filter to see if it got wet.
Check your MAF for any moisture.

 

No shudder, no lights on, no water in the air intake on the way into the office this morning, which is a relief. Thanks for the advice, I should have known better than to spray cold water on a hot engine.

 

I bet your plug wires are old and they were arching a bit when wet, but are fine now that they are dry. People drive through cold water with hot engines all the time, it's not just that.

 

If you have the factory grey plug wires, that is your problem, other then that D2's do love water unlike D1's. I power scrub my engine, top and bottom after every trail run or hard snow.

 

I noticed under the hood there isn't much protection on the electronics from water. I was under the impression these trucks came ready to tackle some water right off the lot. All the connectors and fuse boxes in my truck seem exposed. Even more so than the electronics in my other cars.

Is this normal or am I missing some shields? I bought this used and it's my first one.

I'm afraid to hose the motor off because of the amount of electrical exposures under the hood. Should I hold off until I can “douche” with grease or will it be ok? I don’t plan on doing any water crossings but I’d like to hose the motor off so when I work on it I don’t have trash under the hood getting in things it shouldn’t.

I hosed the motor off on my Probe GT years ago and it barely made it out of the car wash. Not sure I want to go through that again.

 

You should not have any problems if your plug wires are good.
Don't whack your electronics and electric components directly with the pressure washer and you will not have any problems.