1998 Volkswagen Golf Drove through large puddles, is my car

ZALIM

MEMBER
1998 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF
4 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
181,000 MILES

Hi,

I accidentally drove through large puddles on Christmas Eve and my VW Golf stalled as I was turning into the grocery store. It scared me to death as the person behind me could have slammed into me. I had my car towed to the dealer who eventually identified that an ignition coil was cracked and didn't react well to getting wet. They are recommending I replace it ($400).

I have been reading on the Internet about the damage water causes and now I am very worried about what I've done - I can't sleep. Did I destroy a $15K car in 2 seconds?

The VW mechanics seem to believe that replacing the cracked coil should solve my problem, but I can't help worry that I caused permanent damage to my car that they can't see. Is that possible?

Zalim

3 Replies

MHPAUTOS

MECHANIC
31,937 POSTS

Hi there,

If the engine is cranking over and not firing, this could well be the coil problem, if you ingest water into the cylinders this is when you can do a lot of damage, but normally the engine will not even turn over, make sure that they check the induction for water replace the air filter if it has been wet, I would not worry to much, as I feel that its just an ignition problem you have.

Mark (mhpautos)