so i go to my car today and the check engine light came on. it drove fine to class, and as i was pulling into the parking lot i floored it and it felt / sounded like it just couldn't handle it. i turn off the car and turned it back on, and it was fine. no engine light anymore. any way to tell if the light coming on was a temp. problem? the shop said they want 76$/hour diagnostic rate to check it out.

Hi there, how bad was the flood? It could be that the water went into the muffler and probably went into the catalytic converter. The ECU (computer) sensed something was not right so it started to give you the devil engine check light.
It should be okay once you drive around. The water will get evaporated. Common engine check light are mainly cause by abnormal activity in catalytic converter, unless you have one of those Cold Air intake that goes under your car and accidentally sucked the water into the engine... I hope thats not the case though, otherwise say bye bye to your engine, but I guess thats a good thing if you have always wanted a H22 engine :rofl:

[. Common engine check light are mainly cause by abnormal activity in catalytic converter,

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it's not always the cat. that goes bad. I am,sould I say I was until yesterday a service advisor at a honda dealer. I see alot of canister vent shut valves and two way valves go bad I've also seen alot of o2 sensors. Now, the check engine light will also come on if it detects a misfire..

stealthsonic - what flood are you talking about?