Ok so a few days ago here in cali we had a huge - and i mean HUGE - sandstorm. We had embankments against our house, and our lawn was completely destroyed.
This is where it gets bad. We're in the process of re-doing all the flooring in our house, so our garage is full of junk, meaning my FC and my dad's sentra are stuck outside until we get that finished.
Well, this sandstorm completely thrashed everything. Luckily it didn't effect the exterior of our cars, but ALOT of dust got everywhere. I popped the hood and everything was covered in dust. I washed it down, and when i started it up i noticed a "shaking" kind of. The rpm's will move slightly and everything will shake, sounds like something's loose under the hood or something... i imagined the rotors being stuck from the dust and not moving so much... but anyways, after the car warms up, the rpm's nearly drop completely to zero, and it's extrememly rough.

Any idea what's going on? I have an open slot on my right headlight that is used for better air flow to the intake. Dust definitely got in there, hardcore. I cleaned the filter and completely washed everything down. Still the same problem. I cleaned the breather too, and obviously that did nothing. Any help would be appreciated.

 

check you vac hoses the sand is corrosive and could have caused leaks, alsoif the noise sounds like its coming from the engie, get in the car and push the clutch down, if the noise goes away, then the sand fucked up you throw-out bearing, it could also be your alternator is messed up or your battery....hell just check everything

 

I would venture a guess that the filter kept the dust out of the combustion system. You might want to thoroughly clean the filter though (or replace it). You may have gotten water in the combustion system when you washed everything. In that case it will run very rough untill all the water is burned off. It will act a lot like it does when you do the water injection cleaning. Run the car for a while and see if the problem doesn't go away.

 

+1 with checking vac lines.. might want to check the TPS and other little moving parts since they too might have crap in them. Failing that, you may just need to run it for a while and prehaps it will get better again after its gotten all of the crap out of it.

 

i just dont see how a sand storm would damage the engine. now pouring water onto it on the other hand...

run it without an air filter and see if it helps. it will be ok as long as there is no dust flying all over the place still... the only way into the engine is through the air intake. everything else is completely sealed. how long has it been since the car was driven? it could have been flooded and is getting over it.

 

i got the same problem man...

 

just minues the sandstorm and all that... i live in the middle of know where. we have never even had a tornado