Good evening all,

Today I experienced an issue that had me worried enough to call for a tow truck. On the way home from work, running some errands, during a rain storm. Drove through some puddles, 4" deep, thought no problem, shut down the car went into the store. Came out, car would not start. Turned over fine, but did not stay lit. Tried again, caught and ran for 30 seconds, again shut off. Wait a bit more, try again and idled fine. Placed into gear running unevenly, pulled back a bit and died again. Pushed back into parking slot. Called for tow assistance, waited 15 minutes, started car again. Idled fine again, sat there another 15 minutes then tried putting the car into gear, kept running. Idled a few more minutes, pulled out of the spot, drove around the lot, felt confident to attempt trip home. Cancelled tow assistance, no further issues on the way home.

Now my question is, where could the water have entered that caused the engine to cut off so quickly? Thought the cap/rotor might have had water in it, but the shut down was most pronounced when I put it in gear. Felt as if the fuel or ignition had been cut off, no gradual rundown, just bam, stop.
I did not look under the hood as the rain at the time was like being in a car wash.

Just looked under the hood, found a small rubber hose on top of the transmission, to the left of the cable attachment that has rotted away. Looks like it is a 90 degree elbow that comes up and goes to the back underneath the wire bundle plastic tray that lays across the transmission in this area. Could water have gotten into this hole? I feel a slight vacuum on the hole when the engine is running. The fluid in the trans is still clean like it should be.