Car driven into flood!

creedp

Yesterday my car was driven into a flood and it cut out mid way. I got it lifted to my local mechanic and the bad news came back that the air filter was wet and the engine wouldn't turn over on the key.

He said he would remove the injectors to remove any water and see what happens. Now its an 08 diesel s-max with 174k miles on the clock. Realistically what am I looking at? Is it inevitably a new engine? Would it even be worth investigating the current engine given that it has injested water?

Pain in the backside as earlier in the year I was looking to upgrade but then decided to hold onto it for another year or so and got some bodywork done on it last week.

Dartz

Hydrolocked. Engine's sucked up water which it has tried to compress - since water can't appreciably compress it's obviously failed at this task and stopped dead.

That means bent con-rods at best. Cracked block at worst. Either way you've a lump of metal good only for sale to a local fisherman as an anchor.

pete4130

Here in Australia a friend drove into a big waterhole with his Amarok about 2 years ago in a state forest about 15km from the main road. I told him not to turn it over but he did. It was hydrolocked. I ended up towing him back to the main road where we luckily got talking to another Amarok driver who hapened to be a mechanic, with all his tools with him.

We disconnected the air inlet from the turbo, took out the injectors and turned the engine over. Water shot out of the injector ports at high pressure. Put everything back in and went to start it up. It drew MORE water in from the air inlet elbow in the hose and hydrolocked again.

Repeated the process again and took the injectors out and cleared out the water.

He limped home minus his inlet hose from the turbo to let everything dry out. He was lucky. nothing bent or broken at all. His exhaust never smelled right again but he was lucky.


So you might be ok.

This is my friends incident with water. Go to about 23 seconds to see him get submerged...

I thought this thread would be about this. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7664323/Mobility-scooter-user-powers-rising-floods-Sheffield.html

PukkaStukka

Dartz wrote: »

Hydrolocked. Engine's sucked up water which it has tried to compress - since water can't appreciably compress it's obviously failed at this task and stopped dead.

That means bent con-rods at best. Cracked block at worst. Either way you've a lump of metal good only for sale to a local fisherman as an anchor.

Mates SMax did same thing.
Ingested flood water and cut out. Nothing bent. Mechanic removed glowplugs and intake trunking, dried it all out and got it going again. Depends how much it ingests and how fast it was turning at the time

OP, good luck with this!

zilog_jones

creedp wrote: »

I got it lifted to my local mechanic and the bad news came back that the air filter was wet and the engine wouldn't turn over on the key.

The mechanic attempted to start it under compression, despite knowing it had ingested water?

Wibbs

zilog_jones wrote: »

The mechanic attempted to start it under compression, despite knowing it had ingested water?

Aye Z, that was my first thought too.

creedp

PukkaStukka wrote: »

Mates SMax did same thing.
Ingested flood water and cut out. Nothing bent. Mechanic removed glowplugs and intake trunking, dried it all out and got it going again. Depends how much it ingests and how fast it was turning at the time

OP, good luck with this!

I think that's the best case scenario at present but given the comment that trying to start the engine while hydrolocked was not the cleverest of ideas what are the chances??

PukkaStukka

Best wait will your mechanic reports back. I'd say trying to turn the engine in these circumstances would do more damage to the starter than the moving parts inside the engine. Fingers crossed for you, I know the wait is worrying you.

pete4130

pete4130 wrote: »

...... It was hydrolocked..........and hydrolocked ........................nothing bent or broken at all.............

Great that there was no damage, but if that's the case it wasn't hydrolocked If it wasn't seized / permanently w@nked it's not hydrolocked.

creedp wrote: »

Yesterday my car was driven into a flood and it cut out mid way. I got it lifted to my local mechanic and the bad news came back that the air filter was wet and the engine wouldn't turn over on the key.................

creedp wrote: »

I think that's the best case scenario at present but given the comment that trying to start the engine while hydrolocked was not the cleverest of ideas what are the chances??

We don't as yet know if it's hydrolocked at all, like, it might be an issue with the starter motor taking offence to the water........ like, if it didn't turn over at all it might well be a duff starter motor. Maybe........... or a relay for the glow plugs even....... there are other options other then the worst case.

Folk dive into the hydrolocking once diesel and water are mentioned but if the thing wasn't actually effectively swimming there's a decent chance it's electrical rather then damage due to attempted water compression in the cylinders.

kala85

would this be covered under comprehensive car insurance?

Eggs For Dinner

kala85 wrote: »

would this be covered under comprehensive car insurance?

All policies exclude cover for what's known as mechanical breakdown or derangement. However, some insurers do not consider driving in to flood waters to be bound by this exclusion as it was designed to deal with situations where a car just knackered itself out. Check your policy

creedp

PukkaStukka wrote: »

Best wait will your mechanic reports back. I'd say trying to turn the engine in these circumstances would do more damage to the starter than the moving parts inside the engine. Fingers crossed for you, I know the wait is worrying you.

Just had call from mechanic saying he removed glow plugs and removed water from cylinders and car is now running fine. He's giving it a service now and will be ready tomorrow. Didnt give me a cost as yet but I'm sure it will be a nice wallet hit. Anyway better than having to replace car

Good news..... Shouldn't be too expensive, heater plug removal isn't too bad a job.

creedp

Augeo wrote: »

Good news..... Shouldn't be too expensive, heater plug removal isn't too bad a job.

That would be great. He said big job to remove as way back at rear of engine under dash requiring removal of wipers etc to gain access. Anyway happy to have it back on road.

PukkaStukka

Great news - thanks for letting us know

Henry Ford III

Good news OP.

p.s. Has anyone ever driven an e.v. into a flood? I wonder would it be dangerous?

Emmersonn

Henry Ford III wrote: »

Good news OP.

p.s. Has anyone ever driven an e.v. into a flood? I wonder would it be dangerous?

That would be a shocking scenario :eek::)

Wibbs

Henry Ford III wrote: »

Good news OP.

p.s. Has anyone ever driven an e.v. into a flood? I wonder would it be dangerous?

Funny enough I remember reading about this. Apparently(and IIRC) because the battery packs have to be sealed to a very high degree, not a lot will happen, certainly not massive electric shocks for anyone around it. Many of the electronics would be fecked, or would fail in a shorter period of time, but that's like the electronics in modern cars anyway. Ditto for corrosion and water damage to the cabin plastics and the like. I suppose it would also depend on the type of water, seawater being worse for any system. I also seem to recall a few Youtubers and bloggists getting "cheap" Teslas secondhand because they were flood damaged and getting them(or putting their running gear into another chassis) running again.

EVs and flooding is fine.

tossy

Hreat result OP.

That's interesting on the EVs , i always thought EVs weren't really suited to our climate with the amount of rain we get. We are ripe for cloud computing though.

kyote00

Usually only to put the EV fire out :pac:

Henry Ford III wrote: »

Good news OP.

p.s. Has anyone ever driven an e.v. into a flood? I wonder would it be dangerous?

creedp

Collected the car yesterday after it got a service and tracking done. All seemed fine except that there was a lot of condensation on the windows which I traced to water in the under floor storage areas behind the front seats. I took it for a good motorway drive and no indication of any issue.

However, this morning I started it and while it started on first turn it was sluggish and emitted quite a bit of whitish smoke for the first 30 seconds of so. Then it seemed to settle down but as I wasn't taking it with me I don't know what it wold have been like after driving it foe a few miles. Will keep an eye on this over the weekend.

For those of you mechanically minded is the white smoke an indication of anything more serious?

TheBoyConor

Blown head gasket or a cracked engine block.

The extreme pressures created in the engine when it tried to compress water could cause this.

It is an 08 car. Regardless of what might be wrong, I'd just drive it on in whatever condition it is and keep driving it until it won't drive no more. Then replace it. An 08 car isn't even worth taking to a mechanic.

SmartinMartin

New Pope.

rd1izb7lvpuksx

tossy wrote: »

Hreat result OP.

That's interesting on the EVs , i always thought EVs weren't really suited to our climate with the amount of rain we get. We are ripe for cloud computing though.

Our climate is perfect for EVS - the batteries don't like extreme temperatures, which we don't get.

creedp

SmartinMartin wrote: »

New Pope.

Phew I thought is was something serious!!

blingrhino

Avoid that flood in monasterboice !

creedp

TheBoyConor wrote: »

Blown head gasket or a cracked engine block.

The extreme pressures created in the engine when it tried to compress water could cause this.

It is an 08 car. Regardless of what might be wrong, I'd just drive it on in whatever condition it is and keep driving it until it won't drive no more. Then replace it. An 08 car isn't even worth taking to a mechanic.

I'm hearing you but presumably though it either of the above mentioned issues exist then it won't be long before it won't drive no more

TheBoyConor

Yeah probably. You might get a few weeks out of it.