Broke down after driving through flood

ciarsd

Either way I would not be attempting to start / turn over the car until you've had it looked at by someone who's qualified to do so.
There is a slight possibility that the damage has not been done (if the car shut down before the water got near the internals). However, all it needs is an attempt to turn it over and bang, there goes a conrod, a bent valve, a cylinder cracked and the like :eek:

wyndham

What about when they tried to drown the Toyota Hilux on TopGear? Didn't it start after the tide went out?

peasant

wyndham wrote:

What about when they tried to drown the Toyota Hilux on TopGear? Didn't it start after the tide went out?

Just dip your head into the full bathtub there for a minute or so ...you'll come up perfectly alright, albeit probably gasping for air.

Now try gasping for air under water

Spot the difference?

Gary ITR

peasant wrote:

Just dip your head into the full bathtub there for a minute or so ...you'll come up perfectly alright, albeit probably gasping for air.

Now try gasping for air under water

Spot the difference?

lol:D

JHMEG

wyndham wrote:

What about when they tried to drown the Toyota Hilux on TopGear? Didn't it start after the tide went out?

It did, but they didn't try start it when it was *in* water.

(and it's a Toyota )

AMurphy

Enygma wrote:

I drove through a small flooded road today, couldn't have been more than 5-6 inches deep and about 10-15 foot long. I've managed to drive through it a few times over the last few days.
Unfortunately someone on the opposite side of the road decided to drive through too . Almost immediately after coming out of the flooded area my car jerked and then carried on for a little bit and then just switched off.

I managed to get towed home but the car won't start. The car is a Golf TDI, anyone know what kind of damage I'm looking at? Is this sort of thing serious?

Thanks

If you can turn it over it is not liquid locked, and if it does not turn over because of liquid, you have two choices, rotate the engine backwards to get the liquid back out the intake or remove the injectors/plugs and let eh liquid out there.
And hope the liquid did not rust the valves and seats while sitting there.

Liquid lock is usually associated with internal banging, even if not destructive.

Assuming it is not locked. you might have a very wet filter which will stop air, you coudl have flooded/destroyed the air sensor (assuming this has an MAF sensor).
Anyway, first things first. New filter and dry out the intake.
Unplug the MAF sensor and see if it will run open circuit.

Enygma

Thanks, the mechanic said he'll take a look at it today, said he'll inspect the air filter. I should know before lunchtime.

But I'm not very hopeful now

MercMad

What about when they tried to drown the Toyota Hilux on TopGear? Didn't it start after the tide went out?

............yeas but only after they removed the glow plugs and spun the engine over. I recall Jeremy explained that briefly !

Enygma

Well took it to a diesel mechanic and he's gonna take a look at it. He said the con-rods are probably bent so he'll replace them and see if it's ok. If the crank-shaft is bent then I'm really ****ed. but he said chances are it should be ok.

Still looking at a few thousand though.

crosstownk

If you went through a puddle, and assuming this is obvious to a mechanic, you may be able to claim on your insurance if you are fully comp. It is, after all, accidental damage. Worth investigating, imo.

Gary ITR

Any update on this Enygma?

Enygma

It's been down at a mechanics since thursday but he hasn't been able to look at it until probably today. He said he'd ring tuesday or wednesday with a verdict and a price (probably around 2K)

He's saying that if water got into the engine then the conrods are probably bent so he'll check it out and replace them if necessary. Only then will he know if the crank shaft is bent but he said that was unlikely and that he'd never seen it. If it is, I'm totally screwed. Fingers crossed!

If I hear anything I'll post it up.

gaillimhabu

Hi Guys,

Same thing happened to me last night. I drove through a flooded road. Wasn't really that deep. Car got sluggish after driving through it. Was home in two minutes and car wasn't idling when stopped. It was kinda churning over and car was shaking a bit.

Tried to start this morning. No luck. It was turning over allright but wouldn't start.

Is it bad for me to try to start it. Will I just do more damage to the engine this way. What is my next best step. Bring it to garage I suppose

Car is a 93 1.4 Golf CL (petrol)

mloc123

Petrol car is different. The electics are probably just wet, let it dry out and it should start up fine again. If the coil-pack/dizzy and sparkplugs/leeds are damp the car will miss-fire and stall.

franksm

mloc123 wrote:

Petrol car is different. The electics are probably just wet, let it dry out and it should start up fine again. If the coil-pack/dizzy and sparkplugs/leeds are damp the car will miss-fire and stall.

Continue to drive it like that and it will destroy the cat (which can be expensive). Get yourself an aerosol of WD40 and spray the ignition leads, the distributor and anything else electrical under the bonnet. WD40 is great stuff

layke

layke wrote:

Well this thread is very negative.

Look mate i've seen Petrol cars filled with diesel and still ran ok.

You may be lucky.

Best case its some electrics.

But if a substantial amount of water made it past the air filter into the cylinder heads good bye engine for certain.

Theres no better way to destroy an engine.

http://www.prepsparkplugs.com/hydrofact.htm

Enygma

Well mines ****ed anyway, he said there was damage to the crank and whats worse the block was cracked too. Looking at around 5K+ to fix it

Well she was fun for the two weeks I had her

MercMad

Thats really tough luck at anytime of the year especially this time !

You could claim from your insurance or buy a second hand engine !

Enygma

Any idea where I can get a second hand engine? And how much?

Thanks!

crosstownk

A second hand engine may sound like a good idea - but how do you know you're not inheriting someone elses old problems - be careful.

That said I've seen plenty of second hand engines fitted without much reliability issues.

C Fodder

Check all the breakers yards you can as you never know which one has a near mint engine from a crash. I got a Peugeot engine a few years ago from a local breaker in Roscommon with only 8,000 miles on it but a VW TDi may be slightly harder to source although is your engine not used in Skodas and Seats also as well as some commercials? Somebody in the know would be able to better advise on compatability.

P.S. compare prices from breakers also as they can vary wildly, also try http://www.traynors.co.uk/ from up north as they have some in stock atm.

Biro

If it's one of the 1.9 units (depends on which one), then you should find it in Audi A3, A4, A6, VW Golf, Bora, Passat, Sharan, Caddy, Transporter, (maybe Polo, not 100% sure), Skoda Fabia, Superb, Octavia, Seat Ibiza, Leon, Toledo, Alahmbra (spell?), and possibly some others... so should be handy enough to find!!

lomb

you should be able to get a good engine for 1300-1500 euro and fitted for say 800 -1000.
as an aside i have a 2003 golf 1.4 and i drove it through 1.5 foot of water for 200 foot then it must have been 2-2.5 feet of water for another 35 foot, there was water coming up onto the windscreen from the road!, but i had a 'bow wave' developed under it.
the clutch was slipping for 20 minutes but otherwise it seems fine.
i didnt think the water was so deep i think i was lucky this happened next morning
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/6167961.stm
his car is xxxxed from what i hear...

Enygma

Just as an update, managed to find a 03 engine with 40K miles on the clock and I'm gonna get that fitted all in for €2.4K

A bit of a kicking but not as bad as it could have been eh? <-- Look a smiley!

MercMad

Ahh well.......best of luck !

Stephen

Did you claim off your insurance for the cost?

Gary ITR

Yea best of luck with it. What year is your car and what mileage was on it?

gaillimhabu

Regards my car, the rotor arm inside the distributor cap had a hole in it and it was burnt as well. So just threw on a new one + new distributor cap and it's all good again.

Best of luck Enygma with the new engine. Best of luck with it