Flooded engine - how much trouble am I in?

First up - yes, I'm an idiot. Feel free to tell me again, but rest assured I know.

So, I drove my car down a flooded road and didn't realise how deep the water was. The car stalled and I had to get out and push it out. Barefoot as well, which was fun. I'm 35 minutes into waiting for the breakdown van.

So, what damage are we talking? How much is this going to cost me?

petrol or diesel?

That's a different sort of "flooded" than people are normally talking about when they refer to flooding an engine

It could be anything from wet electrics to bent valves following a hydraulic lock.
So £0 - £thousands.

How much trouble?

Lots young man, you can go to bed early without any tea for that!

when you say stalled, was it instant stop with some bad noises?

what car and how deep?

Mate drove his MINI into flood waters. Conked out 100mi later. New engine - Insurance jobby - £3000+

just take out the spark plugs or glow plugs if its a diesel and crank the engine over to push all the water out,DONT do it with the plugs in as it wont compress the water and you will bend the conrods and valves

aslong as the water can escape out the plug holes youll be fine,then try and start it

Did this once to the Mrs' Corrado (on her say so), old 9A 2.0 16v lump. Engine gulped a load of water and conked out mid puddle, some kind passers by pushed us out and we left it by the roadside.

AA man arrived next day, took the plugs out and cranked the engine by hand. One oil change, a lot of white smoke and a much happier Mrs later the car ran fine. At least for another year until she sold it.

there is some logic (providing you dont bend anything) that it would run nicer afterwards due to the flash steam effect cleaning out the rings

Focus mk 2 petrol stalled in the water with steam coming from the bonnet, which I'd guess is water hitting the hot engine? Just being picked up by breakdown man now.

mjt said:

Mate drove his MINI into flood waters. Conked out 100mi later. New engine - Insurance jobby - £3000+

Click to expand...

Will insurance cover this sort of dumbassery?

wazza300 said:

just take out the spark plugs or glow plugs if its a diesel and crank the engine over to push all the water out,DONT do it with the plugs in as it wont compress the water and you will bend the conrods and valves

aslong as the water can escape out the plug holes youll be fine,then try and start it

Click to expand...

But the engine will have already tried to compress the water because it was driven into the water. I guess he could have got lucky and it conked out before any real damage occurred, but i should think if it goes through insurance, they'll not be content with taking out plugs and cranking - they'll do it properly and take the head off/entire engine apart to be cleaned - which will increase costs massively.

Insurance should cover it - i would expect it to be written off. My mum did this in her £3000 car a few years ago - needed a new engine so it was subsequently written off.

Well, bum. Guess I'll call the insurance.

It's worth taking it to a local independent garage to see if they will take the plugs out and crank it before you get insurance involved in my opinion. Otherwise you instantly have an at fault claim logged, lose NCB, even if it costs next to nothing to fix.

Vonhelmet said:

Will insurance cover this sort of dumbassery?

Click to expand...

As, as you crashed it into a load of water rather than it broke down

Right. Well, the car is now at our garage of choice and I've walked the remaining couple of miles home. The electronics seem to be buggered - the hazards won't turn off and the central locking wasn't working so I ended up locking all the doors from the inside and then locking the driver door with the key, which I've not done in forever.

The car is insured fully comp with Direct Line, and their policy documents don't appear to include any exclusions for giving the car a bath, so that's something of a relief at least.

So, tomorrow morning, do I call the garage and ask them to look at it, or call the insurer and get them to sort it out?

did you try to shortcut through a lake or something? o_O

How deep we talkin here

Electrics will dry out Vonhelmet.

I'd personally be asking the garage to take a 'As cheap as possible' look. Before throwing away your NCB and Excess.

MooMoo444 said:

did you try to shortcut through a lake or something? o_O

How deep we talkin here

Click to expand...

Well, when I opened the car door it was lapping around the bottom of the door, so about a foot. Whether the water came in through the exhaust or the intake is anybody's guess.

The road I was going down is always a little bit flooded on one side, but I didn't realise how bad it was on this occasion until it was basically too late, and by the time I was getting further round the bend I was basically driving into a lake, yeah. I wasn't following anyone so didn't see them taking any action like driving up on the pavement on the far side of the road, which is what everyone did once I got stuck, and thereafter.

I wasn't the only idiot to get stuck - in the time I was waiting for the breakdown truck I saw another guy break down and I waded back in to help push him out. The guy who recovered me thought his car might be in better nick, as his electrics didn't seem to be in as bad a way as mine.

If they don't close the road, more people will get stuck, because the road is so badly lit that you could pretty much drive into it without any idea of what you were getting into. I wouldn't fancy pushing a car out in the dark once the water gets properly cold.

As it was only a foot deep, i would imagine water has been sucked up by the exhaust. Did you slip the clutch keep the revs high as you went through the water? Although this doesnt explain why the hazards are staying on and the elextronics are goosed. Are you sure it was just a foot of water? If it ateamed when you went through and the electrics are done, i would guess it was at least 2ft+