Flooded engine - how much trouble am I in?

Vonhelmet

Vonhelmet

Vonhelmet

Caporegime
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28 Jun 2005
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On the hoods
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?
 
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.
 
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?
 
MooMoo444 said:
did you try to shortcut through a lake or something? o_O

How deep we talkin here
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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.
 
Well, like I said, it didn't pour into the car as soon as I opened the door, so it can't have been higher than the sill at the driver side. I suppose it could have been deeper at the passenger side.

I think my mistake (second, after driving into the bloody pool in the first place) may have been changing down from second to first once I was in the water, now that I think back to it. I've just read something about how that can suck water into the exhaust due to changing pressures in there when you change gear?
 
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dave_beast said:
Just sounds like wet electrics tbh.
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Let's hope so. They're weren't any funny noises when it cut out, and nothing exploded and flew out of the bonnet. It just stopped and when I tried turning it over afterwards it just went click-click-click-click-click like the starter motor was trying and getting nowhere. Before too long the only thing that worked was the hazards. The breakdown guy said the immobiliser had come on and all sorts.
 
I've just spoken to the chap at the garage. He said it could be any number of things, so he's going to take bits off until he finds the problem.
 
happy_2008 said:
So you saw a big flood and still attempted to drive into it :confused:
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Well, when you say it like that it sounds stupid ;)

The road in question has had a flood more or less across one side of the road for months now. There's one little piddly sign saying "Flood" as you approach it. It has remained perfectly passable all this time, because it's not been at all deep, a few inches at worst. Driving towards that bend yesterday, there's the same sign, and the same familiar looking water on the road. It was only when I got into it and it was getting too late to do anything about it that it became apparent that it was much, much deeper than usual. I wasn't following anyone, so I didn't see anyone go into it to judge how deep it was, or see anyone take to the other side or anything like that.

I gather the water board have now closed the road. Shame they were several hours too late.
 
I don't think I was headlight depth. It was about at the bottom of the door on the driver side, and a bit higher on the passenger side.
 
TaKeN said:
Any news from the garage yet?

They should have pulled the plugs out by now and tried to turn the thing over atleast.
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I had a call from my wife about an hour ago saying she'd spoken to him and he was putting something into the engine to try to drive the water out. She's going to check in at the garage a bit later and see if there's any news.
 
Boo, turns out they've done naff all to the car today. They're going to look at it tomorrow.

If nothing else it's going to need a good clean inside. My wife said the footwells were full of water.
 
Lucero said:
You actually got out and pushed it??

The general advice in this situation is, put car in 1st (if a manual) and turn the engine over on the ignition. If you haven't killed the electrics or completely hydrolocked the engine, it will just kangaroo itself out :)

If that doesn't work, that's when you go for the wet foot approach :)
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Believe me, I tried starting it before getting out!
 
Rybo89 said:
Learn you to not go through big puddles again :p

Chesterfield is notorious for floods, especially under the railway bridges. I always 'lol' watching stupid people ignoring the police officers advice and then try going through the floods.
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There were no more warnings than when there's the usual puddle on that corner of road... Had there been, I might have been more cautious.

I'm not saying I wasn't a fool to drive though a suspicious pool of standing water, but it's not like I was actively ignoring present warnings.
 
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My wife spoke to the garage this morning. The battery is totally flat, so he's getting a replacement for that. He says there is definitely water in the engine, so in the meantime, he's removing the plugs, etc, so he can turn the engine over by hand and drain it, and see whether it will run. I'm going to call back about 2 to see what's going on.

My mother in law is offering us her old Yaris if we do end up chucking the car, as she's getting a new car on the 6th or something, which would keep us going in the short term and save us having to buy in a hurry if it does get written off.

Hell, part of me hopes it does get written off because I can't be arsed with getting the car properly cleaned. How lazy is that :D
 
Garage man has replaced the battery, and the electrics are all intact. However, the engine won't turn over - something is locking it. He said that from hereon it's a case of taking the block apart and suggested that I call in the insurers.

Oh dear.

I've just heard that a friend of a friend suffered a similar fate in that puddle. Ridiculous.
 
I've just got off the phone to the insurer. The guy didn't bat an eyelid about it, and I have read anecdotal stories of people successfully claiming for this sort of thing from Direct Line, who we're with. They're sending someone to fetch the car tomorrow and take it to the preferred repairer. He offered the option of sending an engineer out to look at the car at our garage, but said that it can take much longer doing it that way. Enterprise are also going to sort out a hire car for me tomorrow - hopefully better than the asstastic Chevy Spark we got last time, but probably not. I need to get down to the garage and get the kids' car seats and my head unit and a few other bits and bobs.

The garage said they'll charge me £35 for their cursory look, which strikes me as very reasonable.

So, all things considered, this is going pretty smoothly.
 
sigma said:
One could say that it's plain sailing... or not :p
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Haha, thanks for that, Horatio Caine :D

Sounded like £35 flat charge. Some of you will remember when we had this same car in with them a few months back for about a week when it kept cutting out, and they ended up sending it to Camco to get the ecu reprogrammed. They charged us £150 for that, and I was fearing it would cost a fortune after all that time.
 
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