fourth time unlucky

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hovis boy
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fourth time unlucky

Post by hovis boy »

please help.
On my way home tonight a road i have to use floods on a regular basis, normaly i can drive through no problem, well 3 times in the past.But not so tonight it was to deep and numpty me thought otherwise,so as you can guess my engine conked out part way through the flood and will now not start.So please help is it a major engine repair?,is it worth repairing? Its a K reg zx 1.9td and i really like it and would not want to scrap it because of my own stupidity.
Stinkwheel
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Post by Stinkwheel »

Anyone correct me if I am wrong but as long as a diesel does not suck water in the air inlet or get it up the exhaust they should run underwater. If you are lucky an electrical item has got wet and stopped the car. If unlucky water in engine and hydraulic lock has occurred, very bad.
andycarter
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Post by andycarter »

Depends how much water has got into the engine, and if it did, whether or not you've bent something.
Before trying to restart engine, first look at the air intake / filter box etc to see if you can determine just how wet things are.
If its very wet and you've got a cylinder full of water then remove the injectors or glowplugs and turn the engine over using a socket set on the crankshaft nut, to pump out any water. If it turn over then, things aren't too bad.
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uhn113x
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Post by uhn113x »

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Stinkwheel</i>

Anyone correct me if I am wrong but as long as a diesel does not suck water in the air inlet or get it up the exhaust they should run underwater. If you are lucky an electrical item has got wet and stopped the car.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
What electrical item getting wet could stop a diesel engine? [:)]
paranoid
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Post by paranoid »

Don't ever, ever try and start it till you have dropped the oil+filter and had the injectors out.
I did on a 3000 mile old astra td £5000 damage Double [:0][:0]p's
Apparently a few people did it in astra's (93-95) And claimed succesfully, My company had to pay the lot as I believe I was one of the first [;)][}:)]
beezer
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Post by beezer »

[quote][What electrical item getting wet could stop a diesel engine?/quote]
Well, though it is highly unlikely, the solenoid on the injector pump would go short circuit if it was submerged in water.
jeremy
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Post by jeremy »

Your biggest consern is a hydraulic lock - which can lead to internal engine damage, bent crankshaft . . . however you say that it wouldn't start rather than the engine wouldn't turn so things may not be that bad.
Did you hit the water hard/ - if so there could be simple physical damage like ripped of wiring (stop solenoid?) Check that the air inlet is free from water - and the filter isn't waterlogged.
Another possibility is that water has got into the exhaust and is seeming to block it. Be careful! I remember hearing the tale of an Austin Maxi which stalled in a deep ford and inhaled water into the engine through the exhaust!
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mseymour
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Post by mseymour »

As others have said Hydraulic lock is the worst that could happen. But this is pretty bad. My vsx had a new engine in (just before I bought it) for exactly this reason.
the air intake on the td is pretty low on the left hand side of the engine so they're not a good car to try and drive through floods in.
If you're lucky the airfilter has got wet and is effectively blocked. If this happening again is a risk it's probably worth modifying the air intake to get it a bit higher. There's no reason why a diesel shouldn't be able to go through quite deep water. After all a landy can do it with a snorkle. You just have to stop water being sucked in.
Stinkwheel
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Post by Stinkwheel »

Urm did i say electreical ?? Obviously maind failure for some reason, never mind me.
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AndersDK
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Post by AndersDK »

This early morning going home from a party, we got stuck in a flood under a newly constructed bridge.
It's been raining heavily all day here - and it's been months since last time I drove this route. Never noticed the water drains has not yet been hooked up.
Anyway - my BX16TRS (petrol) stopped right in the middle of the flood - some 15inches deep.
I panicked - 3miles from home - 2.30 in the morning - deepest dark night - at least 0.5mile to nearest house - in the passenger seat my wife sweet asleep from good red wine.
But that rock solid friend of a BX simply started again first try [:)]
Only thing was the clutch snapped like a nightmare - because of the water. But somehow I managed to limp the BX out the flood - and then the clutch gradually became normal.
Now home again - I found out we lost a wheelcap in the flood.
The standard BX tounge wheelcap - of which I've got loads as spares [8D]
Stinkwheel
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Post by Stinkwheel »

You were lucky anders, few years ago my wife rounded a corner at quite a speed in our old BX 16v. car stopped, she restatarted it but it really ran badly had got a little water in the airbox (luckily not much) I had to come out to her im my dyane and dry everything out and check it over so she could carry on :-)
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Post by nick »

I used to quite regularly drive my BX 1.9 diesel through flood water. At the time I lived on a farm and the road into the village was very prone to flooding in one place. Normally the water wasn't very deep, but during the storms we had in 2000 it really built up, and half the village was flooded.
I nonchalently put the suspension on the high setting as I always did and just ploughed through the water in 3rd gear. Only, it was a bit deeper than I was expecting. At one point, wouldn't like to guess how deep it was, the car felt as though it was momentarily floating, the front wheels began to lose traction, the clutch began to judder and slip, the hp belt was squealing like mad and water began to pour in under the doors and from behind the dashboard [:0] Somehow the car just kept going, the clutch stopped juddering and the front wheels started to grip properly again. It was probably only for a few seconds, but felt like hours. Finally I emerged out the other side of the water and stopped to look at the car. It looked as though it had been dredged up from the bottom of the sea, water was pouring out from underneath, the carpets inside had an inch or two of water on them, steam was pouring out from under the bonnet, but the engine was still ticking over quite happily [:D] It didn't do any permanent harm to the car, but the carpets took about 6 weeks to dry out properly!
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VLL
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Post by VLL »

Hit a deep flood pretty fast once in my ZX TD, water was sucked into the engine and it just stopped.
Got the car towed home, removed the air filter and water poured out, at this point i thought the engine would be knackerd.
Removed the injectors, jacked up one wheel, stuck it in 5th gear and turned the wheel by hand to get the water out. Then sprayed loads of WD-40 into the cylinders and left it overnight to dry out.
In the morning I turned the engine over with the starter with the injectors still out to get the last of the water out.
Fitted a new air filter, re-fitted the injectors and tried to start it.
Amazingly it started first turn so took it for a drive, apart from a few coughs which i assume would be water still sitting in the intercooler and intake getting sucked though it ran fine.
That was about 4years ago and its still running great, would have thought the turbo would be damaged with it running so hot and being cooled quickly with the cold water going through it but i guess i might have been just lucky.
Did a compression test shortly after all this and the difference was no more than 10psi between the highest and lowest readings.
Guess the old XUD us a tough old beast.
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Post by oilyspanner »

Ran into a flood in a brand new Transit Diesel a few years ago, it stopped dead with a big bang, the motor was destroyed, water had not reached the engine, it must have been negative pressure as the wet stuff had only reached the air filter, luckily it was very new and was dealt with under the warranty ( I did dry out the air filter element before it was seen though) lots of people tie their air intakes up in a higher position on those, there was also some stuff on TV about certain Renaults doing the same at the time, Espace and Clio from memory, on a brighter note I have had the rear end of a BX floating without any problems, though I dont suppose the rear arm bearings benefit from rinsing.
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nick
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Post by nick »

It is possible to buy a "snorkel kit" for some 4x4s like the Landrover Defender. I reckon it wouldn't be too hard to make a temporary one for most older diesels out of a bit of tumble dryer hose, but I wouldn't risk it on my current Xantia. Water in the ECU box ? No thanks.....
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