Engine sucked in water!

[namtaffy]

Hi All,

I have a 54 plate Vectra 3.2 V6 GSI, last night I drove through a flood and the engine sucked in a lot of water through the air intake, the car stalled and hasn't started since, I just get a click when turning the key. Took the top cover off today (where it says ecotec) and it's got a lot of water in there. I have contacted my insurance comapny and they say they will be sending an engineer out within 5 days to assess it.

My question is... is this damage likely to cause the car to be written off? Or should this be within economical repair? the electrics dont seem damaged generally, everything still works and no water got into the car itself.

Any ideas what will be involved in any repair or the cost?

thanks for your help

James

[jonesy_ni]

Does not sound good mate, happened to me years ago in a 406.

Not sure on price/write off, but goodluck, hope you get it sorted

[n_hudson]

Water damage, that's a tough one... Normally a write off if its affected the whole car electrics. Did any water get in the main body of the car? Wet Carpets etc?

[namtaffy]

thanks for the replies guys. No, no water in car, dry carpets, engine electrics all seem dry, fuse box is spotless etc. I think it's just the water was sucked in the intake and the engine is full of it :-( All the electrics work, ignition, dash, central locking, lights indicators, trip computer, etc etc they all seem fine

[n_hudson]

The engine probably just needs to the flushed thru, dried out etc, filters replaced... Maybe new engine?

[Stu14t]

Not good, it can do some serious dammage to the engine. If it's sucked it in to the pistons you can bet a pound to a penny there is presure dammage. You can't compress water so just think what has happend to the pistons when they tried to.

[namtaffy]

thats what I'm hoping, any ideas what a new engine or rebuild etc would cost? trying to guage the liklihood of a writeoff, isn't anything upto 50% value of the car automatically repaired? if thats the case the repair bill could "safetly" go up to around £3500 including my £500 excess....

[poves]

The engine probably just needs to the flushed thru, dried out etc, filters replaced... Maybe new engine?

It would cost the ins more to put a new engine in than pay out on total loss . ?

[Caterman]

In 5 days an engine full of water and left is going to be in a mess m8.

Try removing the plugs and seeing if it will still turn over. It will probably blow all the water out of the holes but you will need a full flush through, oil change, filters and it will more than likely have ruined the cat.

As has been said, water doesn't compress so depending on how fast you were going it might be an engine full of bent con rods too


Mark (GSi 3.2) will be the best to advise on this i would have thought though m8

[CorsaVan]

I had this on my Omega 2.5 TD..... 9 months old at the time

Repair bill was in the region of £9k

New engine, insurance paid up, but after that the vehicle was never the same. Also the dealership in question had gret trouble in getting the vehicle to run properly after, I wish it had been written off at the time.

Bless it, though, 1 smashed engine, 3 cracked pistons and rods, 1 broken head, it still started the next day and drove itself onto the recovery truck, albeit with difficulty, I suppose BMW engine to thank...

I hope it all goes OK for you..