Advice/Help needed - Possible flooded 2.0TDI engine

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Bramley

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I was going through a flood about 8-12 inches deep, going along fine and a range rover coming the other way created a wave that engulffed my car and came over the bonnet, my car then "broke down" and it seems its taken water in, the air filter is drenched but we left it half hour and it ticked over fine aswell as chucking loads of water out the exhaust, anyway we turned it off straight away and its now just sat on the drive at home.

Does it sound like I have got away with it or can you give any advice??

We are planning on taking the intercooler pipes off etc to see how far into the system its got, anything else I should be doing?

Cheers
 
What a totally irresponsible Range Rover driver, to do that he must have been going at some pace tbh & should of known if it was a foot deep to drive slowly, that aside.

Swap out filter, check maf for any water on sensor etc, pull ic pipes of & check for water ingress, then if its running ok you should be fine, but do check it fully, if no signs of water on both sides of IC then should be ok.
 
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NHN said:
What a totally irresponsible Range Rover driver, to do that he must have been going at some pace tbh & should of known if it was a fgoot deep to drive slowly, that aside.

Swap out filter, check maf for any water on sensor etc, pull ic pipes of & check for water ingress, then if its running ok you should be fine, but do check it fully, if no signs of water on both sides of IC then should be ok.
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Ye, tbh I think he was trying to show off and prove a point that he can go anywhere and I cant, anyway!

Thanks for answering so quick, such a going on, very stressful!
 
Bramley said:
I was going through a flood about 8-12 inches deep, going along fine and a range rover coming the other way created a wave that engulffed my car and came over the bonnet, my car then "broke down" and it seems its taken water in, the air filter is drenched but we left it half hour and it ticked over fine aswell as chucking loads of water out the exhaust, anyway we turned it off straight away and its now just sat on the drive at home.

Does it sound like I have got away with it or can you give any advice??

We are planning on taking the intercooler pipes off etc to see how far into the system its got, anything else I should be doing?

Cheers
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Typical Range Rover driver !!!!! no concern for anybody else but themselves !!! pity the water wasn't 6 ft deep on his side !!
 
if you had it running since it stalled then any damage that was going to happen would have been done
 
Veneeringman said:
Typical Range Rover driver !!!!! no concern for anybody else but themselves !!! pity the water wasn't 6 ft deep on his side !!
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You should try working for them....I have to put up with these muppets all day long!!! Although it must be said there are some nice people with them :)
 
Ste_Nova said:
if you had it running since it stalled then any damage that was going to happen would have been done
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This meaning that I have either got away with it or the damage isnt so bad that it would be noticed??
 
mjr901 said:
You should try working for them....I have to put up with these muppets all day long!!! Although it must be said there are some nice people with them :)
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TBH I would love a Range Rover lol
 
Right an update on this!

Took intercooler pipes off and sh!t loads of water came out, took the inlet manifold off and its and the water is puddled in the ports, took the heater plugs out and ticked it over a few times to blow the water out, seems there is plenty in there! Started knocking after a few times so........... what else do I need to do? head off and assess more??

Cheers
 
Just as you have done mate, glow plugs out and crank over the engine to clear the water in the cylinders then check all the inlet system is free from water. The only other thing which might be worth doing is changing the oil as it may have got into the sump too! if the car has been sat over night then the oil in the sump will have settled on top of the water, remove the sump plug carefully and see if you get any water out, if you cant tell take a table spoon and put some of the oil from the sump in it and hold it over a flame, if it crackles and pops and spits then there is water present. Failing that just change the oil just to be on the safe side!

What do you mean knocking after a few times?
 
With so much water in the engine I would be very surprised if they wasn't any terminal damage done - you may have hydrauliced the engine and bent a rod slightly hence the knocking noise.
 
RobinA3 said:
With so much water in the engine I would be very surprised if they wasn't any terminal damage done - you may have hydrauliced the engine and bent a rod slightly hence the knocking noise.
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If it was hydrolocked then it wouldnt turn over would it?
 
Ashley Martin said:
Just as you have done mate, glow plugs out and crank over the engine to clear the water in the cylinders then check all the inlet system is free from water. The only other thing which might be worth doing is changing the oil as it may have got into the sump too! if the car has been sat over night then the oil in the sump will have settled on top of the water, remove the sump plug carefully and see if you get any water out, if you cant tell take a table spoon and put some of the oil from the sump in it and hold it over a flame, if it crackles and pops and spits then there is water present. Failing that just change the oil just to be on the safe side!

What do you mean knocking after a few times?
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So we have ticked it over a few times to get rid of the water but after a few times of doing so, it developed a knocking noise in one of the cylinders, quite "metallicy" it comes and goes but can get quite loud!

I will drain the oil out tonight and go from there. Will remove the head aswell and see what we find. Hell of alot of money saved in labour doing this, thankfully!
 
My previous car was flood damaged and it bent a con rod :-( car was a write off,on the plus side i ended up with an A3 :-(
 
hmmm how much is a con rod?? it needs to be fixed and is gonna be alot cheaper than a new car
 
So I have now phoned around a few places.

Tonight I will be taking the head off, taking the sump off and pushing the pistons out, apparently if the pistons or a piston is lower than the (block surface??) then that means the conrod is knackered.

Been told a few different things by different places - 1 said i might need conrod, big end shells, piston rings etc and the other said might just get way with replacing con rod. So abit unsure on who to believe but either way, its fixable im sure.
 
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Keep us posted mate! Hope you get lucky and the conrod is fine, hopefully the noise is just a lack of oil between the piston and liner (which I know is not great either)
 
Its quite sickening really, all this because of some cretin inconsiderate driver.
 
Ye will post tonight once I have looked more in depth, luckily my mates are kind enough to help out and spend their night on it, as it would cripple me if sent to a garage.

Ye it is very annoying that all this has come from some idiot who "owns" the road, fair enough it might not have been that clever going through a flood but I didnt think that would've happened the way it did! I would've preferred it to be my error
 
So last night was abit of a turn around but also left me confused.

Didnt take the head off in the end, just bit the bullet and decided to put the manifold back on nd rocker top etc and fire her up.
First few times it struggled nd spluttered and died on me but after a few goes and adding 100-200 revs she spat loads of water out the exhaust and ran fine nd started up fine, just as she used to infact, no knocking, just the standard diesel tappetty noise. We did all this without the egr valve connected up etc due to water been in that part of the system still so it was bound to run abit rough nd noisey.

I'm obviously very pleased about this but now im left confused and unsure. There was a slight knocking as a mentioned a few days ago when starting up, only for say 3-5 seconds, so if any damage was done it wouldve been done then (I think). So I dont know whether to just crack on and see how she drives etc or take it all to bits again, head off etc and investigate but then we are talking about money. Am I just trying to find fault with a car that could possibly lucky enough to not have one?

To me it seems like I couldve been very lucky.

Anyones opinions would be appreciated

Cheers
 
I think the strength of the components of the typical diesel engine have payed dividends in this case! if it were a petrol you'd most likely be looking at a new bottom end, valves and possibly even guides. I think the noise will go away, you got away with it this time. I'd put it back together, change the oil and both filters (oil + air), drive it and not look a gift horse in the mouth (you might see it's dirty teeth and they're not important). :icon_thumright:
 
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Can I flush out/drain my intercooler with it still on the car? if so, how?
 
I would just remove it & empty water, you've been lucky until now, dont push your luck.
 
Is it possible that the diesel knock is covering up the previous one?

I've seen cars with banana rods carry on running after situations like this, but theres always the chance it will snap one day sooner or later. Don't think it would hurt to remove the sump and check what you can from below for peace of mind, would be cheaper to replace a rod now than when it puts a leg out of bed at a later date.
 
bmh.01 said:
Is it possible that the diesel knock is covering up the previous one?

I've seen cars with banana rods carry on running after situations like this, but theres always the chance it will snap one day sooner or later. Don't think it would hurt to remove the sump and check what you can from below for peace of mind, would be cheaper to replace a rod now than when it puts a leg out of bed at a later date.
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Na the diesel noise is nowhere near as loud a what the other was.

Ye I'm still unsure what to do.
 
Well 2 ways, one is to remove lock carrier & unbolt everything from there, can also try to do with carrier in place, remove fan unit, then drop the coolant, unbolt the rad from the IC etc & drop down, I have to drop my rad out soon due to a leak.
 
audi upgrades
Managed to get it out fairly easy, just took the whole unit out, lights etc, only 12 bolts i think, just a pain with all the electrics and A/C pipes etc.

Just cleaned it all up over night, along with all the pipes etc.

Such a farse and long process but Im sure it will all be worth it, fingers crossed!!
 
SHE'S FIXED!!!!! :happy:
Soo spent a few hours today putting her back together, changed oil etc and she runs like a dream now, absolutely perfect!! Just like nothing ever happened!

So pleased!
 
All you need now is air ride to raise up to avoid tidal waves..................................
 
Ha I'm staying well away from water from now on! Think I might put a snorkle on her just incase lol

Whilst I was on I cleaned out all the egr and inlet manifold, god it was caked avout an inch thick on crap. Runs alot nicer now after that!
Can carry on with improving and modding it aswell now!
 
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Right so a new problem - I now have oil emulsifcation on the oil cap, it has only appeard since using an oil flush when draining the oil, it wasnt there at all before.

Can the oil flush have this effect??? It is the same colour - Green!
 
Assume you changed oil filter aswell, but just flush some cheap synth oil through for 30 minutes, not to cheap mind you :) then drop oil & filter again & replace with new filter & decent oil.
 
audi upgrades
I thought this might be the case, shame I put fairly decent stuff in straight way. Doh!
 
Right gents, my car is extremely lumpy on cold start idle now.

any ideas ??
 
Check glowplugs are functioning, maybe water has damaged something else electrical.
 
Take the head off and inspect the rods before they leave trough the side of the block ! I bought one of my projects with a broken rod, owner went trough a puddle and engine stopped. He cleaned the pistons then it started but broke free after 960 miles ! It needed a whole bottom end when i could have gotten away with just a rod or two and a new head gasket set !

http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/a4-a4-...179228-audi-a4-1-9-tdi-avant-fwd-quattro.html
 
Ye I am going to do this, I think it is betn slightly because cylinder 1 is low compression so suggests it is
 
I have a glow plug out now, how could this be damaged after what's happened?!
 
So I decided to get my engine rebuilt/reconditioned.

Will be dropping her off at Best Engine Reconditioning in York tonight for a full recon.

Hopefully she will run like new after this :)
 
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