Ran into flood waters

[pcloud]

Hey gang,

Major rains and flooded streets here this week. Husband drove into an unlit street that had water to the bottom of car door on 99 Dodge caravan. It stalled out. Called tow truck took over an hour to get to it. Wouldn't jump start - towed home.

Battery was replaced -dead, starter replaced- dead and soaked. water in # 2 plug vacummed out dried, put fan on engine for 2 days to dry out wires. Still will not crank. They found water in the intake manifold last night. will not turn over. Can anyone give advice??? Is supposed to get real cold again and if the water freezes we know the engine will crack.

Thanks

Pam & Steve

[TomQuick]

If there was water inside the cylinder, it is quite possible that there is serious damage. You could try pulling out all the spark plugs, and see if you can get it to turn over with them removed.

[Rick99]

If there was water inside the cylinder, it is quite possible that there is serious damage. You could try pulling out all the spark plugs, and see if you can get it to turn over with them removed.

Chances are that your car sucked water through the intake when the van hit the water and splashed it up. The correct procedure would have been to immediately pull all of the plugs and turn the engine over to spray all water out of the cylinders (it won't turn over and can damage the engine to try if a piston is filled with water.) Before starting, you would next drain the oil and refill with new oil, put all the plugs back in and then try to start-obviously wet wiring could be another issue, but you could always do the first two steps and then try to dry out the wiring.

You could still try this-- hopefully there's no internal damage from the prior attempts to start. The other problem is that if it sits a couple days, it can rust inside the engine.

[Rick99]

Keep in mind that this may be an insurance loss, if you have insurance.

[TomQuick]

If the engine was running, and it managed to suck water into the cylinders, there is a good chance that the damage was already done before they tried to restart it.

[Rick99]

If the engine was running, and it managed to suck water into the cylinders, there is a good chance that the damage was already done before they tried to restart it.

Yes, an important point from the insurance perspective. Hopefully they're insured.

[mfahey]

I just went through this last week with my Bonneville. Because of the danger of hydrolocking, I did nothing on purpose when it stalled. Although I am perfectly capable of pulling the plugs, I had it towed so that if there were internal damage, the mechanic would be the one to give an unbiased opinion to the insurance adjuster. As it turned out, I had sucked water in but there was no damage since I didn't try to start it after it stalled.
By all means, pull the plugs and try to turn the engine over by hand. That will at least get rid of most of the water and prevent a freeze-up.

[TomQuick]

Trying to turn it over by hand with the plugs removed will also make it clear if you have damage. If you can't turn it with the plugs out, then there is a pretty good possibility that you've done internal damage.

[pcloud]

Thanks for all the valuable info guys. You are right it sucked water in before it drown out. The guys took the plugs out and tried to hand crank and of course it wouldn't turn. Further investsigation and water was in engine proper. Unfortunately it has only PLPD as it was paid off. Sad to say we need to junk it. Already found another vehicle and it is off to life again. Thanks for all you guys advised on.

[mfahey]

Sorry for the bad news on your van. My Bonneville sucked water because it has a non-factory cone air inlet mounted low under the bumper. For yours to have pulled in water, I would guess that you got into much deeper water than I did and that it might also have affected the electrical system. Given that, perhaps it was best that you sent it off to it's final resting place.