Did I damage my car?

[Doggiedog]

During the Nor'easter here, I drove through a 2' high flooded road by accident (it was pitch black and I was going about 40mph). My car (Infiniti G35) nearly came to a stop. I knew my tailpipe was submerged so I kept the RPMs up while I tried to traverse the section of the road. I was at 6000RPM yet I was barely moving and my engine started smoking. I made it through the block long flooded section but was stranded again. Eventually I made my way out but the next day my engine didn't turn over immediately like it normally does and the car felt loose (might be my imagination).

Today I drove the car again and again the engine didn't turn over on the first crank. My vehicle skid control and slip lights were on and stayed on until I drove the car again about 2 hours later.

Is there anything I should do or will the car "dry" itself out?

One thing I noticed was how hard I hit the water. The day after the flood, I looked at my front plate and noticed the impact from the hit to the water bent my plate upwards about 90 degrees.

 

[flamingelephant]

likely you soaked your ABS speed sensors on the wheels... they might just need to dry out, or they could be toast

 

[lupi]

Check the filter to see if any water got up there, also may want to crank with gas fully depressed to check the compression. If sufficient water got anywhere up in the engine compartment, who knows where it could have gone and effected (those little black plastic modules may look tight, but it's resistant not proof).

Just some stuff I remember when the wiffy decided to go jet skiing in her car.

 

[deadlyapp]

engine may be waterlocked slightly, i'd check your compression. As far as everything electronic goes, sensors might be shorting out. If you have the know how, i'd unplug most of them for a day or so in a warmed garage and hope it gets better.

 

[iamwiz82]

2 feet of water in a G35? Yikes... That is a lot of water for a typical SUV. Did you check your air filter? That would have told you right away if you ingested water.

Possibilities:

1. You took on little water, maybe burned valved, nothing good can come of it - Notice any power loss?
2. Electrical short - Not an easy one to diagnose
3. It's in your head

 

[jagec]

I doubt you did any mechanical damage, but I wouldn't be too surprised if your electrical system got water where it shouldn't. Depending on how much free time you have, it might be nice to poke through the engine and make sure that there isn't water pooling anywhere, and run a hairdryer or something over areas that would be slow to dry.

By "6000 RPM, yet the car was barely moving" you mean that you were in first gear, right? The RPMs were high, but you weren't flooring it?

 

[Captante]

The biggest thing you need to worry about is that water made it into the combustion chambers in your engine & caused knocking which can destroy the valve train ... its also possible that you shorted out the main engine control computer which ultimately could have the same effect... even if it appears to be running smoothly now theres no garantee you won't have problems down the road.

The safest thing to do would be to not start the engine again & have it flat-bedded into the dealer or a trustworthy mechanic to get checked out.

 

[DigitalWanksta]

Wow, the surface tension of the water must have been very harsh to bend that back 90 degrees.

 

[deadlyapp]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
2 feet of water in a G35? Yikes... That is a lot of water for a typical SUV. Did you check your air filter? That would have told you right away if you ingested water.

Possibilities:

1. You took on little water, maybe burned valved, nothing good can come of it - Notice any power loss?
2. Electrical short - Not an easy one to diagnose
3. It's in your head

g35 isn't even an SUV, it's a luxury sports car.

 

[Doggiedog]

I'm not much of a mechanic and its been raining lately but I looked at the engine earlier today and noticed my coolant was a bit low and a dark color. I added more coolant but I doubt its the cause of any issues.

I'm not sure where the air filter is. I'll try to find it tomorrow. The engine was smoking heavily though when I went through. It was redlining and white smoke was coming out of the engine compartment. I could also smell something burning as well. I don't sense a lack of power but the car feels a bit looser than normal. Its only got 12K miles so I'm hoping I didn't damage it.

The flooding was unbelievable though. There were sections of road that were probably under 4-5 feet of water that were completely impassable.

 

[iamwiz82]

Originally posted by: deadlyapp

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
2 feet of water in a G35? Yikes... That is a lot of water for a typical SUV. Did you check your air filter? That would have told you right away if you ingested water.

Possibilities:

1. You took on little water, maybe burned valved, nothing good can come of it - Notice any power loss?
2. Electrical short - Not an easy one to diagnose
3. It's in your head

g35 isn't even an SUV, it's a luxury sports car.

That's my point

 

[iamwiz82]

Originally posted by: Doggiedog
I'm not much of a mechanic and its been raining lately but I looked at the engine earlier today and noticed my coolant was a bit low and a dark color. I added more coolant but I doubt its the cause of any issues.

I'm not sure where the air filter is. I'll try to find it tomorrow. The engine was smoking heavily though when I went through. It was redlining and white smoke was coming out of the engine compartment. I could also smell something burning as well. I don't sense a lack of power but the car feels a bit looser than normal. Its only got 12K miles so I'm hoping I didn't damage it.

The flooding was unbelievable though. There were sections of road that were probably under 4-5 feet of water that were completely impassable.

Most likely, you were ingesting water and turning it to steam. The bad thing about this is that water does not compress like gas/air, meaning the engine is the one to break.

<-- speaking from experience

 

[Doggiedog]

Originally posted by: jagec
I doubt you did any mechanical damage, but I wouldn't be too surprised if your electrical system got water where it shouldn't. Depending on how much free time you have, it might be nice to poke through the engine and make sure that there isn't water pooling anywhere, and run a hairdryer or something over areas that would be slow to dry.

By "6000 RPM, yet the car was barely moving" you mean that you were in first gear, right? The RPMs were high, but you weren't flooring it?

The car is manual and I was rowing (pun intended) through the gears trying to find one that would help move the car. I was in 5th or 6th initially and ended up at 1st or 2nd. I don't remember.

deadlyapp, I think what iamwiz82 meant is that 2' of water is alot, even for an SUV.

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: Doggiedog

Originally posted by: jagec
I doubt you did any mechanical damage, but I wouldn't be too surprised if your electrical system got water where it shouldn't. Depending on how much free time you have, it might be nice to poke through the engine and make sure that there isn't water pooling anywhere, and run a hairdryer or something over areas that would be slow to dry.

By "6000 RPM, yet the car was barely moving" you mean that you were in first gear, right? The RPMs were high, but you weren't flooring it?

The car is manual and I was rowing (pun intended) through the gears trying to find one that would help move the car. I was in 5th or 6th initially and ended up at 1st or 2nd. I don't remember.

deadlyapp, I think what iamwiz82 meant is that 2' of water is alot, even for an SUV.

OK, that sounds normal for 2' of water. What it really comes down to is whether or not the water got up to the level of your air intake or not. If not, it's a sensor/electrical issue, if so, it could run into money.

The fact that you didn't mention any trouble with the engine once you had it running (and would be hyper-sensitized to any changes) makes me doubt that you did any real mechanical damage, but you never know.

 

[mercanucaribe]

Time for a new engine.

 

[thomsbrain]

look, you basically had an accident, and your vehicle was obviously damaged. call your insurance company and report your accident, and let them deal with it.

 

[idiotekniQues]

all i know is that my 94 civic exhibited similar problems after hittin a massive puddle a couple years back, eventually it wouldnt start.

turns out it was wet distributor caps, luckily my friend had a mechanic uncle nearby who thought of that immediately and simply dried them out a bit and bam, car has run fine since.

 

[Alone]

I've actually encountered warped blocks because of floods. I hope your damage isn't that serious.

 

[iamwiz82]

Originally posted by: Alone
I've actually encountered warped blocks because of floods. I hope your damage isn't that serious.

Here's the worst I have seen. He ended up putting a new block in and stroked it

 

[SearchMaster]

Originally posted by: thomsbrain
look, you basically had an accident, and your vehicle was obviously damaged. call your insurance company and report your accident, and let them deal with it.

I knew a guy in college that did exactly the same thing and got insurance to pay for his car.

 

[boomerang]

This would be a great time to sell the car depending on if you have disclosure laws in your state.

You're in for a lot of problems. If you haven't actually done damage to the engine, you most definitely have gotten water into the wiring harness and connectors.

You'd think you could dry them out but you really can't. You'll have corrosion forming forever causing problems like you can't believe. Most of your engine controls are run on low voltage and must be within certain ranges. That's the signal your engine computer uses for information. These will be all out of wack or intermittent.

You have serious problems. I'm not exaggerating.

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: DigitalWanksta
Wow, the surface tension of the water must have been very harsh to bend that back 90 degrees.

Are you for real?

Ever belly flopped into a pool? It hurts

My old man was fording a pretty deep stretch of water a few years ago, and he was a young bloke in a ute go plowing into the water at about 110kmh. The car stopped. Very quickly. It also tore off the front bumper/spoiler and wrapped it around the front axle iirc.

 

[Alone]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82

Originally posted by: Alone
I've actually encountered warped blocks because of floods. I hope your damage isn't that serious.

Here's the worst I have seen. He ended up putting a new block in and stroked it

What the hell? :laugh:

 

[slag]

Originally posted by: deadlyapp
engine may be waterlocked slightly, i'd check your compression. As far as everything electronic goes, sensors might be shorting out. If you have the know how, i'd unplug most of them for a day or so in a warmed garage and hope it gets better.

HAHAHA

um, ok.

"Waterlocked slightly"

 

[AMCRambler]

Definitely check that air filter and see if it's wet. You can try starting the car without the filter in there and see if it kicks over better. As far as water in the engine, you'd definitely know it because the car would be running/idling poorly. If it's just hard to start, then I'd say it's more apt to be a sensor or some wiring that got wet. Steam coming from under the hood while you're driving through the water isn't necessarily bad. You've got an engine and a radiator thats heated up to over 200 degrees and you just plunked it in a whole bunch of cold water. That's gonna steam a bit.