I was driving through the rain and hit a standing pool of water approximately 6" high at about 40 mph. The car stalled. I pushed it out of the water and tried cranking it over, but it would not start.

I checked under the hood and found the intercooler to be wet and covered with debris. Checked the spark plugs and found them to be dry. Currently the car has been towed and will be taken to the dealer Monday. What I would like to know is whether this is hydrolocking.

If it is not, what are my options? I checked the other threads and everyone seems to suggest cranking the engine after removing the plugs, spraying WD40 and then cranking the engine again.

Any help will be appreciated.

Before people flame me about my driving, the situation was..

The police had redirected traffic at two different spots on the parkway. There were no police at this spot and I was the first car to reach this spot. Since there were no police, I thought that the road was safe. The water really caught me by surprise, because it was raining heavily and I could not see this standing pool of water. After me, three other cars experienced the same thing before the police came and started redirecting the traffic.

 

If it does turn out to be a hydrolock, I hope you didn't crank the car over more than once or twice at the most. The car could have just sucked up enough junk to cause it to stall without actually locking the motor. Or, just as bad, it could have caused a nightmare of an electrical problem. If the car cranked and sounded normal during that, I doubt it hydrolocked. I think the sound would have been horrific if the case was filled with water.

 

I tried to crank it twice and it didn;t even turn over. Rather than risk further damage, I switched off the ignition completely. I intend to go over to the tow pound tomorrow and try cranking it. Hopefully, it should have dried out.

 

Odds are that it's an electrical issue preventing the motor from turning. Hydrolock is when your motor intakes a fairly large quantity of water preventing the pistins from compressing when the motor cranks. This can cause many internal parts of the motor to bend and crack.
I would bet you just got something wet that needs to dry off.
What color is the oil?

 

My money is on electrical too.

 

I'd lean that way, too. Hydrolock can make a pretty loud, nasty noise as the crankshaft or a connecting rod breaks (been there, done that).
Keep your fingers crossed for electrical. Crossed hard.

 

well.......
still wondering the outcome.. good luck to you

 

Thanks guys!! That sounds heartening. I am going over to the tow pound now to check on my baby!! I heard no loud noises when the engine stopped.

I am taking with me a bottle of all-conquering WD-40.

I will check the color of the oil before anything. If it is milky, sure sign that there was water ingestion.

If it is an electrical error, I am going to offer my prayers to all the gazillion Hindu gods!!

Whatever the outcome, I will keep you posted, and from now on, start heeding the warnings and not be a stupid driver!!!

 

The tow pound is not open today. I can find out the damage only tomorrow.

 

I wish you good fortune on this.

 

I think electrical also


Ancient Mariner I still have the piston that the rod small end pushed through the top .

 

Might want to take a can of compressed air to help dry off any connections you can get to. Pull the main relay panel cover and make sure there isn,t any water in there too. Good luck.

 

Nitro: I kept part of the oil pan with the fist-sized hole and the (now) two-piece connecting rod. And I seemed to have retained a real dread for driving fast thru deep water...

 

I finally managed to get my MINI towed to the dealer. They will be taking a look at it tomorrow.

The good news is that my insurance company confirmed that all expenses over my deductible will be covered under the No-Fault Comprehensive claim process.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

BTW, while I was at the dealer, I was talking to my MA. There are no demo cars on the floor and only two MINIs in the lot (with a SOLD sign). Apparently, they are sold out all the way till October. At the same time, the BMW guys were sitting on their posteriors!!!

 

http://www.motoringfile.com/2008/06/...erest-in-mini/

 

Good news and not-so-good news.

Got my car to Westchester BMW and they have done a splendid job in attending to my car.

They have come back to me today with some good news. There has been no hydrolocking or engine seizure. The not-so-good news: There has been considerable water ingestion, with some water in the supercharger and in the engine (through the spout for filling oil).

The proposed plan of action is to dismantle the engine, dry out the components and reassemble them again.

Hopefully my insurance company will agree to this. If they don't I guess I will have to bite the bullet and take the hit for the expenses.

Atleast I am getting our bacy back again (and hopefully, without too much damage!!)

 

Where does water get ingested in our engines? I mean, everything is water tight. It seems to me that the only places for water to be ingested would be through the air intake, or the dipstick hole (which should be sealed by the dipstick). Is it being sucked in through gaskets? If it is the air intake, how is so much water getting in there when the intake is at the top of the engine?

It's been raining a lot here lately and I keep hearing that our engines are "prone" to hydrolocking.

 

Our engines are not "prone" to hydrolocking. This guys sounds like it was a total accident, but usually its stupid people doing stupid stuff.

 

That sounds really weird. "Considerable water ingestion"

First off, I have been through water way deeper than 6" in my R53...the intake sits so high in the car, that water ingestion is not really an issue. You'd be really surprised how deep of water a MINI can go through...

However, the deep water I've been through, I did not go 40mph through, so I'm sure that makes a difference. The deepest I can think of, the car went into limp mode and got all the CEL's lit up. Basically I think something electrical just got too wet. After a day or so, it was fine and no CEL's...seems it just needed to dry out a bit.

FYI Hydrolock is very obvious when it happens. Water cannot be compressed like air and therefore it will generally cause a rod to break and go through the block. It's pretty dramatic.

 

OK, drain the oil and put new in maybe drain it again.... How do they know there is water in the supercharger, did they take it off?

 

Thats what I figured. I have just heard a couple of incidents on here and I think it was road and track that had a 3 page article on used minis and what to look for and it mentioned that they are very prone to hydrolocking. They probably just assumed that since our cars are low and small that they can't handle any depth of water.