Open the hood MCS owners... Mine has an intake opening right next to the driverside headlight.

 

A. Water cannot enter through tailpipe of a running engine.

B. The air intake is not low. It's next to your driver's side headlight (at least on the S)

C. You don't stand a chance of MINI covering it (or any other brand covering hydrolock)

D. Your comprehensive insurance will (should)

 

Any insurance policy that lists "flood" as a covered loss under the Comprehensive Coverage should cover this situation.

As ScottinBend pointed out... the driver can sometimes be "at fault" for driving through standing water that a person exercising judicious care would not drive through. But as one of our managers here at State Farm likes to point out, the policy does not exclude stupidity.

Not calling your move "stupid", lawguy... but generally speaking, there are folks out there that will drive through a foot or more of standing water or even drive through water that they have NO idea of how deep it is. :impatient

 

I just checked my MC intake height, it is 24" to the bottom of the intake passage and it is located beside the headlight unit. It would have taken a large wave to enable water to enter there as it is really protected by the grille assy. You should be covered by your insurance. IMO, water didnt enter your engine through the exhaust, not possible with the engine running and in shallow water.

 

Thanks for the prod, just looked -- same location on my R56 MC. Actually, it's rather well placed to drink from a persistent 'bow wave'.

 

I drove Romi through about 10 to 12 inces of water one day on the way home. I knew the road and knew about how deep it was. I rolled through idling in first gear while other maniacs were trying to go through it at 40MPH and either stalling or losing control of thier vehicle. I could actually feel the car float a bit as I went through it.

The only negative effect was the CEL came on the next day and went out all by itself the later that night. I presumed something got wet that was not intended to get wet, but she has been running flawlessly other than that.

Hitting 6 inches of water at 20MPH would toss up a pretty good wave of water. The air dam is lower than 6 inches and would act like a barrier to form a pretty good wave.

 

These are all correct. MINI will not, and should not, cover this under warranty. Your insurance policy should, and I assume will, cover it. I've seen this kind of damage on all kinds of cars -- it's invariably from driving through standing water, often not that deep. As mentioned, if the water builds up in front of the car, a standing foot can indeed wash up into an intake that's two or three feet off the ground.

The "roadside assistance" experience doesn't sound too fun!

--Dan
Mach V
FastMINI.net

 

My wife did this to her saturn (before we were married).

You don't necessarily make a 'flood damage' insurance claim.

You make a comprehensive damage claim.

The same type of claim you would make if a tree falls on it,
or you hit the gas not the brake and ran through a store
window.

That is what the insurance is for, in case something catastrophic happens.

 

Glad you made it, but in general, NEVER, NEVER DO THIS! It takes very little water to float a car (especially a MINI!), and at best you'll end up someplace you don't want to be. At worst you'll end up in one of those "Driver drowned during flash flood" news articles you see from time to time. Remember, too, that you usually cannot see what is underneath that water, from tire hazards to sinkholes.

--Dan
Mach V
FastMINI.net

 

You don't call your insurance company and report a "flood damage" claim any more than you report a "big rock fell from a cliff and hit my car" claim.

You tell them what happened and they'll call it a Comp Claim.

And sorry, hitting the gas and not the brake and running through a storm window isn't a comp claim of any sort. That's a Collision claim.

Bottom line is, you don't decide what type of coverage applies to the loss. The insurance company does.

 

Sorry to hear of your troubles. Hopefully your insurance company will resolve and respond quicker than Mini Assistance.

 

From the This-Happened-To-My-Miata files: hydrolock under the type of rain event conditions you describe is fairly difficult to do on a modern engine with a hot wire anemometer type mass air flow sensor (MAFS). More often any water ingested into the intake will contact the MAFS and send it into an engine map region that simply stalls the engine, thereby saving any appreciable amount of water from getting into the engine and causing internal damage due to its relative incompressability.

Has your dealer MECHANICALLY confirmed that the engine was "hydrolocked" (i.e., internally damaged from water getting into the cylinders)? Or are they speculating this diagnosis based on your description of what happened?

In my previous experience with my Miata the engine electronics simply needed to dry out... it took 3 days of waiting and I swapped my sparkplugs and ignition wires preemptively but the car would still not start until compressed air was used to dry out the engine and components completely. Then it started right up and I have driven another 100,000kms since then!

Also, as others have said above, your MA / dealer is INcorrect in saying that the intake is mounted low on the R56 mini. Whether S or non-S model, the air intake snorkel inlet is located behind the grill next to the driver's side headlight.

Hope some of this helps... I know the feeling and what it is to push a stalled car through deep water in a torrential downpour... good luck!

 

I hope that you are right about this.

I just can't imagine that amount of damage was done in that short amount of time and under those conditions.

I was told that the car is "in full hydrolock", that they had pulled out plugs and found water. He thought that perhaps it could be fixed because the piston or rod did not break through, but he could not rule out a bent piston.

I suspect that they will do whatever the insurance company permits them to do. I don't know because noone from the service department has returned any of my calls today. Nice Job!

 

I think "goat" above could be right. The engine should stall before it sucks water and gets bent up. I bet it stalled right away like he said.
On a lighter note I watched a bozo in a Buick sedan try and go through an intersection in Phx that went under the interstate. The water had to be up to your waist! Lucky for them it was standing water, not running down a wash.

 

Had I not known the road very well (it's my daily commute), I would have just pulled over at the BBQ joint on the corner and waited it out.

It was not a rushing torrent. It was still water that had just gathered in a low spot.

 

If the water in the pistons that does not mean bent anything...i have seen that happen when we pulled a honda out of the water once... turn it over and pump that water out with the spark plugs and injectors pulled. also if the motor can be tuned with a braker on the crank pully then your in buisness.

 

It only takes a fraction of a second to lock up a motor. If the engine was ingesting a solid column of water, the first compression stroke it made would destroy the engine.....remember the engine idles at about 900 rpm.

 

100% correct!! crossing the Dry River (which was running 2-3 ft at the time) down in the Shenandoah in my two week old Wrangler, I had water pushing up over the hood and splashing against the windscreen. I lost my paper 30 day temp tag, but other than that, no issues. To say that the Wrangler is made for this with it's intake up high and pressed against the underside of the hood should be obvious, but don't try this at home kiddos

 

Since when? It rains a lot in Houston. And floods a lot. It's very common to lose a car in some of the bigger storms. And I assure you, people aren't replacing cars on their own when they total them!

 

If you are driving the car it will, in all likelyhood, be covered under your car insurance not homeowners flood insurance.

 

Why would homeowners insurance even be a consideration?

 

People are confused because a poster refered to Comprehensive coverage on the auto policy as "flood damage" insurance.

No... homeowners insurance will not cover this type of loss on your auto. And not all auto policies will cover it, either. If your auto policy doesn't list "Flood" as a covered loss under the Comprehensive coverage, then you would be S.O.L.

 

discussions of hydralocked MINIs are as old as this site. Not just R56's. Really sucks that it happened to you. A call to your insurance agent is overdue as all the discussion here on NAM doesn't amount to a hill o' beans.
Good luck ( and I personally do not think that this is a design/warrentee issue...............operator error, sorry.)

 

SOMEbody woke up grouchy. ^^^

 

Until they take the engine apart you won't know if it can be repaired or not. I talked to a guy today that had his repaired, only one rod was bent and the car actually ran OK for a year after they pulled it out of the water. One cylinder was running a little short was all.