Hey all... So we've been getting some shit weather here in sydney atm and thus lots of rain! Bad for the ZX Was driving through the national park over Audley weir (which can flood in heavy rain) didn't realise that the water had risen over the road, drove the zed through slowly motor stalled and wouldn't start. Had to get out of the car in shin deep water that was nearly up to the door sills and push the car back up the hill to a safe spot with the help of a kind gentleman and a police man that happened to be there. So tried cranking the car...Initially nothing sounded like it was seized...then left it to sit for about 20 mins before trying cranking it again...still no good...tried cranking with a little tap of the accelerator and got it off to a shaky but started state. Car was pouring white smoke (from the water) out of the exhaust and running fairly rough.... let it run while give it little taps on the accelerator to help clear it out and after about half hour no smoke coming out of exhaust and the car was ok enough to run.... Drove it half hour drive home with no immediate or serious issues occuring...noticed slight ticking from the engine...would this be because the oils viscosity would be heavily diluted from the water? Just want to know any precautions I should now take or things to watch for.... I will be changing the oil and filter to start with
If it was hydro'd it wouldn't run. Wouldn't allow it to make full rotation. Not without the plugs out anyways. You've probably just wet everything good and proper and maybe had a power drain. Smoke out the exhaust is o be expected as you've already stated. Ticking is a little odd. Would for good measure drop the oil and replace it. But doubt you would have got water into the sump. All engine entry points are higher than what you described the water level to be. All you can do is spot check all connectors and spray with electrical parts cleaner. Make sure the looms are dry. Check your air cleaner for dampness. Replace if required. You using the stock air box or a pod?
Airflow meter probably got wet if you've got a pod. This would make it hard to start and run rough. I'd think you would have to go through quite a bit of water before you got enough through the miles of intake piping and intercoolers before hydrolock.
From his sig it's an na aus spec. So lots less intake tract but none the less you would need a fair amount of water with a good force behind it to make it reach the plenum. Afm is a good call also. Doesn't when the Afm respond faulty the tps and other auxiliary sensors allow the engine to run in a rough safe mode. Hence the need for some old school carby engine throttle pumping.
Sounds like your very lucky, I drove into a flooded road section of road about the same deep doing around 40kph which stalled the car immediately. It took abit of cranking to pull the water through all the intake piping and hydrolock it. oil change is a good idea as well as going for a good drive to let the engine dry out any water thats collected around the engine bay
Aftermarket Apexi Filter which is quite low...yeah will defs be draining the oil as it got contaminated. Yeah I was worried cos there was water all up the intercooler piping leading to the TB's and Turbos Old pic it's still an aus spec just a TT one now ....there was a fair bit of water but the car stopped itself pretty quickly and at a low speed and rpm....Yeah im used to pumping the accelerator in my corolla so that trick came in handy. Well I expected to see a Con rod through the side of the block so at least that hasn't happened...I'm more worried something may be bent internally would it be immediately obvious? Went for a fair decent drive slow at first then at regular speed (about 25kms or so)... Didn't actually expect to start the car and where I was I had no service on my phone so luckily some sort of intuition kicked in
You may have water in the intake piping The water may be stuck in the intake piping somewhere and just sloshing around. I would pull off the intake pipes to check for water in there.
Possible it did actually pull a little water through to a cylinder and might have bent a rod or two. Get it checked out now by a reputable workshop rather than playing about with it, you should be able to make an insurance claim - especially if the cop helps you out and gives a statement along the lines of "was hard to see the water and I genuinely believe he wouldn't have continued had he been aware of the depth etc" You will need to start with a compression check and follow it up by checking piston depths in bores, check for water in the oil, check for blown head gasket. Either way let your insurance company know it happened as if it craps out in a cpl of mths and you find it was damaged you might still be able to claim - depending on the company policies etc. Had a club member with almost the exact same situation here in NZ, he ended up with a replacement engine thanks to the ins company If it's ticking this is likely to be the crank having a little munch on the bottom of a piston due to the rod being shorter now that it is bent.
While it's worse case, I have to pipe up with what mungy's saying. I hydrolocked one of my motors using a less than mechanically intelligent friend to help me chase down an idle problem, he hooked the washer bottle to the balance pipe, in short, stalled the motor. Engine started fine, although with a slight miss every now and then, no biggy. 3 Month later one of the rods snapped clean through and punched the sump. In short engine now an anchor. It's worth getting checked out if you've bent a rod, they *will* snap in due time.
Unfortunately there's a couple of things to note here: 1. I only have 3rd party insurance (doesn't cover flood damage ) 2. My engine number is not the same as it is on insurance because I haven't notified them yet or got the car complied. 3. I don't have access to many tools or much money Unfortunately will have to look at the more affordable fail safes for now and hope for the best otherwise it's engine number four for me
I'll bring my compression tester down with me and we can go over everything if you want this weekend man?
Sounds great man! I'll be doing a couple of oil changes to get the crap out too in the mean time...Thinking first one flush then run in oil for 300k's or so to get rid of any excess...then good oil? Also where you going to be and when...cos im busy sat but free sunday
Unfortunately mate, if you have bent a rod, the only affordable fail safe is to not drive it. So you need to make 100% sure that you have not done so. A engine with a bent rod, can (not to be mistaken with *will*) run normally and produce good power until the day it snaps. So, borrow a forum member with a compression tester, and have a look, while not definitive, it's better than nothing.
a bit off topic, but I've just installed a vented nose panel and I was just wondering whether there could be enough water that could get in through the vent to actually hydrolock the engine? also have an after market k&n filter sitting right underneath it...
it can get wet enough to make it misfire, have trouble starting, run rough etc, but its not going to suck in enough to hydrolock it.....best to install something over the top the the pod to stop it getting to wet though, cause any water into the motor is bad news really....
sometimes with a stall like you said you can actually slip the cam belt then it runs like a dog as well
Everyone seems to be free sunday so I think we'll probably organise a bit of a boner club tech day meet cruise thing.
