Thought i'd ****ed it...

[Poodle]

So we went for a cruise through the forest yesterday and my best mate decided he wanted to take a look at some of the bigger fords. My mate finds one showing 2' on the gauge and goes straight for it, hits it at about 30 and sent 10' plumes of water in every direction lol. Brilliant, i thought, i'll have some of that. Now i'm not completely daft and have done this countless times before, the chances of any water getting high enough to reach the intake was slim, but i like my rods straight so wasn't going to risk gunning it through. I kept my speed down - about 10mph - and came off the throttle completely just before i hit the water, so there would be no chance of any stray splashes being sucked up the inlet.

It was at this point than i began to reconsider my original assessment, as the water flowed up and over the bonnet and the engine stalled. Seems the depth gauge is a bit out then... Luckily the ford wasn't wide and the momentum carried me through, thank fook. Was straight out of the car and into the engine bay, the gauges had done the "battery low" sweep, so i was fervently hoping it was just a short somewhere which had caused the engine to stop.

On opening the bonnet i was greeted with this:


That's pools of water around the injectors! I dried the connections as best i could and went to get my tools, only to remember i'd taken them out of the car the previous day... #2... I did manage to find a screwdriver, so I had as much of a poke around as i could at the time, first port of call being the airbox. Opened it up and the filter was dripping, as in actually dripping...

That pic's a bit of a fail, i should have taken it from a bit further back, you would have been able to see the water flowing out of the filter. That discovery pretty much demolished any hope i had of the engine surviving the ordeal. My best mate was very supportive and didn't let this latest development stop him from pissing himself laughing or tipping his umbrella onto me every couple of minutes to relieve the boredom.

I got straight on the phone to the AA, thankfully we weren't waiting long for the guy to turn up. Took the plugs out and cranked it, sure enough little jets of water fired out of all four cylinders, thoroughly soaking my best mate in water and diesel. AA guys says "Sorry mate, did tell you to move, but think you were laughing too hard to hear me." Legend. Still, had trouble appreciating the joke now i had confirmation there had been water in all four cylinders. Got on with it anyway and was soon ready to try and start her.

Cranked her over the first time and she did 2 revolutions nicely before stopping dead with a screech. I swore a lot thinking that was the end of it, but AA guy pointed out it was probably just the aux belt slipping where it was wet, felt a bit of a drama queen lol. Tried a few more times and the same thing happened, was getting more and more downcast and just to add to the atmosphere the rain was getting heavier. AA guy reckoned she was doing better than most he'd seen like it and so didn't want to give up yet, so he got an airline out and blasted all the electrical connections. Nonetheless, the next attempt yielded an identical result, even the AA guy was looking grim.

At this point i remembered the instrument sweep (low battery) and suggested a booster pack for a last try, before we gave up and towed her home. By some complete fluke she actually started, although then cut out immediately. We tried again and this time she kept running, even better there was no sign of missing or poor combustion. Gave her a few minutes to dry out and warm up, then revved the nuts off it just to be sure... Clean as a whistle! :dance: AA guy was really excited lol, said in just over a decade of AA service he's never seen one recover from being flooded.

Relieved doesn't even begin to describe how i feel, still nursing her everywhere because i can't quite believe it. Looks like i'll be making a snorkel for next time.

[Midnightclub]

Pug engines FTW! Glad to hear it's not f*cked mate!

[Curt]

Good news there man! Although, I avoid puddles for this very reason... Driving through a small lake isn't really recommended.

[spike2002]

Very lucky mate. I stay away from fords id rather take a detor or go back the other way as ive seen the damage they can do

[kentiiboii]

Glad you got it going again very lucky. Would of been fun to see you go through though

[Poodle]

Absolutely Danny, was so sure it was f*cked, would be just my luck as well.

Good news there man! Although, I avoid puddles for this very reason... Driving through a small lake isn't really recommended.

When i saw the water come up over the bonnet, it was just like "Wtaf!?!". Definitely not going to be making that mistake again, that's for sure.

[Midnightclub]

Seriously lucky it didn't hydro lock or something! bust rod is the last thing you want haha

[mark_airey]

You lucky bugger!

You went too damn slow though, what did you expect? your supposed to go fast enough to push a bow wave which keeps the water out of the engine bay a bit and also use a low gear and fairly high revs to keep the water out of the exhaust and also to give it the power needed to push its way through the water............do they teach you southerners nothing

[Matt]

You were f*cking lucky mate!!! Thats just mad!

[lolsteve]

luckkyyy!

at least the engine bay got a much needed clean

[Connor]

Diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick

[samass]

hahahaha
nice one there alex!
tho i almost killed mine, hit an epic puddle at about 60, car started spluttering. drove it home, took the plugs out, jet of water out of cylnder four, new plugs, all sweet!!

[Jonny81191]

You'd have been fine at 70mph, aquaplane over it!!

[Scott]

f*ck it, go back and build a ramp. Jump over it!

[mark_airey]

f*ck it, go back and build a ramp. Jump over it!

Dukes of Hazzard yo.................

[Jonny b]

Yes mark they teach us southerners not to be so stupid or tight and buy a 4x4 to drive through fords and the like ha ha through clearly the op missed that lesson lol

[Toms306]

You just need a snorkel IMO.....

[mark_airey]

You just need a snorkel IMO.....

with an XUD maybe, but with anything else 306 wise you tend to find that electronic shit doesn't like water too much

[Niall]

Southerners have invented the bridge. Very few of these fords left now mark. You lot need to keep up with the times!

[Midnightclub]

Southerners have invented the bridge. Very few of these fords left now mark. You lot need to keep up with the times!

Repped

[Toms306]

You just need a snorkel IMO.....

with an XUD maybe, but with anything else 306 wise you tend to find that electronic shit doesn't like water too much

I've never had a problem jetwashing engine bays tbh..........

[Poodle]

Well Tom, that's clearly bollocks isn't it, or have you got one of your Golfs running properly by now?

Diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick

This! Felt like such a muppet talking to the AA guy while he was sorting it out. Interestingly he said it's a good job i went so slowly and wasn't on the accelerator as that would have really messed things up, although given the final result i'm not so sure he was right. Then again i'm not in any hurry to test either theory lol. Aquaplaning though, could work...

[Jonny81191]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oeJjzdlTuI

[Toms306]

Well Tom, that's clearly bollocks isn't it, or have you got one of your Golfs running properly by now?

Lol, water won't break a dmf though.

And I saw the silver one out the other day too so I'd assume that's still fine.

Even the 106 was fine after the jetwash lol.....even if it did leave an oily.puddle on the drive afterwards.

[HDIkyle]

My Sedan suffered the same fate but unfortunately been an XUD it did not recover so well. I did shit tho when i was driving tho the floods and water started lapping the bonnet in the HDI but luckily there was a raised but of road in the middle of the 2 deeper parts

[Rippthrough]

You might have done a few but everything you did was the completely arse-backwards way, you should have gone in faster to push the water out of the way, in a low gear, or even slipping the clutch, to keep the revs up, then any water that does get in the engine is likely to be spread across a lot of chambers as vapour rather all going in one pot, and it keeps the water out of the exhaust system.

---

Southerners have invented the bridge. Very few of these fords left now mark. You lot need to keep up with the times!

Well you soft southern lot would, the rest of us northerners cross streams like real men:

[Dum-Dum]

Will you pick me 6 numbers for saturday mate.