Diesels and Water !!

I Would just like to give you all a giggle at my recent mis-fortune..

I recently purchased a mint conditioned Alfa Romeo 2.4 JTD kicking out as standard 150 fine Italian horses. This car only just reaching it's 4th birthday now rests in the hands of a salvage company to my knowledge..

With this I shall begin, one night traveling home from visiting family not so long ago ( 3 weeks ) the wind was howling and the trees were swaying. I thought, I would use this fancy sat nav unit my folks bought me for crimbo, and boy did it take me down some weird and wonderful roads. With this I took full of advantage. The awesome power and braking system on this diesel was fantastic. And then to my horror this glimour of light appeared before me. Sinking the anchors on to late the car was hit by what seamed to be like a tidal wave and all the sudden it came to a complete halt.
Bearing in mind I had a nagging wife and two small children, one being ( 4 weeks old ) I put on my charm and said it will be alright it will start in a bit.
1 hour later the battery gave up the ghost, I was unable to get out and push due to the water being to door level, I reluctantly gave in and called the good old breakdown service out. He refusing o get in the water he jumped on my engine with a power pack and I had to turn my car over in gear to get it out of the large puddle.

Anyway god was on my side and insurance companies aren’t all bad the people at Elephant said no problem sir we will let you claim under flood damage.. Desperately awaiting the phone call saying your car will be fixed in a couple of days. I was devastated when they told me to post all my docs in as the car has now been written off.. Apparently severe engine damage and other things were ruined by water.

So Ladies and Gentleman it may be fun to clean our arches going through puddles but hard lesson learned water can kill your car BEWARE.


Thanks for wasting 5 mins of your precious life’s reading my heart ache.


Tony..


P.S Bet you don't get this problem in the desert!!! LOL...

Sorry to hear of your loss Tony, I hope the people at Elephant cough up - I was with them last year and they were very helpful.

Gone are the days when you could submerge diesels eh? Do you think the tidal wave' made it into the intake?

The first time i drove my X through a large puddle I could feel the footwell carpet rise up around my feet! Time to replace the floorpan me thinks...

Regards,
Iain

Ouch...

Where did it happen??

Yeah the greedy guts sucked it all in. Tell you something I kepp well clear of all puddles now..

Tiff the roundabout fae Cupar to Ladybank, first right up to the recycling centre just under the rail road bridge.

Cheers,

Tony.

Elephant were quick to write it off however been 3 weeks now and still no offer so that means still no replacement car...

Sorry to hear of your misfortune Tony. If it's any comfort it's becoming a big problem for the motor manufacturers - common rail direct injection diesels swallow a huge amount of air and do not have a throttle plate. On a petrol engine, you hit a flood, take your foot off the throttle and the throttle plate snaps shut and protects the engine. With diesels, there's no such protection.

The other problem is idiots driving through floods quickly, a petrol engine is naturally throttled by the water trying to get in so it stalls.... if a diesel driver demands power in water the car responds to throttle position by adding more fuel, therefore sucking more air... and more water. Several cars I know of have had major design changes because of this.

I've also noticed that more diesel cars (and petrol ones come to think of it) are putting the air intake below the axle height so they work as a very effective wet 'n' dry vacuum cleaner :oops:

Wouldn't it be a clever engine design if you put the intake at the top of the engine :

Manufacturers choose low down because you can pull in cool air, up top of the engine bay temperatures get up to 95 DegC ish, that'll reduce power (and efficiency ie fuel consumption) by a significant percentage due to the lower air density and therefore lack of oxygen. When the cooling fans are running and the car's stationary, anywhere above the axle line is hot, and customers notice this because of the slow pullaway response, typically at the bottom of motorway sliproads when you have to stop at traffic lights.

This is also the reason K+Ns on exxys are bad... they pick up hot air at the top of the engine bay. The standard snorkel pointing down towards the side vent is no accident.

That makes sense Martin, so why don't they put the intakes higher up on the side (or front), outside the hotter engine bay area rather than lower down (as per the snorkel but actually connected to the outside rather than pointing in the right direction).

Didn't the same thing happen to Gomer a while back with his 164?? I vaugely remember something??

Bruce,
If you're unprotected outside the engine bay you'll get water spray and snow sucked in, snow in particular is a big problem as the air cleaner will fill up and stop the car, stranding the driver in the middle of a snowstorm...

It's a compromise between four things:

air temp-should be cold
water/snow ingress
noise
dust filtration

and of course for the manufacturers...cost overides most things.

Good point Martin; don't see much snow in Somerset, and not enough to get into an intake. pretty good chance of getting water spray in though.

Tiff wrote: Didn't the same thing happen to Gomer a while back with his 164?? I vaugely remember something??

Certainly Hugh's 155 died in a similar drowning accident.

Yeah your right air intake just in front of nearside front wheel so would have swalled plenty dirty girl.

Oh well insurance through and they even let me buy her back so now in progress for replacement heart or maybe just a cylinder head not sure of extent of damage. Awaitng car to be delivered back from Galashields were they have been storing her.

Will keep you updated,

Tony.