Screwed up - car stopped in a ford (as in water)

I'd like to be able to wade in with watertight advice but fear I'd just dilute the seriousness of you being beached.

some similar issues discussed here

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=220&t=1855345

including this comment:

Theres an electrical engine cut out on bmws somewhere for a crash maybe the water has messed it up?

not sure this helps.

Father in law's Golf was written off when the car park next to the Fowey river flooded - not good to find your car full of water after a nice dinner. Water was over the sills and got into the car. Insurance paid out.

I had a Xantia that I drove through flood water that was deeper than it looked, it hydraulic'd the engine. It was only worth £500 and it was my fault so I didn't even think of claiming. That was a write off.

I'd wait until tomorrow - it may dry out and start working again. It may not be an insurance job - the insurer may treat it as avoidable flood damage i.e. you had a choice to go through the ford or not. Phone the insurance company tomorrow and ask them.

If you have a trusted independent specialist I'd have it recovered to them rather than a dealer.

Good luck.

Do not try and crank the engine until the mechanic has had a look, an engine can ingest just enough water to stall it but do no damage, especially at idle, but the starter motor can put enough torque into it to do damage. Before anyone does try and start it they need to stop compression taking place by removing the spark plugs (petrol) or glow plugs (diesel). That way water will fire out of the bores or you can stick a camera down them and take a look.

Go and look where your air intake is. Some modern cars have them very low down and can suck water in from a deep puddle, let alone a ford. You may be lucky and it's electrical but if you have a low intake duct then you my be in for a big bill.

TBH it does sound more electircal than engine hydrolock. Googling shows the wading depth is 30cm/12". Also a quick search on google images seems to show the air intake is pretty high and just above the radiator. So fingers crossed.

I had a Xantia that I drove through flood water that was deeper than it looked, it hydraulic’d the engine. It was only worth £500 and it was my fault so I didn’t even think of claiming. That was a write off.

My Xantia had the control for raising the ride height using the Hydroactive suspension. I used it a couple of times when it might just have made the difference.

Maybe not what you want to hear but if you drove it through the ford, how is it an insurance job?
(edit: oops - forgot about comprehensive insurance (despite having it myself) - I guess it will depend on whether they think it was an accident or reckless)
Hopefully it's just an electrical issue but you'll have to pay for it yourself. Any competent garage should be able to assess it without it going back to a BMW dealer.

Not what you want to hear but there is a good chance they will write the car off. Not for anything that con't be easily fixed today, but because water ingress invariably leads to electrical gremlims for the rest of the car's service life, which you will insist are the result of the flooding and will (rightly) want to be sorted by your insurance. On the basis of experience they may well choose to simply write it off now and count their losses.

eesh... if water got into the air intake/filter (intake manifold) for the engine then you're gonna have a bad day.

Theres a reason landys have 'snorkle tubes' up to the roof.

Best thing to do is dry it out as best you can, it could just be wet electrics, but it's kinda imposssible to diagnose without seeing the car.

Where is the air intake for the engine in that car? if it went blow water lvel you're probably looking at a new engine.

My Xantia had the control for raising the ride height using the Hydroactive suspension

That was with it all the way up! Water came up to the windows - totally my fault, I came back from a work trip to find that the road the office car park was on was shut for resurfacing. Only way not blocked by large machinery was down a small dip which was comprehensively filled with water.

A friend wrote off her BMW after driving through a ford, turns out they have a very low air intake.

Go and look where your air intake is. Some modern cars have them very low down and can suck water in from a deep puddle, let alone a ford. You may be lucky and it’s electrical but if you have a low intake duct then you my be in for a big bill.

Not just ‘modern’ cars, although I’m not sure exactly whereabouts ‘modern’ actually starts, but twenty-one years ago all around north Wiltshire and south Gloucestershire there was a lot of flooding, and a very good friend of mine drove through some deepish water on her way to work at Dyson, in Malmesbury, and the car just stopped dead. It was a Megan. It was towed to a local garage, where there were a few other dead cars, including several Megans, all with low air intakes, and all written off due to sucking water into the engine.
Honestly, you’d think that car manufacturers would actually test cars through water of various depths, and not put an air intake where it could inhale water and drown itself!

Roll’s eyes.

Open the air filter housing and see if the filter is damp. If it's completely dry hopefully it's electrical and some WD40 will sort it.

If the engine fan was running it could have sprayed water over the engine/electric/air intake

Never had a problem like that with my old Suzuki SJ410.

Honestly, you’d think that car manufacturers would actually test cars through water of various depths, and not put an air intake where it could inhale water and drown itself!

For the next generation I'm kind of hoping those floor mounted battery trays are well sealed 💧+⚡=💷💷💷

Open the air filter housing and see if the filter is damp. If it’s completely dry hopefully it’s electrical and some WD40 will sort it.

Good shout, if your air filter is dry you may be ok.. if it's damp, you're potentialy knackerd.

Do not try and crank the engine until the mechanic has had a look

Bit late for that as he's already tried starting it (a couple of times I think).

****'ed car, sorry..

<p><span style="font-family: Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'Noto Sans', sans-serif, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Noto Color Emoji'; font-size: 16px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Bit late for that as he’s already tried starting it (a couple of times I think).<br /><br /></span></p>

<p>I had no option. To get the car in to neutral from park I had to press the start button, but engine did not even turn </p><p> </p><p>fully accept it could be screwed </p>

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Older X1 is surprisingly competent IME and sill-depth water shouldn't pose a problem mechanically
I think that the newer X1 has a lower wading depth (250mm down from 300) and a slow speed limit too, 5mph?
Combine that with a slope in to the ford and a bow wave and you could overreach. Fingers crossed that it's purely electrical, below sill-level still water shouldn't be mechanical
Insurance-wise you'll probably need to demonstrate proper care and adherence to the handbook

As above airfilter out 1st then go from there

Petrol or diesel? Petrol you might get away with it, diesel and I’d say it’ll be goosed.

Probably not what you want to hear but I agree with most here saying it's probably goosed. It might not have gone above the sills where you could see it, but with a bow wave you can easily double or triple the height of the water around the engine bay and force water into all sorts of places it shouldn't be.

It does sound more electrical than water inside the engine because that would be pretty much instant game over but it doesn't take many wiring looms to fill with water and river sediment to completely wreck them.

If you go through insurance, the cost to them of replacing wiring looms for the engine will force them to write the car off in all likelihood.

checck your air filter, if it's not wet than you may be ok.
But the prognosis isn't great.

If the water was only sill deep it really should not have got into the air intake.  I bet it dries out fine

Yeah dry it all all out first.

Good opportunity to get yourself a “proper” SUV now 😉

My money is it will ok in the morning btw

Good opportunity to get yourself a “proper” SUV now 😉

I was expecting that one after my enthusiasm for my faux SUV in other threads 😞

Still thankfully because it is a faux SUV no water got inside the car.

Mechanic coming out this morning…

Just over the sills?

So basically it's either:

I bet it dries out fine

or

But the prognosis isn’t great.

Place your bets!
For OP's sake I'm hoping it's the former, rather than the latter but I'm invested now and interested to find out which it is.

If the air filter and air box is dry then it's not got in the engine. Far more likely that water has got in the loom at the front of the engine bay and that'll be why the car thinks the bonnet is open. Fingers crossed when it dries out it'll be back to normal.

In a neat reversal, I once wrote off a ford by driving it through a BMW 😉

I did this years ago in my Vauxhaul Corsa 1.5 TD, water lock in the engine crossing a ford in Great Langdale. Pushed it out, eventually restarted it, firing on 3 cylinders, spewing 1/4 of the diesel into the exhaust where it burnt creating a huge plume of smoke out the back. Drove to Ambleside, where a garage pronounced it 'shagged'. Recovered home and engine rebuilt with a new piston and conrod. Went on to do another 100,000 miles in it before it finally died of old age...

£900 bill IIRC, in '94 ish...

Oh dear. Fingers crossed its not as bad as it seems.

I found out my 1990 Celica had an air intake at front splitter level driving through flood water - I would have normally detoured but I was on my way to a new job and chanced it as it wasn't that deep.

I knew it was water in the engine, filter was wetter than a washing up sponge. I wasn't gunning the engine though so when recovey driver arrived and I asked him if we could first remove spark plugs, syphon out water (loads) crank it over and put plugs back it. Filter out plugs in we started it up with a bit of white smoke and I continued on to my new job.

Did another 1k miles or so before big end went I suspect water had got into oil, I might have been OK if I changed it ASAP. Now there's no chance I'd drive through more than a few cm of water too many ways to cause damage, electrical, undertray, engine, etc.

I met my neighbour during storm Frank.

The water was over the only bridge on the way to the main road. Id just been up to the mainroad and seen the traffic chaos and turned around.

I met her and said probably not worth chancing it in the BMW the waters quite deep*.....

- never saw that car again.

*it was in my cab and the cab was a clean 3ft from the ground level.

Anyway if the waters in the engine bay cab latch its probably entered the intake. likely when you enter the water and initiate bow wave - even sill deep water can come up quite high on the front end if you get the speed wrong.

To get the car in to neutral from park I had to press the start button, but engine did not even turn

it is possible that the starter motor did attempt to turn the engine over but the cylinders were so full of water that it couldnt turn at all, so sounded like nothing was happening.

I had to press the start button, but engine did not even turn

I hadn't seen that.

I would have hoped that if absolutely nothing happened then it's hopefully electrical but if the starter tried and the engine didn't turn over then that sounds particularly bad to me.

On my car (not keyless start) I just need to turn the ignition on to allow the gear lever to be moved from  N to P.

On a slightly different note, at least the OP can learn from this - my mate has a 4 or 5 year old LR Velar and driving down the motorway the other night it just died and all the warning lights came on.

Having waited 1.5hrs in the dark and rain it was recovered to the dealer who has announced that the turbo had blown dumping all sorts of crap into the oil and the engine is toast - £10k repair bill!!
69k miles, fully serviced and just out of extended warranty.  Apparently the dealership has had to replace 3 Ingenium engines so far this year!!

Mr local garage man (subcontract from AA) came out this morning, stuck a battery pack on it and said, it’s not working and needs a full garage diagnostic. He refused to accept the job for recovery so we are now waiting to see if anyone else in deepest darkest wales will accept the job, genuinely just think he wanted to get a nice call out fee, but couldn’t be arsed coming out last night or doing anything!

Every time we speak to the AA they ask if we are in danger . So far we have been saying no, but thinking of changing that as it’s a 6 mile walk to the nearest road and prob 10 to a village. Last night we had 70mph winds and it was snowing

Another post about crap breakdown service! Green Flag have a guaranteed recovery option FWIW (not that I've had to use it in the last 10 years!)

Every time we speak to the AA they ask if we are in danger

You're in Wales, nuff said... AA SWAT Team required 😁

My experience of AA is similar. They contract everything out and the contractors aren't interested in the slightest in helping you. I once followed a recovery lorry which was meant to head to ingleton from ribblehead viaduct, to get mobile signal and decide where to recover to for a German friend. They never stopped and instead drove all the way to Morecambe purely because that's where they came from!

Cancelled AA, Mrs FD realised she also had Green Flag cover, 45 mins later a very nice helpful garage lady turns up and the car is being loaded up. Turns out water had got past the air filter. And what looked like a swimming pools worth poured out of the exhaust when it was being loaded

Screwed car me thinks.

Just as an aside , animals are not allowed in recovery vehicles, we didn’t know this. So Mrs FD is now going to have to drive back in our other car to pick us up later.