Z Dead

Z

Z4Bob

Member
 Forest of Dean
Sod's law says when there are flash floods the 4x4 is in the garage for servicing. So my other half took the Z4 to work this morning. A mile down the road she hit a patch of water 12 to 15 inches deep flooding the road from the fields. Z died. 7.15 am
When I got there with recovery team at 9.15, all the water had gone. B****y unbelievable! Car looked no worse for wear except for missing number plate. But as it was winched on the truck gallons of water poured out of the exhaust. Took it local garage where my friendly mechanic said the engine was probably blown. Hydraulic lock?
Now waiting for insurers to send their salvage team out to assess as a write off or not.
On the plus side, my wife was not injured, friendly passers by stopped and helped, Lent phones and helped get the car to the side of the road. Insurers have provided loan car (albeit a little one which needs three pedals for some reason - thought the days if manual gears were dead!)
Watch this space, may have a black hardtop and Perspex windbreak for sale soon. Got these off the car and stowed in the garage.
 
Hydro lock only occurs in diesel engines I believe due to the higher compression needed for the devil fuel. Basically diesel engine + water = very dead. Petrol engine + water = bad but possibly repairable.
 
If exhaust filled with water engine would just stall due to back pressure, like the banana in the tail pipe (Beverly hills cop) iirc top gear also did the same trick to Hammond in his viper in the USA Road trip
 
Hydraulic Lock can happen in any engine. Water gets in from the inlet and fills the cylinder. It has nowhere to go on the compression stroke so breaks/bends the con Rod. Engines can cope with some but not a shed load.

Bad luck on that one.did they give a reason why they came to that decision? Couldn't turn it over..hole where a von Rod has popped out?
 
Sorry to hear about your misfortune,very easy to check if it hydraulic locked,remove spark plugs and turn engine over,water will literally shoot out of plug hole.If it has locked then a simple compression test will highlight any internal damage. I'm sure your local guy knows his stuff but could be other reasons ie water in electrics or exhaust as Mark plant has said....
 
Fingers crossed the zed just needs reviving?
Unfortunately insurers will probably write it off. Due to possible other damage. But it could be a good one to buy back cheap :thumbsup:
 
I hit flood water in mine, enough to go over the bonnet.. I got out the other side of the flood and the engine died, once I changed the air filter everything was fine, the filter was saturated so it starved the engine causing it to die.
I did a oil change just to make sure any water that might have got in was removed.

It might not all be doom and gloom.
 
Same happened to me with my Mondeo ST TDCi. Water was deeper though - drove though - car cut out - towed to local indy - dried car out - got it back but started hearing a whistle from the turbo. Long story short: assessor wrote car off cos the indy reported a slight compression drop on one of the cylinders, and therefore replacing the turbo could have been the start of high costs including engine rebuild.
You are very unlucky - 12 to 15 inches isn't very deep, but is a warning to all us Zed owners not to chance driving though flood water even if it looks shallow. Hope your car can be revived or that you get a decent payout and can buy another.
 
I'm sure your garage man knows what he's doing and I know you can get pressure damage from water in the pistons (hydro lock) but at least with a petrol it can sometimes not be as bad. Get the filters out, remove spark plugs, crank it to see how much water comes out of the hole and you never know. Obviously if it won't crank then the damage is probably catastrophic unfortunately. As with all these things though, glad the wife is ok as although our zeds are our pride and joy they can always be replaced unlike our loved ones.
 
Roundozo said:
Hydro lock only occurs in diesel engines I believe due to the higher compression needed for the devil fuel.
Click to expand...

I think you're thinking of something else... Seen many wrecked petrol engines with bent rods and far worse from Hydrolock.
 
Thanks one and all. Thank you nfbr, that's exactly what my mechanic thought. Been taken away by insurers salvage guys for review so almost certainly write off. Just sinking in that lovely car with only 80,000 on the clock is actually 13 years so not worth a great deal. Ah well, c'est la vie.
 
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