What's up guys...

Major problem here...

I loaned my 04 TL to my uncle so he can get to & from work in Jersey for the week. I get home & noticed my car not parked on the street. He explained that he drove through some water in Jersey (even though the smaller civic made it through) and the engine shut down. He said this was due to water getting into the air intake.

Has anyone ever experienced this problem before?
I called Acura to see if they would cover replacing the engine under my power train warranty, but to no avail the answer was no.

 

It's not an absolute guarantee that your engine is ruined. Don't crank it and get it to a competent mechanic.

 

ok.. so my uncle thinks that the starter got jam in the engine. not sure what that means. it occurred to him once he realized that the engine and plugs were bone dry. we'll see what happens on saturday when he checks it out.

 

Hydro-lock It would have to be half way up the lower grill in the front.

 

Anybody that drives through deep water probably doesn't know any better than to NOT try to turn a hydro-locked engine over either.



That sounds hopeful. Maybe it's not hydro-locked, but by the story it sure sounds like it.

Not surprised Acura won't cover it. Not their fault the car got driven through deep water.

 

Hope your uncle knows what he's doing...Good luck!

 

I know this will sound a little cold, but that's one more reason not to ever lend your car out to someone. I can absolutely guarantee few if any people who would borrow your car are going to treat it as you do.

They can always rent a car instead of putting yours at risk. Unless you have a beater car, utility vehicle, or some second vehicle you use for things you would not use your primary car for, it's best never to lend your primary vehicle to anyone.

 

99.9% sure it hydrolocked and bent a rod or six.

Starter did not get jamed into the flywheel. It's up high in the engine bay and what are the odds this happened right when he drove through the puddle. This is very bad news because his excuse shows that the engine was locked up.

Do you have a CAI?

Pull the plugs and crank it over. Even if they looked dry, it will probably shoot water out an unbelievably high pressures so don't be anywhere near it when you crank it.

As much as I dislike dealer tactics sometimes, expecting them to cover a hydrolocked engine would be like expecting them to repair the body after a wreck under warranty. This really sucks for you. I Hope I'm wrong and I hope everything works out ok.

 

I am with IHC on this one. Check your oil because if you have non that is a sign of a rod thrown right through the oil pan like mine was, .

 

sounds like its time for a new motor ...

 

My only two suggestion's is remove all 6 spark plugs and see if the motor cranks over. If there is water in the cylinders and it didn't cause any rods to bend you might have a chance to recover the engine. What this would do is as your crank with the spark plugs out the water will leave out of the combustion camber. Water is non combustable...

My last suggestion is if the dealership is willing do look at it for free and do some form of a good will REMOVE YOUR INTAKE ASAP! install your factory airbox if they see you have a CAI your fucked in simple words. You won't get anything out of them.. Just for you FYI, I had something close to this happen to my car in which cylinder 6 was the only victim. My car ran without misfires or a CEL being on, a piece of carbon from the intake valve came off while doing a top end cleaning and bent the wrist pin of clinder 6 just enough to cause a ticking noise at idle-2k.

Took my car into the dealer with the CAI installed they claimed my car ingested water causing hydro lock in cylinder 6 only hahahaha.. I don't want to get started on that statement.. ANYWAY, My car was out of warranty and they did me a favor 50/50 good will. My car had 51k at the time so they replaced the short block, reused the heads and intake manifold but under request I told them to replace the clutch, resurface flywheel, throw-out bearing, timing belt, drive belt, tensioners ect. It was stupid if I didn't pay extra to get them done while they were there. I am an automotive technician, for the past 7 years. They couldn't b.s me with the cause of my failure...

Edit: didn't read I HATE CARS reply, it's the same thing I just stated.

 

Fixed!

 

Shouldnt your uncle be paying for this?

 

Update:

So my uncle got the car to start, then next thing you know the engine started to make this noise and started to look as though it was being possessed by the devil. All this oil came out from the bottom of the car. He said something cracked in the engine.

Bottom Line:

My uncle said he will replace the engine. Hopefully this is the only thing he needs to get my car up & running, cause frankly i'm very pissed. He's able to get a used engine with 41k miles on it for $1500.

Lesson Learned:

Dont lend your shyte out to anyone.

 

It threw a rod. That sucks. New engine time. Now you have the chance to do a stroker motor for not a whole lot of extra $$.

 

Man, I'd just be glad that your uncle admitted it and is ponying up the cash. Many family members would use the "it's family" excuse, and not pay you. Be glad he's owning up to it at least, and you're getting a new engine out of it.

That being said, how deep was that water!?

 

I'm not familiar with the terminology here. What do you mean by it threw a rod? Will he have to replace anything other than the engine?

Thanks

 

Check insurance coverage. It's possible that you might be covered uner the comprehensive portion of your policy.

Not a sure thing, but worth checking.

 

It sucks because he was laid off from work as a mechanic & just started this new gig in Jersey and needed a car for the week until they tranferred him to the Bronx. Now he has to fork up 1500 bucks from his first paycheck to buy me a new engine. I would feel a little remorse, but F*CK that, he could have gotten a ZIP car.

He said the water just reached the top edge of the side skirt, underneath the door.

 

I'll just let my uncle pay for it. I cant risk my insurance premium being increased. Plus, he says he can replace the engine, belt & all sorts of shyte in 2 days. We'll see what happens.

 

that is enough, same thing happened to me. i would check insurance, they covered mine. i didnt get a new engine, but it was like 10k miles younger than the original.

 

How much did the insurance company give you for the replacement engine & how much did you pay to get it installed?

I think i'm better off having my uncle buy the engine & replace it himself.

 

Sorry. The engine will have to be replaced. The heads on up will probably be salvagable but not for sure. If you don't have to send in a core, you can sell the top end parts to recover some of the costs.

 

not sure cost, insurance covered everything at the dealership. i want to say it was around 3-5k? the only thing i paid out of pocket was my deductible and a new timing belt. I figured it was a good time to do it (50k miles) while the engine was out of the car.

 

Well that sucks, but on the other hand, perfect opportunity to replace it with turbo ready internals!!!

 

On another note, if your uncle started the car without pulling the plugs, I would think 99 times before I'd let him replace the engine...

 

Doesn't matter, the engine threw a rod...

To the op, a wise suggestion for you. If this vehicle didn't have a CAI you and your uncle won't be in this situation. Further more I hope you warned your uncle before hand about this modification for that "Just incase" you run into a river..

Remove the CAI, get a Short ram intake.

 

It sure does. If a mechanic doesn't know any better to not crank a hydro-locked car with the plugs in, then I don't want him anywhere near my engine....

 

short ram is a waste of money. our cars come with a cold air induction system STOCK.
the best way to prevent is to not drive in water. period.

 

You can't predict how heavy rain will fall, sometimes your caught in it and don't have any option. This is NJ, the weather here is very unforgiving. It can be sunny one min and then the next thing you know you have a crazy storm that rips the area apart. Point being, CAI in this area is a waste of money.

 

Yeah.

I think justnspace's point was NEVER drive a car through deep water. EVER.

Very dangerous and very foolish; forget about CAI and Hydrolock.


"Oh, it doesn't look very deep. Look, that guy made it. It'll be fine."

 

A connecting rod. Connecting rods connects pistons to the crankshaft.