value?

[DJC]

Citroën C2, 06 reg, LHD. Driving through 10" of flood water: it appears I am still not old enough to know better. It has now been recovered to my driveway, almost certainly has water in engine. I am not up to fixing it myself, I can't even see where they have hidden the plugs.

Well, I was planning to change it anyway for something more suited to my new environment of very muddy lanes and with more space for fetching and carrying DIY stuff.

Not worth much (650?, 200 as p/e?) if it were still a running. Will cost money just to get it to garage to look at it. I assume not worth cost of repair. Scrap dealer will take it away for £75, but it might be worth a bit more as a non-runner/spares.

What does the team think?

[GB]

Really? Water inside the cylinders? Water that doesn't compress? Wouldn't that force the head off or wreck the crank - that kind of thing? Were there REALLY loud noises coming from the engine bay/bits coming out of the side of the block?

Are you sure that you haven't just drowned the electrics? That could be pretty deadly for a car of that age, too, of course. Personally, I'd just dry it out and try turning the engine over.

[John Rumm]

+1

Yup 10" of water does not sound like it should be that serious.

[MrCheerful]

have you seen where some french cars put the air inlet?

[charles]

It happend to a SEAT of mine some years ago. The air intake was at bumper level! Luckily the engine was cold and the water just flooded the engine which stopped instantly. Engine was drained, fresh oil in the sump , and all was well.

[Fredxx]

Yes, but where's this one placed?

[MrCheerful]

Down low on the left of the car.

[tabbypurr]

When I were a nipper it was normal to drive through deeper than that. The m ain problem that resulted was the brakes. I know one place where it's still like that.

NT

[charles]

In my Anglia, I went though water that came up to the headlights. A quick respray of WD40 on the plug leads and away we went.

[MrCheerful]

as Peter Hill says: A puddle Hoover.

[newshound]

A mate of mine killed one of the little Pug vans that way in the Gloucester floods a few years ago. I got the Polo home OK.

IIRC my old Fourtrak with a pretty high air intake was designed with an air filter which wouldn't collapse if you did flood it. In fact there was a little drain hole in the bottom of the housing so that it would drain after you got towed out.

[Brian Gaff]

I'm sure he will. Maybe that company need to have an extra sensor that can measure the depth of floods before entering them.

Brian

[DJC]

The electrics function. Trunging to turn the engine over results in a grunt from the starter motor but it does not turn the engine

[Peter Hill]

A bad hydrolock, either bends a rod and then one cylinder has low compression or lifts the head then the head gasket fails.

[Roger Hayter]

Is it worth turning it over with the plugs out, and perhaps repeating that over a few hours and trying again with them back?

[Andrew Gabriel]

In those days, they hadn't yet thought of preheating the air intake from the exhaust manifold heat, and it was usually sucked in at the air filter on the top of the engine.

One of my staff wrote off their car ~10 years ago in floods. The air intake was at top of radiator grill but water rode up that high, possibly as a result of him thinking if he went fast enough, he might get through without stalling. It broke enough inside the engine to mean a new engine was required, which was almost the value of the car.

Probably 20 years ago, I drove my Ford Fiesta through some rather deep water. It washed some grit into one of the front CV joints, which made a nasty noise immediately afterwards, and had to be replaced a few months later.

[Bob Eager]

That doesn't prove the ignition electrics are dry. Check all the plug leads and the whole HT side for a start.

[Chris Whelan]

That's the one thing you shouldn't have done. You can pretty much guarantee the engine is beyond economic repair.

Take the 75UKP and move on.

Chris

[Chris Green]

Trunging?! - I rather like that.

[Tim+]

A bad idea for sure without removing the plugs but would a starter motor have enough power to do more damage?

Tim