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Hello everyone. Wanted to tell you all about my recent tragedy, maybe get some advice, maybe help others in the process.
About 5 days ago I drove my car through a flooded street, about 12-14 inches of water, and I am fairly certain my engine is shot. I know it was super dumb move on my part to even be driving my G in those situations. Its a long story to mention the circumstances of how it happened, and mainly my concern is now, with the aftermath. Some details on what happened, I drove through a flood street not being aware of how badly flooded it was, then my car stalled out. I was driving maybe at around 5-6MPH (not giving it any throttle) when it stalled out on me. My first thought on the stallout was, maybe water just wet some sensor and killed the engine. So I attempt to start up the car thinking maybe I can reverse outta here real quick (bad move). The car turned on for a like 3 seconds then died. I was in total denial of what was happening and still unaware of how deep of water I was in. Some info regarding that, it was at night, and extra dark due to a power outage on that road, and it was raining pretty bad making it hard to see thus why I was only driving 5mph. I attempted a very stupid 3rd try to start the car. Then I hear it crank like 1/2 turn followed by thump/pop like sound. Ugh... At that point it barely hit me what I had done.
Moving on... I have full coverage insurance on my car, and the insurance company is supposed to come evaluate the car and they mentioned for me to pick a mechanic shop of my choice to repair the car. At this point I am uncertain of what to do and what might happen after the insurance evaluates it. I had a good amount of time and money invested in parts on that car and really love it. I am debating if I should just buy a used engine, and possibly transmission and differential and replacing all that. Or another G, but Its not easy finding another G with a manual transmission at a price that I am willing to pay (no more than $14K for a car). I'm also dreading the insurance not helping me out enough to fully get me out of this mess.
By the way I pulled one of the rubber coupling from my intake to throttle body section, and there was a white calcium buildup type streak on the bottom of the throttle body, and a tiny amount of water in the rubber coupling. I have the Injen style CAI where the filters are located at the lowest and most front part of the car, making it even easier for this kind of tragedy to happen. If my G ends up making it through this with me, no more CAI with the air filters at the lowest point. I would think for sure a Z1 type CAI location would have not had this consequence.
I wouldnt call the engine toast so fast. Most likely you have cylinders full of water which is why its not even cranking(your engine wont compress water) First thing to do is drain the oil and pop the spark plugs and crank the engine over to get any residual water out of the cylinders and possibly spray some lubricant like pb blaster in the cylinders to keep em lubricated. Fill the engine up with fresh oil/filter/ spark plugs and air filters and give her a shot.. Had a few water logged cars up and running again from doing stupid stuff in my teens.
I wouldnt call the engine toast so fast. Most likely you have cylinders full of water which is why its not even cranking(your engine wont compress water) First thing to do is drain the oil and pop the spark plugs and crank the engine over to get any residual water out of the cylinders and possibly spray some lubricant like pb blaster in the cylinders to keep em lubricated. Fill the engine up with fresh oil/filter/ spark plugs and air filters and give her a shot.. Had a few water logged cars up and running again from doing stupid stuff in my teens.
^^^This is good advice right here...worst case though you should only have to replace the engine (i.e. not the rest of the drive train (diff, transmission etc.) ...on your 08 you shouldn't have a problem finding a replacement engine with lower mileage than you had from a variety of Nissan or Infinitis that use the 3.7 VHR engine for a pretty reasonable cost...the good new is if you find one off a 12 or newer it'll have the newer oil gallery gasket and probably keep your car running for years to come...
it doesn't sound like it was submerged in the water long enough (and maybe not even deep enough), but uaually the bigger problem with a car that gets in deep water (after a considering the hyrolocked engine) is mold and other corrosion springing up all over the interior and body of the car.
Thanks for the positive feedback. I hope things work out. I have no idea the extent of the damage. With the manual transmission I figure water was easily able to find its way to the clutch/flywheel area since there's a section down there that provides a small gap. Not sure if that small amount of water that could have gone on that area would affect the flywheel/clutch. I was thinking maybe water got into the differential, but maybe not.
Looking at the throttle body made me feel like I'm out of luck. I imagine things are getting corroded inside the cylinder heads. I feel pretty helpless and really want to try doing something to fix it right away, but the insurance advised me not to do anything, and I don't want to risk touching it then have the insurance tell me they're not going to cover me due to me messing with it. Top it off they're taking forever to come evaluate the car. I reported this issue since last Wednesday, almost a week ago and still no word.
Some other friends have given me nothing but negative feedback saying that there's no coming back and it's a total loss, that all the sensors are damaged along with the engine and transmission.
I appreciate all the positive feedback. Hopefully there's still hope. I'll keep you all updated as things progress.
Worst case scenario is insurance will replace the short block. Hydro locked a qr25de in an Altima I used to own. Make sure you have the carpet replaced. My insurance went the cheap route and only cleaned the carpet. It took a whole week before the mold smell left the vehicle.
My other concern is the electrical components that got wet, and might be getting calcium build up or rust. Today I locked/unlocked the car and noticed the horn isn't working anymore. Pretty sure the water got to it, and the intake filter is right next the horn, so no doubt the filters were underwater. Other concerns are the flywheel and clutch, and the fact that they're aftermarket performance ones, and I'm betting if the insurance does any work everything is going to back to stock format. Appraiser called me stating he was going to be going to see the car till Thursday the 4th.
Thank you all for the positive feedback. I'm starting to feel like the G can make it through this now. Comments I had gotten from friends and family was that this was going to be a total loss, and insurance wasn't going to give me enough to replace the G.
Posting an update on this and some pics. So this Thursday I had a guy from my insurance come to evaluate the car damage. This guy didn't do much. Not sure if thats how it typically goes down, but all he did was get the mileage, look at the interior briefly, checked for water on the engine dipstick and called it a day. He said that these modern engines tend to shut down before any major damage can happen to the engine. According to him all that would need to be done is change out all the oils, clean out the MAF's, shampoo the carpet (reminded me of what Black_Vegas said), and maybe spray some contact cleaner on some of the electrical connectors. The guy started telling me that he has an old Lotus and he seemed fairly knowledgeable about cars, so I started thinking he might have a point. He started crunching some numbers, then said that after my $500 deductible would have $2500 to cover the repairs to my car, unless a shop of my choice mentioned it would cost more than that. The shop would have to contact my insurance at that point with a quote for the repair. He said I was welcome to try and do work myself if I felt mechanically capable of doing it, and that I could keep the $2500 for myself to cover whatever I used to repair it myself.
I went ahead and pulled out the spark plugs, disconnected the battery, and removed the throttle bodies. After removing the TB's I feel like my chance of this engine being good are slim, but I have no idea. As you can see in the pictures, there's some white calcium like build up on the TB's. I was able to loosen it up easily with my fingers, and you can see on one of the pics the amount of dust it created. I didnt pull the sparkplugs off completely as to have something in there blocking debris from going into the cylinder. I removed just one sparkplug temporarily to see how it looked. It had a very tiny droplet of water on the lip of the sparkplug. Something to note is the intake manifold looked dry. What im planning on doing next is getting a camera probe and seeing into the cylinders and see how bad it looks in there along with taking pictures of it.
Im still debating what to do, I guess after I look into the cylinders I'll have decide how I feel about the next process.
Considering doing:
1)Assuming the engine doesnt look too bad inside the cylinder...... do all the recommended stages to revive/dry out the engine.
2) install a used engine of lower miles with a warranty and have it installed by me and a mechanic friend.
3) take it a Nissan or Infiniti dealership and have them deal with my insurance and the repair. (although I fear the insurance might back out of this cost if it gets too high)
Please let me know what you all think of this situation, and if you feel this engine might still have a chance.
Thanks all !
front of throttle body Calcium build up dust after some finger passes. Back side of throttle body
There is nothing anyone here can do to help you until you pull those plugs and turn the engine over, that white calcium is aluminum oxidixing due to contact with accidict water (common in floods), this doesnt happen over night, it happens over days and some of this will have happened to your cylinders. The longer you wait the lower your chances at saving it.
Remove the plugs, turn it over, maybe spray some compressed air and once you're done spray some lubricant in every cylinder. Dont try to open the throttles or it will loose it's calibration(not a big deal).
Put the plugs back on and give it a try, remember you're already getting $2500.
You might have bent a rod(Common), if all systems are green consider yourself lucky.
If you damaged something dont attempt to repair it, it's really not worth your time and money. These engines can be had for $1000 and the install is not as difficult.
Let's say you dont have the resources to install it, at most $1000 labor to install. You can keep the old one and part it out. People are always looking for parts for these engines. Good luck.
Only you can decide what you want to do: repair or replace the engine.
You have already been given good advice to see if your engine still has life. At this point best option is: change the oil, (again) remove ALL spark plugs, turn the engine over a few times to purge any standing water from the cylinders, reassemble. Try cranking the engine. If it runs (it may run a little rough at first but should smooth out) or if it is dead/doesn't start at all, then you will have a better understanding of where you stand and plan your next move.
The longer you wait to perform the above the better off you are to just replace the engine. Find a competent shop to do the job- the dealership will likely price gouge you to the poor house.
Just my ¢10.
edit: basically everything Bull just stated above!
Thanks for the advice all!
Question regarding turning the engine without the sparkplugs. Do I need to disable the fuel system before doing this, and if so any idea what's the easiest way to do that?
Also I'm worried what might be going on in the cylinder heads if the TBs look like that
You do not need to disable the fuel system. You are only going to turn the crank for a few revolutions to clear the cylinders. I would spray some WD-40 into each cylinder- crank it a few seconds- repeat the WD-40- crank it again for a few seconds- reinstall everything and then try starting the engines as normal.
You are worrying too much. Unless your engine ingested gallons of water there is always hope. Time is not on your side here though. Without knowing FOR CERTAIN where your engine stands, you can't move forward.
07-02-2019, 03:50 AM
