Flooding

[precious1205]

just today we were driving our 2002 ford escort in the pooring rain when we hit a puddle and the engine died the water came in up to the seat what do we do now

[Yinzer]

Where are you? Our whole city just recently got flooded. Take it to the shop and see if it can be saved (because flooding can really mess things up) as well as cleaned out. Then if all is working you will have to get a "flood title". Can't tell you much about those, except that you'll need one. A man came in to the Mercedez dealership with a 1960-something classic beauty that was flooded and full of mud and gunk and yuck, he had to pitch it.

[New Forester]

"Puddle"? Sounds a bit more than a puddle... Petrol or diesel? You may be lucky, and it's just a bit of water in the high tension (spark) system of a petrol engine. This may just need taking the distributor cap off (the thing all the spark leads go to), wiping it thoroughly dry and replacing it (making sure the spark leads are not muddled up). Also worth cleaning and drying the ignition coil (the thing on the other end of the central distributor lead) and the spark leads themselves. This often stops a petrol engine when driving through puddles too fast, as the water splashes up inside the engine compartment, and water does not go well with high voltage. On the other hand, if the air intake went under (in whichever kind of engine), it will have sucked water -- though this does take some depth. In this case you may be talking serious damage. If water got as far as the cylinders, the pistons will have hit a solid wall of incompressible water, and you will have bent con rods and who knows what. Could be a new engine or worse. The other problem is that water may have got in to the wiring loom and other electrics, especially if the car was standing in deep water for some time. Also water may have gone in through the exhaust while the engine was stopped. Definitely a garage job.

[corganiser]

may also be worth spraying all leads and plugs with wd40 which will help to push the water out

[Jay70]

With reference to New Forester's answer,late Escorts are fitted with a Dstributor-less Ignition System (DIS) so there is no distributor cap but an ignition module on the R/H side of the engine which acts as a coil and distributor. Hope you get it sorted.

[New Forester]

Ah, how sophisticated. The last Ford I had was a 1965 Mk 1 Cortina.... Grey, like in the song. The problem will be similar anyway with the magic box ignition -- there will be high tension leads and connections between it and the plugs, and none of it will like getting wet. WD40 helps, but won't push water out of crevices and cavities. I find too much can also stick dust onto the HT insulation, which later gets damp and allows tracking of the spark. I think it's better to keep it all clean and dry.

[gerry]

I would get out of the car