My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

Yesterday it rained like it hasn´t rained in the last 4 years probably. Many streets were flooded, including one close to my wife's office. Instead of waiting for the water level to go down, which took about two hours after the rain stopped, she just went ahead and drove the car through water that was higher than the exhaust. Luckily it was not higher than the air intake, otherwise bye-bye engine.

I opened the air filter box. The filter was totally soaked and there was water in the box. I removed the air filter (the car has not been used without a filter) and left it outside to see if it would dry up. Gonna try with a hair drier, just so she can use the car today for a short 5 km drive to her office. I´ll buy a new filter and swap them tonight.

What else should I check, besides my wife's brain? Oil change just in case? Check out the turbo? Heeeeelp

RE: My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

Update: I put the air filter in the microwave oven for 1 minute at max level. Then took it out and used a hair drier to blow the steam out. I repeated this four times and the filter was a bit moist, but usable. I put the filter back in the car, and my wife went to work. Let´s see how it goes.

RE: My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

Hi Axel,

I would just buy a new filter (unless it's $$$ in Argentina), as well as engine oil & filter. Well, at least the motor had a free wash[8D]


JPN

RE: My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

Air filter is cheap, 20USD manfactured by Mann. I'm getting the oil & filter changed, I was wondering about the rest. Anything else I should check? The car has started vibrating horribly now on idle. I guess it might just be coincidence. If I accelerate a bit the noise goes away. If I put the tranny in P or N it goes away. The noise is there when the shift is in D, but the break pedal is pressed.

RE: My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

Good evening Axel,

The rough idle (vibrato) may be due to wet ignition components, I would check to see if there is water trapped somewhere along the ignition system. Or just wait a few days until everything dries out. Also, drive the car for 15 minutes and double-check the transmission fluid level, as well as the colour.

I would also take off the timing belt cover and make sure everything in there is dry.

I hopenone of thesensors/electrical connections suffered short-circuit from water....


JPN

RE: My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

Also maybe even check the engine mounts.

The mass flow might have shorted out some from the water as well.

RE: My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

Thanks guys, I´ll check it out today.

RE: My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

The filter is in wonderful shape after the microwave oven trick. It is incredibly clean, probably has less than half the dirt it had before. You can probably double the life of the filter this way.

Regarding the horrible vibration, is happens in all the gears. It seems to come from one of the cylinders, maybe a rod was bent by hydrolock? The noise stops if I accelerate above 1000 rpms.

I took the spark plug cover off to inspect the plugs, and I found a lot of oil under the cover. It is apparently coming from the oil cap, so I guess I'll have to buy a new oil cap seal (the round rubber thingy inside the oil cap). I removed all the oil to see if how bad the leak is.

I am attaching picture of plugs 1-4. I didn't have time to check out number 5. Look at all the dirt (carbon?) on the plugs. I don't know if that is the wrong anti-seize thread lubricant that I added a year ago to make plug removal easier. I cleaned them up and put them back in.

Any comments are welcome.

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RE: My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

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RE: My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

More pics

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RE: My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

Cyls 1 and 2

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RE: My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

That engine is pretty clean inside!!!!

Plugs look pretty good just a little worn.

RE: My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

Cyls 3 and 4. Check out the white dots on the inside walls. I took a sample out and looked at it with a magnifying glass. It looked like salt. Maybe it's calcium residue do to rain water in the combustion chamber?

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Edit: I meant sodium, not calcium...

RE: My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

What's the brown stuff on the top of the cyls? Is that oil or rusted alluminum? I didn't want to try to scrape it off because it would probably fall inside the combustion chamber.

I am really worried about the noise now. Would a bent rod stop making noise at a higher rpm?

RE: My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

That looks like it might be either rust from water being in there one time or another or slight weapage from the o-ring. There is an o-ring around each cylinder between the Cam Cover and the Head.

Yes a bent rod can act like that as well.

RE: My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

I didn't see any o-rings when I took of the spark plug cover. Are they missing or did I misunderstand you?

Guess it's time to throw the car off a cliff then ;)

RE: My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

You missunderstood me.
Between the 2 aluminum top covers is where they live.

RE: My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

Today I used my car´s wife for the first time since the rain/flood. I did 90 kms on the freeway. I came back from the office late at 10 pm so I was able to test the engine, which seems to be working fine. I reached 200 km/h. Would a bent rod allow me to do that without blowing up the engine?

I am wondering if the noise isn´t coming from the tranny instead of from the engine.Could water get into the tranny or the differential and cause some damage? I am going to do a tranny drain to see if changing the fluid will reduce the noise/vibration.

RE: My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

if it stops when in neutral and part take a quick look at your muffler and the c-clamps that hold the mfuffler. I know it's a long shot but kinda makes sence?

RE: My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

The noise comes from the front of the car, not from the back where the muffler is. It seems to come from under the engine (tranny?).

RE: My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

yeah sorry I didn't actuallt mean the muffler in general but the entire exhust system. I know that if the car is vibrating it could possibly be this. Especially if it stops when in park or neutral. But this is just a shot in the dark, I'm not even close to being a mechanic LOL I took bus admin marketing. Take a look under it's worth a shot!

RE: My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

It is a possibility.A hot exhaust system suddenly getting wet with cold rain water might sufferthermal shock. A crack in the exhaust system might vibrate making a lot of noise. I'll take the car to a muffler shop to check it out.

RE: My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

Update: I checked the engine with a guy at the office who's a motorcycle and car freak. He says the engine is fine, that the timing belt is a bit noisy, and that the noise is coming from under the car."Get the car on a ramp and see if you can pin out the vibration problem. If you can't see anything vibrating, drain the tranny fluid, and if that doesn't change anything have the tranny checked. It could also be an engine mount".

RE: My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

axe I will pray for you tonight in hopes it's not the timming belt going. SERIOUS get that looked at soon man, I wish I would have and here I am $1000.00 later. Wish you the best of luck, keep us updated.

RE: My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

At one time the wife did the same thing with one of her cars.
We drove it for 1 year with a bent rod before the engine let go.

RE: My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

Yep. Your Timing Belt snaps, your engine blows. Simple as that.

We got interference engines.

RE: My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

If your wife would have been driving my new yellow T5R it would have been a Yellow Submarine.

Referring to the Beatles song "We All Live in a Yellow Submarine". Oh never mind just showing my age again, but if you are old enough, I probably just made that song stick in your head for a little while. haha

RE: My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

Envy is a bad thing... yellow T5R... drool

LOL

RE: My wife thinks her 850 is a submarine
 

I am very embarrased to say that I absolutely over reacted and misdiagnosed this vibration problem. The problem was only a loose deflector under the car, to the right of the transmission. I don't know exactly what the deflector is protecting, but it is "clip-on", it is not fastened by screws.

The water somehow released one of the sides of the deflector. It was just a matter of putting the car on an elevator and pushing the part back to the correct position.

Just in case the water screwed up the lubricants Ichanged the engine oil, oil filter, air filter, 4 quarts of Valvoline ATF3+ tranny, and I addeda quart of ATF3 to the power steering too. It's unbelievable howquietly the tranny is shifting now.

Sorry about wasting everybody's time with this issue.

The upside of this story is that the engine is working fine even after the scuba diveand that my wife will never ever drive through high water again due to all the insults she received.