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      10-23-2018, 02:20 PM   #23
NOLA Bill
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BMW 428i Flooded-Out!

My wife has a 2015 428i. Last month, she was caught in a typical New Orleans thunderstorm which flooded some streets in the Uptown area of town where she works. She followed several vehicles down one street which was slightly flooded (a typical occurrence since this part of the City is below sea level).

All of the other vehicles had no problem traversing the street, but after a few hundred feet, my wife's 428i stalled, and the transmission automatically shifted into park and stayed there. She was stalled in the middle of the street, so the vehicles who followed her had to go around the BMW on both sides creating waves because the water was deeper on the sides of the street.

She called a friend who lives in the area, and he came to her aid. They tried to start the engine, but not much happened. He was standing in the water which he said was 3 inches deep where the car was stalled.
BMW was towed to the local BMW dealer.

After inspection, the verdict -- engine was cooked. $12,500 later, 428i drives well with its new engine.

This was a learning experience. At least 50 vehicles passed her while she was stranded in the middle of the street, and not one of those vehicles had any problem navigating the water. It is not possible to drive a vehicle in New Orleans without experiencing at least 3 inches of water in a street from time to time.

I do not understand how other 428i owners in New Orleans have not experienced the same issue. Not one rational person would believe that any car sold for use in New Orleans could not successfully navigate 3 inches of water. Driving down a slightly flooded street is simply unavoidable. I guess BMW expects her just to sit around and wait out the next thunderstorm!
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      10-23-2018, 02:33 PM   #24
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AGONXF30 View Post
Not just BMW, but any damn engine that ingests water is going to get water logged. An engine is a vacuum so it will suck water into it if the inlet is near or below the water line.

That's why you see snorkel intakes on Land Rovers and some other vehicles.



Of course, many people just put them on because they look kewl, like the trucks with full off-road suspension that are always clean and shiny because they've never seen dirt.
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      10-23-2018, 03:35 PM   #25
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Originally Posted by Kev314 View Post
Parked overnight in a driveway that had a noticeable inclination (with front of car higher than back.) This was not San Francisco steep but enough of a gradient that it took a little extra effort to open the door and for this old guy to get out. There was a very heavy and prolonged rainfall overnight. Run-off from the garage eave was hitting the ground a few inches in front of the car.

Upon first start next morning the engine stumbled and stalled. Took two or three attempts to get it going, with the engine then running roughly for a minute or two.

Service advisor, a thoughtful type, later speculated that rain bounced off the pavement and settled in air intake, but he was clearly puzzled. There were no codes and no subsequent problems. This was a 2014 328 xdrive with around 5000 miles when it happened.
I think it's far more likely that your fuel pump had trouble getting fuel to your engine. That's actually not uncommon.

Service advisers say the darndest things sometimes.
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      10-23-2018, 03:39 PM   #26
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NOLA Bill View Post

This was a learning experience. At least 50 vehicles passed her while she was stranded in the middle of the street, and not one of those vehicles had any problem navigating the water. It is not possible to drive a vehicle in New Orleans without experiencing at least 3 inches of water in a street from time to time.

I do not understand how other 428i owners in New Orleans have not experienced the same issue. Not one rational person would believe that any car sold for use in New Orleans could not successfully navigate 3 inches of water. Driving down a slightly flooded street is simply unavoidable. I guess BMW expects her just to sit around and wait out the next thunderstorm!
Companies like BMW do pretty extensive testing of their cars in situations like this. Pretty much all high volume carmakers do. I doubt that this is an inherent problem with the 4 series. If so, the NOLA BMW dealerships would be swamped whenever you had a storm.

I think it's far more likely that it was just a freak occurrence where a big truck splashed a bunch of water onto her car. Or she didn't remember exactly what happened.
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      10-23-2018, 03:45 PM   #27
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Originally Posted by Norfolk2016 View Post
I had a question for everyone. I have a 2014 328i and during heavy rains I turned around near the water's edge of a flooded road, but didn't actually go in the water. Next thing I knew the car shuddered and died. Water got sucked up into the engine, totaling it, and costing insurance around 5k for a new engine from Germany. My questions are: is this common for a 3-series? Are they that sensitive to driving in/near standing water, or was I just unlucky? Where is the air intake for the engine? Thanks for the advice!
I'd double-check to make sure you're not getting a 3rd party remanufactured or used engine from your insurance. $5k seems way too cheap for it to be done properly.
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      10-23-2018, 03:54 PM   #28
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watch this:



I know it's an E92, but I'm sure our F3x are built tough too. You may just had bad luck.

Last edited by Zanity; 10-23-2018 at 04:09 PM..
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      10-23-2018, 03:57 PM   #29
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NOLA Bill View Post
It is not possible to drive a vehicle in New Orleans without experiencing at least 3 inches of water in a street from time to time.
It's not the 3 inches that's a problem, is the additional 9 inches of waves created by cars and trucks traveling through the water.
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      10-23-2018, 04:27 PM   #30
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NOLA Bill View Post
but after a few hundred feet, my wife's 428i stalled,

....He was standing in the water which he said was 3 inches deep where the car was stalled.
BMW was towed to the local BMW dealer.
There's got to be more to this story as cars don't hydrolock in 3" of water. Assuming the motor did hydrolock, the only way that's happening is for standing water to get up to level of the kidney grills as that's where the intake ingests air and where water would obviously enter. Also, you need to submerge to the entire intake for the engine to create enough vacuum to actually suck water in. She may have driven through 1.5' feet of water at some point which would form a wake and have enough height to entire the intake. I've worked in NO for multiple weeks over multiple years and have seen streets flood rather quickly with 1' to 1.5' of water.
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      10-23-2018, 06:00 PM   #31
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Water just doesn't get sucked up like that unless you exceeded the fording depth of the car which is probably less than 8 inches.
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      04-01-2023, 10:40 AM   #32
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i drove in water on a flooded street

when i driving down a road the entire street was flooded instead backing up i drove straight through and about 10 to 20 feet going forward the water was splashing above the hood and the car slowly lost power, i steered left going onto the side walk when the car completely lost power, i shut the car and could not crank it back up, waited about 15 20 minutes was able to start but white smoke came out the exaust and was able to keep driving but heard this horrible screeching sound coming from near the wheel i assumed the breaks were just wet but when i put the car in park there was a jerk movement when putting it in park as if gears did not want not shift smoothly, car still running was able to drive it home, woke up next day i still hear the scratching noise and it still jerks a little when reversing and parking.
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