10-23-2018, 02:20 PM | #23 |
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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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10-23-2018, 03:35 PM | #25 | |
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10-23-2018, 03:39 PM | #26 | |
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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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10-23-2018, 03:57 PM | #29 |
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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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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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