phantom309

Good old Atlanta - I once hit what I thought was a few inches of water at the bottom of a hill in Virginia Highlands....turned out to be about 3 feet deep. I was doing about 40 at the time in an ancient Rabbit. Tore an 8" hole in the floorboard under the driver's side footwell and filled the car with filthy brown water - but we made it through and the car kept running. My date was sort of impressed.

Anyway, best of luck to you and I hope your damage is minimal.

TheJonesBoy

And a HA to all of you! I drove my 86 VW Jetta through a 200 foot long, 3-4 foot deep puddle once. Everything was flooded with standing water, I was in a hurry, and I found out the hard way why people were all pulled over and turning around. After the water got about halfway up the doors, the car began to bob in the water, but the engine DIDN'T STALL! It took a lot of clutch feathering to keep it running, but I managed to get foreward momentum from the tires spinning in the air (well, water), and from the times I got traction from the wakes of the 18 wheelers going the other way. Probably the most freaky feeling I have ever felt in a car. I even had one wave go completely cover my hood, courtesy of a truck driver who came at me fast. There were cars flooded window high all over. Only 18 wheelers and SUV's were making it through. And 1 car. Me.

The car did stall as I was making it out the other side. The air filter was SOAKED. I pulled it and drove home. After driving it home from work the next day (65 mile round trip) I checked the dipstick and did an IMMEDIATE oil change. Chocolate milk.

I have put about 25k miles on the engine after that, and it is still running. 275k miles and counting for my amazing floating beater!

No, I am not kidding either.

SidViscous

hehe

I'm going to sneak over to your place and hang tires on the side of your Jetta and replace the steering wheel with one of those wooden spoked things.

qoncept944

Correct me, fellas, if I'm wrong, but rather than inhaling water, couldn't he have done something to one of the flywheel sensors? That'd be a whole lot easier, cheaper fix..

951and944S

I agree with Skip and others on the insurance point. There's a Honda at my shop that sucked water through an aftermarket pipe that has a lable on it that reads "replace factory airbox assembly in the event that you may traverse deep water" and the insurance is STILL paying.....

beab951 I hope 'Joe Isuzu' has learned to say Chevrolet properly because Isuzu is owned by General Motors.....

Terry S.

BartW

RMills, I have done that Diesel bit before with boat motors from a boat that went under and it worked as well. As far as insurance goes, driving through a puddle is covered, my neighbor last year threw two connecting rods out the side of the block in his Mustang Cobra when driving through a puddle, the ins company covered it and totalled the car, they paid him out for the full value and let him buy it back for pennies on the dollar, overall the car was paid off and we had over $10k to build a new motor with.

snakepliskin

Hey there,

Finally got my car back from the shop this weekend...

It turns out that I had blown the head gasket. The old one was in really bad condition, and ingesting the water just caused it to come apart. It looks almost like it was petrified...

Anyway, I had a race shop in north Georgia that has experience with SCCA 944s do the work. They did a good job, runs nice.

Had to replace the gasket, clean out oil system, new plugs, wires, cap, rotor, etc...

Since the gasket was so bad for so long, it had caused to pitting to the aluminum head. So, it had to be shaved a bit and received a valve job while at the machine shop.

Luckily, insurance paid for the bulk of the repairs.

Its nice to have it back, especially running as well as it does.

Thanks to all for your support and advice.

snake

iloveporsches

Looks like you really caught a break on that one. No more puddles!

ERAU-944

yeah man, be careful in the wet. high rpm engine operation and water near the intake is asking for high dollar repairs. do be more careful in the future. glad to hear you got it sorted out.

-Michael-

Tom Carson

you really did dodge a bullet

thanks for getting back to us with the outcome

SoCal Driver

I agree with Tom.

Now remove the vent tube from the belt housing to the air cleaner as this is where most of the water comes in from. The belts make great water pumps. Also there is supposed to be a plastic shield behind the rotor.