Anyone who lives around Chicago should remember the pretty heavy rain that we had a couple of fridays ago. Well, on the way back from picking up dinner our coupe was driven through a section of street that was pretty flooded, but clearly it couldn't have been too bad because it has low curbs and it only rained two inches. Just as the car was getting through it everything died. We pushed the car home and had it towed to Infiniti as nothing would start up whatsoever.

Infiniti tells us the car is hydrolocked, and that the only way we could've done such a thing was to drive through 12" of water. A new engine will cost us $11,000. There is no way we could have driven through 12" of water, water could not even physically accumulate mucher higher than 5-6" where it happened. They just insist we drove through 12" of water. There are 20k miles on my 2003 coupe and it has an extended warranty through 100k+. Our dealer's service manager is also "unsure" whether that warranty will still be valid.

Insurance does not want to replace the engine, but plans to attempt to rebuild it.

Anyone have any suggestions on what to do?


--------Update-------
The dealer says the replacement engine will make the car flood damaged, and is worth no more than $7400! This is an 03 coupe with 24k miles... What should we do?

 

How fast were you going? This board is full of stories of people who only drove through X inches of water, but were going 15-20 MPH. Keep in mind that the water only has to splash 12" high, not necessarily be 12" deep.

 

splash 12" to hydrolock? what? why would it just need to splash.. That's not going to cause the motor to hydrolock yo

 

oh.. and if the motor itself is $11,000 that they're charging you.. wait till you see the bill for the labor.. it's going to be even worse. My motor was replaced by my dealer due to some issues. My service guy, by the way is the best service guy i've ever known/had/whatever, pushed for me to get a new motor. If I remember correctly.. he told me that everything would have been around a $15,000 dollar job w/ labor. Prepare yourself man.. it's going to be harsh. I wish you the best, hopefully your dealer isn't just trying to fish out of this one.

 

Sure it will. I hydrolocked my van by driving a little too fast (I'm talking barely 10 mph here) through a flooded road. The water wasn't nearly high enough to hydrolock the engine on its own. But when I accelerated just a little it flowed over the bumper and into the intake.

The intake in the G35 is barely a foot off the ground. You drive too fast through too deep a puddle and it'll get you every time.

 

Not really sure on the speed, I wasn't the driver and they don't really remember. They just remember that they couldn't see the puddle it was raining so hard, so speed wasn't too high because of conditions.

 

Start looking for motors in junkyards around your area. I know that a complete motor will cost around 2K - 2.5K depending on the milage. Just look for a shop that would swap the motor for you. Did you attempt to start the motor when it stopped completely? If so then you have bent rods and valves remember you cannot compress liquid so something got to give. Goodluck.

 

As of right now the dealer is getting us a 2004 engine with 15k, someone got rear ended and their car was totalled. Total cost for the engine and the labor is down to about $6500....

 

I mean, it's not like I don't believe you or anything.. but maybe if it's constantly "splashing" into your intake then yea.. maybe it'll suck up enough water to hydrolock your motor. However, i've driven through maybe 4" deep puddles and I was able to get out of it, thank God, with everything running smoothly. Considering I have a cold air intake, and i'm lowered.

 

not meaning to thread jack or anything but:

Glenn.. what junkyard have you seen a vq35 block going for 2-2.5k? I might need one soon.. and I noticed youre located in Riverside.

 

Gluck

 

You have a CAI, lowered car and drove through a 4" deep puddle? You are very lucky.

 

There is one here in San Bernardino near California Speedway. K&P autodismanteling I don't have there phn # just use 411. Or maybe you can try the one in Azusa near the Irwindale Motorspeedway. LPD AD phn 626-359-8945 just ask for a VQ motor they can usually locate one for you if they don't have it. Goodluck.

 

Wait a min. ppl, i'm new here but whats this thing you're talking about puddles and driving in the rain....? 12"? Thats likt nothing. Or are you talking about aftermarket intakes.

 

The car is stock by the way, no CAI. All I can figure is it must've been 4-6" of water and the driver must've been moving at 15-20mph, water flowed up and through the grill?