26 replies to this topic

[Mini Instuctor]

Hello!

I am a new member today and own a 57 plate new Mini.

The engine has just filled with water due to the floods in Derbyshire.

The air intake would appear unsuitable to British weather as it acted as a scoop to take water straight into the engine.

Which has now seized.

A Peugot 206 drove through the water with no problem as well Micra that stopped and reversed out too!

Is this something anyone else has heard of?

Do BMW know of the problem? Any advice/help you may have would be great!

Thanks!

[Elfie]

Thats the advantage of having the air intake high up on the A series. BMW probably don't have the problem with distributors though.
In answer to your question I don't know the first thing about new mini mechanics, sorry! Hope it isn't an expensive problem to fix.

[Mini Man Dan]

try asking on www.mini2.com as this site mainly focuses on the classic Mini

[_Ad_]

Sounds expensive!!

With this being a forum for classic Minis mate its doubtful many people will be able help you out, but you could always try www.mini2.com which is a forum for BMW Minis, or www.minidirectory.co.uk as theres a few members on there with them.

Good luck getting it sorted!

Edited by _Ad_, 15 January 2008 - 07:21 PM.

[lil dan]

HYDRO locked the engine i would say. at best your prob looking at an engine re-build.



edit:

this means water has been taken in throught the throtle body into the cylinder barrels. water will not compress like the gas normaly in this space so can and will bend con' rods, valves and when at high revs even split pistions.

it is expencive.

Edited by lil dan, 15 January 2008 - 07:24 PM.

[Dan]

Cylinder barrels? In a Mini?

Errm, yup he's right. It's nothing to do with the design of the car being innappropriate for the British weather it's due to you driving through a flood. The MINI is not an off road car, it has no published wading depth and should not be driven underwater. Surely everybody knows not to drive through excessively deep water? If you are very lucky the water will have either been detected by the injection system or simply shorted it out and shut the engine down before it got anywhere important. If you have managed to turn it over since that hapened however you will probably have done the same damage as would have happened if water got inside in the first place. As lil dan says, you may well have a hydrauliced engine which will render the entire power unit (possibly even including the gearbox as a friend of mine did to his BMW once) scrap.

Ah, no I just read your blurb and noticed it's a diesel. There is very little chance that any kind of shorting out occured in a diesel engine. The high compression of a diesel would make any water ingress exceedingly bad indeed, that's partly why they have water seperators in the fuel system. I'm afraid to say that your engine is very probably scrap and with the cost of replacing that and everything else the water will have damaged in the engine bay I wouldn't hold out much hope of getting your car back once the insurers are involved, especially with all the claims they will be getting in that area this week due to the floods. Still they might choose to resurrect it, my friend who destroyed his BMW in a similar way got it backeventually and they even had to replace the entire interior in that case. It had a tide line on the headlamps evey morning after that.

[Its A Real Mini Adventure]

Unlucky about that. If memory serves due to the space under the bonnet of the bmw minis the air intake is quite low to the floor.
You may get away with minimal damage, it depends of the engine speed when the water entered the cylinders, the lower the better. serious water damage is more likley to ocour on diesel engines beacuse of the higher compreasion ratio.
As to the engine being siezed, it could be as afor mentioned that the cylinders are hydrolocked, when the pistons cannot move up or down beacuse the space above them is ocupied with water, however, it could also be that serious engine damage has occoured as is jamming the engine, i.e a tipped valve.
leave it untill mourning, and then try turning the engine by hand then.
if the engine still wont budge a full 360 degress, take it to bmw.

[A KIRK]

ITs only a problem if you enter the floods to fast, I've seen many bmw minis go through floods with no problem.

As above I'd guess your looking at a full engine rebuild which won't be covered by warranty

[Ouster]

The scoop is connected directly to the engine? I thought it was common practice to not directly connect it |
Sounds like an expensive repair job.

Get a proper mini

And as a weather related note, I managed to drive through floods on the way back home today My good old duct tape distributor guard is working a treat until I get a proper weather shield. Although, I still need to attach it to something as it slid across the grille into the way of the alternator and got munched. Lucky I stopped within a few miles as when I took it out to readjust there were scorch marks all over it - fire under the bonnet (even if it is in the rain) is not good when you're on a student budget!

[Jammy]

Post removed as it wasn't exactly helpful!

[Bungle]

you would of thought a member of admin would of know better than to post something that wasn't exactly helpful

[Ouster]

Gyahahaha.
But really, I feel sorry for Mini Instuctor. You don't expect this sort of thing to happen to a new car - if the old mini can deal with this sort of thing (at least, when it is waterproofed correctly!) then the new Bini, in theory, should.

However, it should be inder warranty, so take it to the dealer and see what they can sort out.

[Ethel]

Has he gone yet?

just a little one, go on please




Won't me covered by warranty if Beamer get a whiff of it being down to driver error.

[miniturbonutter]

My dad had the same problem last year in the floods with his 2004 Mondeo. Cost £3500 for a new engine and work to be done stripping original engine down to find that it was knackered.

Luckily though he was covered through his insurance and they paid all but the £250 excess

[Jammy]

Gyahahaha.
But really, I feel sorry for Mini Instuctor. You don't expect this sort of thing to happen to a new car - if the old mini can deal with this sort of thing (at least, when it is waterproofed correctly!) then the new Bini, in theory, should.

Its not really the car thats at fault here!! Its not a design flaw or anything like that, quite a number of cars have the air intakes quite low down, I remember the air intake on my Coupe was just behind the headlight. Don't forget that you can hydraulice a classic Mini engine as well, if your foolish enough to venture into a puddle/stream/river with a water level up to your windows.