BMW 3 series don't like water?
Discussion
DaveOrange said:
One of my sales reps has a 13 plate 320d. She drove it through what she called "a bit of water". That "bit of water" has resulted in a new engine and a new clutch and a bill in excess of £9k. Fortunately and to my surprise the insurance company are picking the bill up.
"Most" Insurers still do pick up the tab for hydraulic locking. No-one intentionally wants their car engine to FUBAR when fording and sometimes people make mistakes. There are a some skankier insurance outfits that specifically exclude it.Fastdruid said:
RobM77 said:
It's lower because the engineers try to make it lower to make it handle better. It's lighter for the same reason.
Ah yes. Massively lighter.Lets pick two comparable cars
2007-2010 BMW 525i Touring [218hp] 1580Kg
2007-2010 Ford Mondeo 2.5T [216hp] 1600Kg
I can see where they've shaved a massive amount off there to make it handle better.
Debaser said:
Fastdruid said:
RobM77 said:
It's lower because the engineers try to make it lower to make it handle better. It's lighter for the same reason.
Ah yes. Massively lighter.Lets pick two comparable cars
2007-2010 BMW 525i Touring [218hp] 1580Kg
2007-2010 Ford Mondeo 2.5T [216hp] 1600Kg
I can see where they've shaved a massive amount off there to make it handle better.
The 3 Series and Mondeo are about the same price, but the argument here is about size. The 5 Series is the closest comparison there in terms of cabin space. That cabin space comes along with a car that's dimensionally very close to the Mondeo.
it depends if you consider 'classes' based on size, or cost.
A 3 series costs about as much as a mondeo, probably a bit more.
A mondeo is the same size as a 5 series. they are the same length (within 3cm anyway), same width, and same height. The mondeo has more room inside, and according to parkers (who knows if that's accurate??) weighs ~150kg less. The BMW is engineered for a lot of things, and it probably drives nicer, however the marginally lower roofline compared to other cars is more about style than anything else. If you consider the x1, x3, x5, x6, 3 series gt and 5 series gt, I recon the average height of a bimmer is taller than your average ford anyway
A 3 series costs about as much as a mondeo, probably a bit more.
A mondeo is the same size as a 5 series. they are the same length (within 3cm anyway), same width, and same height. The mondeo has more room inside, and according to parkers (who knows if that's accurate??) weighs ~150kg less. The BMW is engineered for a lot of things, and it probably drives nicer, however the marginally lower roofline compared to other cars is more about style than anything else. If you consider the x1, x3, x5, x6, 3 series gt and 5 series gt, I recon the average height of a bimmer is taller than your average ford anyway
davepoth said:
No, you don't.
The 3 Series and Mondeo are about the same price, but the argument here is about size. The 5 Series is the closest comparison there in terms of cabin space. That cabin space comes along with a car that's dimensionally very close to the Mondeo.
Yes, you do. The 3 Series and Mondeo are about the same price, but the argument here is about size. The 5 Series is the closest comparison there in terms of cabin space. That cabin space comes along with a car that's dimensionally very close to the Mondeo.
He said 'comparable cars'. By your logic a VW Up is comparable with a 911 because they have similar cabin space.
Whilst not wishing to derail this thread and also appreciating that the height of the air intake above ground level is important with regard to driving through water, does the height (or otherwise) of the alternator and associated electrics have any bearing on how a vehicle copes with water?
GrumpyV8 said:
Whilst not wishing to derail this thread and also appreciating that the height of the air intake above ground level is important with regard to driving through water, does the height (or otherwise) of the alternator and associated electrics have any bearing on how a vehicle copes with water?
There are a number of ways that water can harm a car, namely the air intake or exhaust, both of which can ingest water into the engine's combustion chambers (very bad! Water doesn't compress like air, so it can crack components when the piston comes back up) or the electrics, which can obviously cause the car to cut out (normally ok once things dry) or if water gets into more complicated electrics or electronics, short out and damage something. So those are in descending order of criticality. Basically, the higher a car is, the better, so a Range Rover would on average cope better through a flood than an MX5. This, with the accompanying picture, was the premise of my first post, in a generic sense prior to talking about specifics. I presume in theory if you water proofed an engine, sealing the electronics etc, then provided you had the air intake and exhaust out of the water, it would run; but most cars won't have that sort of protection.Here is a video of a tractor driving down a road that has flooded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRrHlcW8Md0 It is a relatively big tractor and the water is higher than the floor of the cab and up to the top of the bonnet. The air intake is normally on the top of and in front of the radiator and looks to me to be under water.
They are designed to work in rice fields, that said, they are hellish complex beasts and the whole machine will be covered in sensors and ecus all of which would have been under water. It will probably be throwing a few error codes for a while...
They are designed to work in rice fields, that said, they are hellish complex beasts and the whole machine will be covered in sensors and ecus all of which would have been under water. It will probably be throwing a few error codes for a while...
Max_Torque said:
Do you not think there might just be more 3 series "stuck" in deep water simply due to the fact there are more 3 series on the road these days? On my Mway commute in the morning, i reckon just about every 3rd car is a 3 series!
I doubt that is the reason because they are not a particularly common car in this area.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff