seat leon tdi puzzled problem!

[toby916916]

hi guys

ok so im looking at a friends car for him... he drove through some nice deep water "tw&t" i think was my exact phrase used.

he said when the car finnaly choked and died the glowplug and engine management lights came on.
pushed the car out left for a few hours and started it.

smoked like crap blue/black/white smoke

i checked the glow plugs/ and changed them
i was unable to check for voltage to the glow plugs on the plastic plugs, at engine start it would only spike to say 0.46v for a split second is this normal?

there was no water in the oil apart from under the rocker cover, but i did an oil change anyway as he was running 10/40 semi and according to mill auto it should be 5/30 fully

put a new air filter in as other was soaked (he said he had done approx 25 miles with the soaked air filter)

ok now the problem is.....

when starting from cold blue/white oil smelling smoke, misfires when revved big clouds of smoke same color
when warmed up slightly runs fine, drives fine, no visible smoke. (the new filter glowplugs helped with this)

i have ordered Ross tech vagcom will arrive soon im hoping that will be able to tell me something more....

any help is really appreciated

[Steve_D]

If the water was driven through fast then a wave of water would have been driven up inside the engine bay and particularly up the bulkhead.
Look for spilt or dislodged induction hoses.

Steve

[powerstroke]

Sounds like mecanical damage ie bent con rod if there was water in the air filter some could have got in to the engine !!! injectors out and mesure the piston hights, If there is a bent rod the compression will be lower on that cyl
which explains why its running better hot...

[toby916916]

powerstroke said:

Sounds like mecanical damage ie bent con rod if there was water in the air filter some could have got in to the engine !!! injectors out and mesure the piston hights, If there is a bent rod the compression will be lower on that cyl
which explains why its running better hot...

ok thats reassuring, i dont mean to argue but i thought metal expanded when hot? not straitened itself out :P iv surely if there was lower compression the car would drive like a bag of nails?

how would this relate to the oil burning at startup?

and just wondering but what speed should these engines idle at when cold?

thanks for your help guys

[powerstroke]

toby916916 said:

ok thats reassuring, i dont mean to argue but i thought metal expanded when hot? not straitened itself out :P iv surely if there was lower compression the car would drive like a bag of nails?

how would this relate to the oil burning at startup?

and just wondering but what speed should these engines idle at when cold?

thanks for your help guys

A diesel needs heat for combustion, compression makes heat, as the engine warms up
the lower compression isnt such a factor, the "oil" burning is most likely unburnt or partly burnt diesel or its possible the water has cracked a piston or broken the rings or lands by hydrlocking...

[Fish981]

I suspect he's slightly bent a con-rod.

[ColinM50]

Had a friend do the same in an Aston Vantage just outside Nice. His SWMBO drove through standing water in an underpass and thought it'd be funny to splash the other people stranded there. £12k for a new engine and the insurance wouldn't pay out, though to be fair he's not short of a Euro or two.