Flooded!

[Grady]

My '95 XJ6 was parked and got caught in a local mini-flood. The car (USA-LHD) was parked at the curb with the passenger side lower than the driver side. Noticing the rising water, my son (slowly) moved the car into nearby high and dry parking. Later that night I moved it around to our off-street paring area. The car ran fine on the first move but was a bit chuggy on the second.

The water came up to the top of the pass side bumper (but below the driver side door sill)and some water seeped up through the floor boards - enough to just wet the driver side carpet but the rear passenger footwell (where all that wiring is) may have gotten an inch judging by the what was wet.

The car now hardly idles and wants to chug and die but once revving, sounds smooth and happy. I assumed some idling module, sensor or computer was bad but have been told the engine is "full of water" and ruined... The car is tired and not worth much but was faithful, handy as an extra and was to be a first car for the youngest.

1) How would a short immersion up to the level of the bumper get into the engine; and
2) How does one determine (short of going shop to shop) if the shop is correct?

Thanks Grady

[ultegra]

If its an old and relatively low value car, the best thing to do would be to change the oil and go for a 60 minute drive in it - assuming that the brakes and steering are ok. That should get everything up to temperature and the airflow should dry most things out.

Then see how it is.

If its still chugging after that you could do a lot worse than to go over all the electrical connections one at a time to dry them and wd40 them.

Still bad then - its all down to the depth of your pockets.

Best of British!!