Today i was driving my Merc Vito 108 diesel & as i came round a corner i was confronted with a flood of water across the road with no where else to go but through it,anyway to cut a long story short half way through the motor cuts out & would not restart.

After getting the van home on tow i managed to restart the motor after removing the air filter (yes there was water in there)but it is now running like a pig.

Starts fine no probs but lots of white smoke & very lumpy when its running.

Could it be the head gasket has gone due to a water lock or something along them lines or do i need to look somewhere else???

Many thanks for any help.
Rob.

Rob., July 2007

I have a freelander 1 2.0 Td and it has rained a lot! And there was water on the road and my engine started losing power then stopped.Now it doesn't turn over it stopped at low revs and low speed. I looked up what it could be and hydro locking is what it most likely is because I removed the air filter and hose and there was water in both. There was no loud engine sounds when it stopped it slowly died. What is the easiest and quickest way to fix this problem? Thanks Hadley

Hadley, July 2012

had this happen years ago with floodwater, was a nightmare to try and fix, easyist option was scrapyard with knackered engine traded in with cash difference for replacement engine trade out job done.

TELBOY, September 2009

Thanks for the advice Paul.

If the head gasket had gone would i not be losing water????

Also at the time the van was only at a crawl i would say less than 1,000 rpm.

But i did try & restart it a few time there & then!!!!!!

When i got it home i removed the air filter & pipe & tryed to start it again which it did but with all the things listed in my first post!!

Rob, July 2007

Rob, unfortunately one of a couple of things could have happened. The problem arises from the fact water is incompressible. Diesels operate off a very high compression, which requires a LOT of force to get past the water. the result will be one of the following.

1) Your Con-rods have bent/snapped Solution. Insurance claim. Throw away engine, get a new, refurb or salvaged engine. From the clankiness of the engine, I would say that this is possible.

2) Blown Gasket. Not too much of a problem to replace, but are you sure there is no deeper-rooted damage? are the con rods stressed and going to fail further down the line as a result? Estimate for repair here, between £800-1000 depending on where you take it and how in-depth the inspection goes.

Paul Smith, July 2007