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Water ingested into Engine - Bent Rods

JS73751

JS73751

SM 2003
Full Member
Joined
Mar 7, 2003
Messages
208
Location
Long Island, NY
A buddy of mine has an EXT. Drove it through a monstrous down pour on the expressway last week. It was so bad he eventually had to pull off with the rest of the traffic because he could no longer see. Continued driving until the engine started making horrible knocking and banging sounds. Called Cadillac emergency services and had it towed to the nearest dealer. They tore it down and found it had sucked in water and lunched the engine. $6,000, and they will not cover it claiming abuse. He is a 50 year old executive for a major firm, and he cannot believe that GM is just walking away from him. He asked them how they could build a vehicle that can not be driven through a driving rain. No answer from GM. Unfortunately we will never know if the snorkle broke loose or if the the air box assemblywas cracked or a connection slipped off the throttle body, as the dealer just tore it apart as opposed to looking for a problem.
Has anybody ever heard or experienced this happening on an Escalade? As the owner of an EXT myself, it does not exactly give me a warm and fuzzy feeling knowing that this happened. Any help or insight or knowledge of this happening elsewhere would be greatly appreciated.
As Always, Thanks>
JS
 
Edit note; IMG tags added

JS - I would think your buddy has something to go back to GM with

See this pic - I made 10 similar passes as this pic - I have drove 30K miles since then - no problems. When I took my air box apart, I had about enough H2O for a single paper towel.

There is something else wrong with that EXT, if water got past the box and into the engine.

Hell my inlet was under water at times - the box does drain out, although slow.

Feel free to show this pic to GM - I am out of warranty :)

apex%20mud%20hole%20zoom%20int.jpg
 
Blueruck,

Funny you should respond because I took the liberty of showing your photos to my buddy as an illustration of what these vehicles can do without
drowning. They claim abuse even though he was being followed
by his wife in their family car, through the same weather on their way to the same location! The insurance company claims that this happens frequently, but when questioned as to how many Escalades this has happened to, it was this inspectors first.
This just seems a little odd.
Thanks,
Js
 
I must say I have driven mine through many hard rains and never had a problem. I have even torn through many puddles similar to the pic above without a problem (horn failed briefly tho). However, I have never looked in the air box, I will keep this in mind next water crossing or hard rain and see if there are traces of water.

Nice pic BLUERUCK! Where was it taken?

~bekind
 
Blue's just gotta show off ;D

hell i dodge every puddle i see!

how many times did it take before you remembered to roll up the windows? >:D

 
bekind - That is up near Apex at the start of the Kingston trail - I haven't played that hard in my AV once this year :6: - I also put up a post last night about you being a Purdue Grad - same here :)

FSU - Hey if you got it, show it >:D
 
I have alos driven through many a water crossing usually at a much higher rate of speed as Bluerucks pic shows. I have never ever had any issues with water getting into the engine or past the air box.

Mybe there is a loose vacuum hose that is hanging an dsucking up water into the engine. Or maybe the oil pan seal is not tight enough but then you wouls see oil leakage around the pan.

 
i recall seeing a 6.0L on Ebay for sale sometime back that had taken in some water through the intake. the owner described it as having a slight knock.
that is the only occurence of this kind that i know of other than yours.
too bad your friend had to go through such a repair without the backing of the warranty. if i was doing the repairs i would inspect the truck for evidence of going off-road. once i verified that the truck was not abused off-road i think i would do the warranty repair. no questions asked. that's just me.
 
Thanks for the responses. Talked to my dealer and they said they had never heard of an Escalade hydrolocking like this. Their immediate reaction was that "that thing must have driven through some pretty deep water". When I explained to them that it was driven through a mega downpour, they found it hard to believe. That is when I said "OK, then what could have gone wrong to cause this?" They had no idea.
Thanks,
JS
 
Driving through a mega downpour the motor should still be taking enough air to continue to run. I could only see a problem if it wasn't running and the intake filled with water or was submerged. Check out the www.gm-trucks.com site and see if this is a more common problem with the 6.0 motors in the HD truck line.
 
Whie GM may not cover it under warranty, and I'm torn on whether they should or not, this actually falls under the comprehensive coverage of your insurance policy as well.

Have your friend contact his insurance carrier or agent, he can get it resolved with little or nothing out of pocket that way.
 
Half-breed, thanks for the tip. I posted on that site this afternnon.

DougD, thanks as well. His auto insurance company has been in touch and will cover all except the deductible which is great. Unfortunately he has lost complete faith in GM, and will probably sell this truck as soon as it is repaired. BTW it is only 6 months old and is the first American brand auto he has purchased in many years. He knows that Lexus would not have treated him this way.
Thanks,
JS
 
I would be surprised if the INS company doesn't fight this with GM - has he tried calling another dealer? Might get a different answer.
 
I hope that his insurance company does fight it with GM. Even though he is covered (less
$1000 deductable) I believe he is going to fight GM himself on the principle alone. He has a 6 month old truck with a new engine due to the fact he drove through a driving rain storm. How much depreciation in value will he experience when he goes to sell it. He just can't comprehend that GM does not see something wrong with this event and he has lost faith in the vehicle. I called the dealer where I purchased my EXT, and have been a customer since 1987, and they said that they knew that GM would not cover it.
Thanks,
JS
 
See, that's what makes me torn on it. Let's use the opposite extreme, he takes his truck out to sand dunes and manages to ingest bunches of sand (I know, not exactly as easy as water, but bear with the example) and wreaks havoc internally in the engine. Is that something GM should be covering under warranty as a defect? That's what warranty is, manufacturer's defects. Not being there, I can't say anything about the actual amount of water he managed to plow through, but I'd have to say it must have been substantial to produce the results mentioned. Hydrolocking an engine to the point of bending rods takes a pretty decent amount of fluid. I can't see how that much water can get in the airbox without heading into some really ill-advised sections of roadway.

We get our fair share of heavy rains and street flooding here and I've never managed to lock a motor in anything I've driven. I've seen others manage to do it, though.
 
DougD,

I see your point with regard to a manufacturing defect. This had to be a fluke situation.
I have known this guy for close to 20 years. He is a real straight up guy. He is also a real car enthusiast and like most of us, a bit of a gearhead. If he screwed up by going through 3 feet of water and locked the motor he would admit to it and get it fixed. Then we would laugh about it and then of course, never let him forget it! If it were someone else, or I was hearing this story second hand I would be very suspicious and say that there was something more to this than just the facts as told here. Your point is well taken and BTW, the more I look into this, the more I hear about this (hydrolocking)happening.
JS
 
No flame intended here, but I am going to have to question your friend's story. I know we have all seen a lot of posts on this board. However this is the FIRST one of water ingestion happening under the circumstances alleged. As far as this being a "defect", if it were, tons of these trucks would be victims of the same kind of incident. Water ingestion into the engine followed by a hydrolock situation takes basically submerging the intake plumbing of the vehicle. Driving through water like that pictured above CAN cause this. This odds against happening in any (and I mean ANY) rain is in the millions. I wonder if your friend perhaps drove under an overpass etc that was flooded underneath. I have seen four to five feet of water in such places float vehicles. Also, shallower water can do it if you pass through the "wake" created by another vehicle that is high enough to hit the intake. I grew up near the GM Proving Grounds in Milford Michigan and the water tests that GM does with all new vehicles is astounding and well beyond any driving rain. IMHO this is likely something he should be turning into his insurance under the comprehensive/other than collision coverage. I have extreme doubts that what actually took place is anything "warranty".
 
MACGI_98_Z28 ,

Absolutely no offense taken. His comprehensive is taking care of the cost except for the deductible. I do not think it was a defect in design otherwise the streets would be littered with Escalades (including mine) that were driven during some of the crazy storms we have had. As I stated in earlier posts "he was being followed
by his wife in their family car, through the same weather on their way to the same location!" BTW there was no flooding of the type that would be needed to drown this truck on the Long Island Expressway. I appreciate everyones responses to this thread.
Since I believe this to have been just a freak occurance I will let this inquiry drop.
As always thank you.
JS

PS. I will keep an eye on my air box and all connections.
 
His auto insurance company should cover it.....

I understand GM...thoughI mean flood tyhe engine with water and expect them to fix for free.......

Anything above hubs and potential problems can result....cars are not meant o be driven in water....

 
Just found this thred....three years later...lol this happened to my avalanche throught factory air box, but i hit standing water on roadway! Gm laughed when i called them and insurance didn't cover.
 
I was driving back from Milwaukee thru South Dakota. It started to rain as I came into Rapid City. It started to get very windy, windy enough to blow the canopy off a trailer that was rolled up. The rain then came down so heavy I could not see much past my windshield wipers. I slowed down and got off the I-90. I parked in a gas station parking lot and the water was hitting the running boards it was that high. But my Av did not give me any problems at all.

Last year driving back from Laughlin, we hit a real bad snow storm. It managed to clogged my horns so they did not work, but still no issues with the engine.

If I was him I would go to GM and throw a major fit.
 
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