Fingers crossed it'll be OK. However, if not you should claim on insurance and they'll almost definitely write the car off. The F10/F11 is a pretty decent 5 series, much better than the E60/61.
I dont know if its going to be worth a claim against me. I'd imagine the car value is around £2k and once the excess is done I wont have a lot left but a claim against my name. TBF though, my insurer is pretty good and we had a couple of claims in a row and the renewals still decreased each year (I didnt have enough accidents to lose my no claims) There is a bit of me that doesnt want to go younger in terms of car age. Tech and complexity seems to increase the younger the vehicle and for me the sweet spot was around 2003-2006 ish. This also gets me a car that i am more than capable of working on/diagnosing. I am stuck with 5 series though as I have always found them the most ergonomic and comfortable cars i have ever owned (perhaps with the exception of my old Volvo 240 GLT - arm chair comfort in that!!)
Thanks. And thanks to all contributing. I'm too puffed out to go out to it tonight but will update as soon as I do. Just a quick one - I'm going to stick the injectors back in and just reuse the copper washer and seal. This is just to try and get it to start. If all is good I will replace them later. For the injector clamps is it really just 10nm torque on the nuts?
Little more progress. Intercooler off and more water out of that tonight. Inlet manifold blown out and the turbo hose hoovered out from both maf end and intercooler end. Turned it over on the starter again and no mist of water coming out of the injector holes. Injector seats cleaned out and will refit injectors and inlet manifold tomorrow with the original seals for now. (If it runs OK they can come off, have new seals and maybe a swirl flap delete). The intercooler, inlet manifold and hose from IC to inlet manifold are now sat drying by the Rayburn. Depending on time I may try and fire it up tomorrow.
Thanks folks. I really hope it doesn't have major damage. The water was so far in though I don't know what to expect. I have the added niggle that we towed it 10 miles from the flood on a rope. My recovery refused to come out as I 'had driven' through flood water. I didn't choose to, it was too late when I was in it. Anyway. It's an auto of course and only after the event did I think I shouldn't have towed that ... it was in neutral and doubt we went over 15 mph all the way in the dark!
Update! It lives!!! I put it all back together today. It's a really simple and easy engine to work on tbh. I went to start it and couldn't get it going. I'd left the turbo to intercooler hose disconnected and covered the intercooler inlet with card to stop the turbo chucking water (if there was any) into the intercooler. I'd effectively starved the engine of air. Restriction removed it fired straight up. No noises, just a normal diesel sound. A LOT of water vapour/steam from the exhaust, and every join on it!! Rev it and a fountain came out of the exhaust. I dashed off and picked up an air filter from ECP and when I got back took it for an Italian tune up to get rid of the water from the exhaust. I resembled a steam train going up the hill. I think the DPF regenned as well. There was nothing noticeable wrong with performance but it did sound a bit tappity. But I haven't put any of the covers or cabin air intake covers/filters back on yet. I cleared a lot of codes but have two remaining consistently:
After it happened, I was convinced the engine would be scrap. I can't beleive how much water got so far in from both ends and yet it has started and run and run well! The car is nothing special, it's not hugely loaded but it suits my needs very well currently (generally a 250 mile each way trip most weeks). We've owned it since 2012 (my sister had it for a few years in the middle of that), so know its been well looked after since we bought it at about 60k so this would have been a sad ending for something I am hoping to run to 250k plus. It won't be as classic as the e39 but I do think they are getting slightly rarer in good condition now . I was very nervous when I hit the start button but the outcome is very good. So yes, chuffed!
I'm going to drive it for a bit to make sure it is definitely not going to go bang and then will probably change the injector and inlet manifold seals. I might also remove the swirl flaps too as I imagine they've taken a hammering being washed!
Hi, Just reading this now, great thread and very glad to hear the happy ending. One thing though, does the "Glow control Unit" error persist? Reason I ask is that I 'believe' that if there is an error with the glow plug control unit, that the car wont do DPF regens but there wont be any warning of this in iDrive etc. I found this out the hard way with my old E60 (before I had a copy of ISTA) and ended up with a clogged DPF and other "fun" related things.... Replacing the control unit is a handy enough DIY job as it is just on a bracket bolted to the side of the engine iirc. Cheers, ~Shaun.
Thanks for this. I can never get to the bottom of whats needed for a regen. I seem to read that for my M47 it just needs engine temps over 75C and more than a quarter of a tank of fuel. I may be totally wrong, but people start to suggest that the glowplugs are needed as a feature for regens on the N47 (the one with the weak timing chain at the back of the engine). Luckily, I got the M47 by a few months and missed the N47 that replaced it later that production year. That said, a new glow plug control unit is on its way as i would like them working if possible! I suspect i will have some failed glowplugs and whether i have the guts to replace them or not is another matter!! The engine has done 40 miles since it first restarted and seems ok at the moment so i may have really dodged a bullet. It cruises at motorway speeds (and perhaps a little above) quite quietly and revs quite freely without any unusual noise. I would have thought any problems would become apparent at cruising speeds if i drop it down a gear or two, but it all seems quite smooth. I checked my DPF back pressures today and i get 9mb at idle and about 29mb at 2000rpm (stationary) and from what i read this is pretty good. The car, and DPF, has an easy life with me though - most of the time when it is started it will do in excess of 250 miles before it gets switched off... Just because I forgot to add this picture before, here is a pic of what greeted me when i first removed the inlet manifold - zoom in at head ports 2,3&4. My heart really did sink at this point!
Also, re the DPF regens, I also have yet another failed autobox cooler stat so the engine is running cool - I have a new Febi cooler (cant see the point of keeping on paying 3x as much for Behr (I think) when they dont last anyway) so will get that changed to help the DPF out a bit more!! If that doesnt improve temps then I will change the main and EGR stats too, but clamping off the cooler line seems to lead to a much quicker heat up time and engine temp so think its the auto box stat.
Hi, FYI if you have a copy of ISTA then it will tell you when the last DPF regen was done and you can also use it to force a regen. ~S.
