Living in the Tampa Florida area has its drawbacks. This morning, while sitting at a light awaiting for it to go green I was standing in about 3 inches of water from a very bad storm system coming across Central Florida. This was a three lane intersection and I was in the far left lane with a divider on my left. Before I could react a semi-tractor coming up fast to make a right hand turn was displacing a tidal wave of water heading right alongside me. All I felt was a shake and then the motor stalled. Not realizing what had happened I tried to restart my engine and the starter would not turn over the engine. I was able to push the car over three lanes of traffic until I could get it into the entrance to a parking lot and then called for a tow. While waiting for the tow I took off the intake coupling and then realized what had happened when water started to pour out of my throttle body. When I got it to the dealer they had me call my insurance company to put in a claim. The insurance company wanted to know if the water had gotten up to the dashboard. I told them that when I got out of my car to push it the water was just about touching the bottom of my rims. When the dealer looked at the intake he said it was an after market one and more than likely the insurance company would not honor the claim. I then told them that I bought the car from them used last December and had no idea of this after market intake. To me it looks stock down in the front of the radiator so I have no idea why he would even bring this up. So that's the story. Right now I have no idea how this is going to turn out. While I was there another 08 Z06 came in on a flat bed but this guy was going around 40 MPH when he hit some standing water and there was oil pouring out of the bottom of his car. I did check my oil and it looked fine except when I removed the oil filler cap I did notice some water droplets inside of the actual cap. Please let me know what to expect.
Thanks

 

That sucks
I would understand that a warranty could be affected by an aftermarket intake, but the insurance company should still pay for the damage. It's not forbidden to mod a car.
Good luck with the claim...

 

Hydro-locked your motor(water won't compress) --bent piston rods,push rods , bent valves and /or broken piston ring landings - cracked block are all possibilities --sorry bro but that motor is toast Sounds like the other vette cracked the block I never drive my vette when its monsooning down here Nothing good coming from it (get rear ended by the geriatrics) and worse as you have seemed to experienced! Sorry about your misfortune

 

Your right it was a very bad day good luck to you with ins .co. and repairs

 

Sorry to hear that. Good luck with ins. and the repair

Chuck

 

Good luck with the claim and repairs!

 

Tell the knuckleheads at the dealership to be your advocate or you'll go elsewhere. There's no reason the Ins. Co. needs to know about your intake.
Check your policy to see if there's any language about mods.
Good Luck

 

I have to agree, an invalidated warranty MAYBE. But an insurance claim, I doubt that. Call your agency and see what they say. Even still tell them that is how the car was when you bought it. Let us know what turns up.

-Alex

 

Yes it was horrible here today. I was on Dale Maybre and Henderson in my SUV and it was horrible. tampa got rocked today!!!! Sorry about your luck bud! I went to start my C5 and the battery was dead since i havent started it in a couple of days. Battery sucks!!!! Jay

 

What kind of intake was it? Vararam? Dual-cone? Just curious. Kind of surprised that the water was ingested in the engine at idle speed.

Really sorry to hear this happening. Hopefully your insurance will cover it even with an aftermarket intake.

 

Sorry to hear that Buddy. I almost got washed off I-75 on the way home by a 4 x 4's wave. A mile up the road FHP had him pulled over.

 

I guess anything is possible but I am curious about that too, he must have sent a hell of a wall of water your way. Unless you have a vararam or something that sucks water in near the fog light shrowds..if water was up to bottom of your wheels not sure how that would work if you had any other intake, water up the bottom of the wheels would not get sucked up through an intake sitting above the tires.
Anywhoo..good luck. From what you described, I'll agree with the rest , if you've got water in the throttle body chances are your motor is hydrolocked and is toast

Regarding the insurance claim being denied, you need to look at the FINE print of your policy/contract to see if there anything about aftermarket parts and the effect it has on the coverage. Replacing a motor is not cheap so it does not surprise me they have initially said no.

Keep us posted sorry for your troubles.

 

It looks like the stock air box down in front of the radiator but the tubing and MAP sensor I believe is Grannatelli (SP). I should be getting a call back today from the adjuster and dealer. Because I was just idling the dealer tech said it might not be as bad as it looks. Hopefully he is right. I will keep everyone posted as to how this turns out. Water standing in the road is considered a road hazard under my compehensive which unfortunately is $1000 deductible.

 

Sucks..keep us up to date.id put pressure on the dealer to make ya happy.it sounds like they are going to go along with whatever the warrenty people do,and you know what that is...................

 

good luck and why the heck do you have a $1K deductible for comp??

BTW which dealer

 

Good luck!

 

....I have a feeling you will be ok...

 

If it was the stock airbox, it may not too bad. I am really surprised that it ingested water with a stock airbox and at idle speed. It might have been enough water to kill the motor, but not enough to damage it. Also, the water could have submerged the starter for a second enough to short it out causing the no-start condition.

I hope it is not serious and good luck with the repairs/claims!

 

Hope it is not as bad as it sounds. Seems the engine at idle would die from lack of air before it could pick up enough water to do any damage. I must be thinking like VinnyT

 

Insurance typically covers what is on the car at time of purchase. In this case you should be covered but I agree, the dealer doesn't need to add any unnecessary information in the damage report like "aftermarket intake".