TransportPlanner

...at any rate, he feels quite bad about it. It's the first (and hopefully last) time he's written off a car in about 50 years of driving, and he wasn't planning on ever buying another car. Hopefully I'll be able to find him a nice example to replace it with at least 😁

Accident... Error of judgement... much the same thing, really. And, different than deliberately causing damage with intent (fraud or destructiveness). Consider the other things that cause crashes... inattentiveness, speeding, distraction... all generally covered by insurance as well. So unless water damage is specifically covered by the policy, I would hope that it's also covered (and so far that's what the insurer seems to indicate).

So far they've indicated that they will... Why wouldn't they? Is accidentally driving into a foot of water so different than skidding on a patch of black ice into a tree? (Country lanes regularly get large puddles, but you don't expect them to be a foot deep...)

UPDATE: It's [almost] official, our Superb is dead (at least as far as the insurers are concerned). So, to rectify my original account - apparently the electrics were still working, it was only the engine that had died. Unfortunately, when the injectors and glow plugs were removed, grit-filled water came out at pressure, so I'm sure all sorts of damage was done to the engine. When asked about a replacement engine, they expressed doubt at that being a good idea, as they suggested that the same dirty water could have entered the clutch or transmission, risking further issues down the line. Given the car is worth about £14k, it's almost certainly a write-off therefore... hopefully a good mechanic will rescue it rather than let it go to the scrap-heap though! Thanks again for the comments here... I'll update again if I hear more, and possibly with whatever Superb we find next (I've found some nice 16-plate L&Ks with similar mileage and drivetrain for about £15k at least...)

Seriously?!?! That's not a puddle, that's a lake! How did it not stall with the water coming up above the level of the air intake, if it really was that high?

Thanks for all the replies... The good news is that it's insured through the AA, by Covea insurance (comprehensive). Their policy, here, does not make mention of floods (even though, bizarrely, it excludes things like damage from sonic booms). Apparently they will replace the car if the repair cost exceeds 55% of the value of the car (probably c.£15k), so about £8,000. I'll post another update when I hear more... J.R., that's an interesting point you make about the intake design... I would have thought that the Superb is similar? Either way, I'm still a bit surprised that it entered the intake if the water was only 12-18"; I don't imagine he would have driven into it that fast, even if it was just a short distance of water. Penpusher - agreed! Unless they know the guy at the garage and got free labour and an engine from a parts car, I can't see how that would have made sense... another similar Focus could have been had for a couple thousand £ I'm sure...

So... Not good news for our Superb. They confirmed hydraulic lock of the engine. They'll remove the injectors tomorrow to assess whether any damage will be economically viable to repair but... it might be a case of a 4-ish year old high spec Superb being written off by the insurer 😣 On the plus side... Maybe an opportunity for a slight upgrade to a 17/67-plate L&K? 🤔 And the 2.0 TSI 220? 😁

I would have thought so, since high-beam on most bi-xenons is operated by the moving of a shutter... everything should be relatively moved upward. Not that it makes much difference moving high-beam up usually...

I think the auto-levelling is still working, but the default is just too low. At a rough guess, 10-15m on low beam, perhaps a little higher at motorway speeds. Clearly, this is not enough: Interestingly, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in the US has added headlight ratings to its crash test ratings for the past few years, and it's almost surprising just how much variation there is between car models, even those from Europe. https://www.iihs.org/topics/headlights#overview

Thanks for the comments all. Thankfully I don't think that any further attempt to restart the car was made... The car got taken into the stealership yesterday, so I should hopefully be able to update you with the outcome by the end of today. irc, there's a good thread on the MKII forums I think about this. I understand the previous owner's manual stated the water should not come up higher than the bottom of the sills, and there seemed to be general agreement that this is good advice, because there are also other things you don't want to submerge, like the cam belt, clutch housing, and electronics modules...

Great, sounds good, thanks! I'll give it a try next time I'm down (providing the car is still there... it got flooded last night as per my other thread)

I thought I read on another thread here though, that in order to make the change permanent, you need the Skoda OBD2 code reader (or whatever the newer version is called), so that the self-adjusting feature acts correctly?

2.0TDI 190...

Good point... I've suggested he do so. Apparently the AA are coming to flatbed it to the garage shortly, but if he gets to take a look beforehand, I'll report back.

Hi everyone, My dad unfortunately managed to drive into a small flood last night on a single-track country lane (it's a dip just before a stream). Apparently the car died completely, including the electronics... they had to wait 2 hours for the AA to come to the rescue. I'm not sure of the exact water depth - my dad said "about a foot", but it was also just high enough to enter through the door if opened a bit, so sounds like it could have been more like 18"? The AA guy said the engine compartment looked dry to him... and to my knowledge, the intake on these engines is around the front of the bonnet, so presumably water shouldn't have entered the intake at that height if he wasn't going too fast? Any initial thoughts on whether this is likely a case of water ingestion, or instead some electronics failing when perhaps they shouldn't have? To my knowledge, the car is on the driveway drying out, but I'll also update this thread when I know more...