I don't know if this has ever happened to anyone as it's the first time it has ever happened to me. Driving my XKR today in a heavy rain storm ended up going through a puddle about 10-12" deep when some yahoo in a suv comes flying through in the other directon sending a wave in my direction. Jag died would not even turn over then started smoking from under the hood( electrical smoke not steam) Ended up having to get roadside (2hr wait) then they couldn't get the car on the flat bed as it wouldnt go into neutral. We then found that the XK doesn't have an easily accessable release overide for the shifter. Took some inventive flat bed work and a bottle of dish soap to get the car slid onto the flat bed. Just dropped it off at the dealer but my guess is that the low mounting of the air boxes in the front sucked water into the intake and waterlocked the motor.
Granted not the smartest move going through the puddle but also not the smartest design on jag's part mounting the air intakes so low. I was the only car to get stuck and was being passed by by dozens of other cars who made it through without a problem.
May be a freak event but keep this in mind if you get caught in a flash downpour. Now I just need to hope the warranty covers the repairs.

 

Geez that's not good. MB raised their intakes many years ago but there are still posts on the mb forums where someone barrels though puddles and locks up the engine. I live in Florida and we get very heavy summer rains I'll be extra careful. Thanks for the heads up about the low intakes; your auto insurance should take care of the damage.

 

This sounds like "Hydro Lock" to me. It's common on Corvette's as their intakes are rather low to the ground.

From the posts I've read on the Corvette Forum your auto insurance may cover the repair and an expensive lesson learned about driving through water.

Good luck

Tom

 

Wow sorry to hear about that but glad you shared. We had a big storm this week and I had to go through a deep puddle too but fortunately the traffic was moving very slow.

Good luck.

 

A follow up on my car, it ended up costing $1800 to get it back running again. Luckily I didn't do any major damage to the engine. After having a good friend who is a motorsports engineer look at the car he sees a number of design flaws in the 09 xkr. the air vents in the front bumpers feed air into a relatively closed space. Though the snorkles on the air boxes go up to about 14" there isn't any real venting out of the fender space where the air boxes are so if the water is over 8-10" deep it will fill the box and the suction of the snorkles will draw the water up higher. and flood the motor. In general not a great design. I understand that it is a specialty car and can't meet every road condition but you would think that somewhere in the 300 page owner manual they would warn owners of a potential hazzard with puddles. My Mini Cooper owners manual specifically says "dirving through water over 10-12" deep can result in serious mechanical damage" Also I would think that a manufacturer of a $100k auto who neglects to warn owners of a condition that would make their car susciptable to damages that does not effect other cars on the road(I was passed in the puddle while I sat there disabled by everything from a 911 to a Honda insigth to a hyundai) would cover the damage.

 

maybe you need jaguar larger SUV that can go through water without issue....Like the Range Rover. And yes that wouldnt be covered by warranty anymore than running into the back of someone and saying the brakes are inadequately designed
Yes Jaguar could also design a burst panel into the air intake ducts so that if you sucked up water they would burst open and keep water from being vacuumed into the engine. But then again thats not a warranty issue so why spend more money. And then for those that dont change their airfilters for over a 100k and they get plugged up they would claim that their engine was damage when the burst panels opened and allowed dirty unfilter air in.... Did you really read the manual? Youre part of a select small %, I bet the guy that drove his million $$$ Bugatti Veyron into galveston Texas shallow bay waters didnt read that it wasnt ok to drive into water either
Cheers

 

That's Brutal.

I agree that it is a poor design and the end result was a new engine in a certain '94 XJ12 and no, I wasn't driving it at the time.
It was covered by insurance.

 

A Bugatti Veyron in a shallow bay lol
This must be as rare as hens teeth

 

I already own a rangerover and btw its stated max depth for unmodified water crossing is 27" according to the manuel. I just didn't think I needed it on a sunny day in the city with a 30% chance of thunderstorms. Moulded in louvered vents in the rear of the splash panel would have also helped and cost pennies.
If I drill my car into a wall at a HPDE its clearly my fault if I'm driving in a sittuation where every other car on the road can handle and my car is the only one that fails the designer should share some responsibility.
And yes I did read the manuel

 

You know im sorry. I have 3 teenaged kids ive raise myself most of my life and i am constantly working with them to acept responsibilty for "their" actions and quick trying to blame others for "their" situations, action etc....
Whats next, ask the tire manufacturers to give you new tires cause they clearly missed the mark to handle curbs impacts that continue to cause bubbles in sidewalls or blowouts when you run over a curb....
The whole fact that you didnt need a new engine when you sucked water up into an intake (the intake is where it is to allow more cool direct air into the engine that it would otherwise not get easily behind the front end design of the car)
would at least be a testament to the bathtub design of the intake that increases intake port volume in a small compact space and also allows a very large plenum at the bottom of the intake interior and then the port inlets are a few incheas above that. Another thing if you ever go into high water and the car dies. Do not try and restart because i have seen many engines cratered from ingesting water "after" the owner tried to crank it over again. A little water will stop the engine, and cranking it over only to get more water into the cylnders then hydrolocking it with the starter, will break parts/engines then.

 

As a new XK owner I appreciate this post thread since it has helped me be a bit more mindful about driving through water. I am a prior Jag owner, but have been driving a Range Rover or Disco for the past several years. While driving those beasts, I thought nothing about plowing through water.

Thanks for the reminder that I no longer drive a tank.

 

[small %, I bet the guy that drove his million $$$ Bugatti Veyron into galveston Texas shallow bay waters didnt read that it wasnt ok to drive into water either
Cheers[/quote]


Just proves again, that money doesn't buy common sense

 

Touch luck mate. Good to know you didn't have to do an entire engine rebuild! Something you guys might want to look at is an air bypass valve found here: AEM Air Bypass Valve 3.0& Opening. I installed it on a previous sports car of mine and never had any locking problems even in heavy Seattle rain.

 

Coming in late here.

To discuss the "what should be" and "what shouldn't be" operational limitations an XKR and then even mention "Land Rover" in the same conversation seems, to me, incongruous.

Twelve inches of water is quite a lot. My expectation is that a low slung 400-500hp sports coupe, designed for high speeds and hugging the road, would have zero stream fording (grin) capabilities. My assumption would be that something bad *would* happen.

( Frankly I wouldn't even take my XJR through 12" of water. I'd assume something bad would happen to it, too. And it's a big ol' tall ridin' sedan in comparison.)

OTOH my expectation is that a Land Rover could handle 12" of water with total aplomb and I'd be sorely pi**ed if it couldn't.

I do agree, though, that some sort of warning in the owner's manual would be a good idea for eveyone's sake. As it stands the owners manuals are 50% warning advisories to begin with so adding one more wouldn't hurt. Sorta like the "Caution: Contents are hot" printed on coffee cups. :-)

I apologize for my lack of sympathy. I glad it wasn't worse. I really think this is just an unfortunate stack up of circumstances. To be honest I think more anger should be directed at the SUV driver who created the tsunami ! :-)


Cheers

DD