Car flooded
 

We have had very heavy rains since yesterday and when I left the house this morning in the dark, I ran into a very deep area of water only 2 blocks from our house. The car stalled and so I left it there.
I'm worried that with the FWI, water may have gotten into the engine. Other than pulling the plugs, changing the oil and possibly the transmission fluid, any other suggestions or recommendations?

Hrm, you'll obviously want to get it out of there before letting it sit too long. You might be able to remove the spark plugs and turn it over by hand to remove any water that might be hydro-locking it, if there is.

I would then drain the fluids, and probably run some new fluids through to make sure you got any water in there out.

never had to deal with this before, but those are some things I've heard tossed around before.

You'll want to get any water out soon before it has a chance to rust up any internals if it got in.

I decided to have it towed just in case there is any internal damage, thinking being that the mechanic can give State Farm an unbiased opinion. When I was able to get to the car in the daylight, the front air dam had been ripped off(I was only going about 25mph) and the carpeting was soaked but at least there wasn't any actual standing water inside.

My 2000 SSEi had been parked in a lot where the water rose just up to and over the door sills. I had no water in any of my fluids. I did hoever get water in the steering rack boots, and over 4 months, the rack's end shafts rusted enough to wear out the seals and It started to leak power steering fluid. I got very lucky and found a NOS rack for a 00 SSEi on line for $150. And did all of the work myself. Rebuilt they run around $600. NOS G.M. list runs $1400. Remember that the rack for our 00 SSEi's are specific to that ONE year and that ONE model. I would suggest loosening the boot clamps and see if any water drains out.
You will need to remove the seats and console. Then lift all 4 corners of the carpets to see if there is any water under the carpets. If there is, you must pull out the carpets to dry them. It has been almost 2 1/2 years since my rain event and so far I have had no other issues.

Thank you very much for the tip on inspecting the rack. That was one I hadn't thought of. I take it your starter was none the worse for the wear.

I count myself very lucky in that there was no damage to the engine even though it was full of water. Once it died, I didn't try to restart it which is what probably prevented any damage. State Farm is authorizing new carpeting and pad so if there is a positive to all of this, that would be it.
The mechanic had pulled the plugs the other night and when I went in to talk to him, we looked at the plugs and they were like new although they had 40,000 miles on them. I never gave it a thought that he would go ahead on his own and replace them although he did say they were soaked. At any rate, when I picked the car up this morning, he had gone ahead and replaced them and the State Farm adjuster was ok with them picking up the cost for it. However, I asked the mechanic what plugs he put in and they were the factory platinums which, since I have a 3.4" pulley, means those have to come out and be replaced. Oh well, so much for the free plug change.
Just a reminder to those with a FWI. Never try to plow through standing water or you could be a whole lot less fortunate than I wound up being.

Yo Mark -you might be able to get a couple penny's for those if they are the true factory OEM plugs, which would mean they are Iridiums -I just paid $7.35 FOR ONE for my SSEi today and that was with a my student ID. :oops:

Get the proper plugs for your current setup and sell the IRIDIUM's for $25 for easy sale here -I decided to run the Iridiums until I up my boost levels because my brother found by switching what he thought were plugs needing replacement for some NGK TR 55's he found he lost almost 5 mpg. When he showed me the the plugs he had pulled I found they were Iridium's in excellent condition so we swapped them back in and his mileage jumped right back up. :shock: :)