technical BMW F30 320D: To Rebuild or to not

[marnusvdm]

As the title says, it's with a sad heart that I have to ask this question. Recently with all the rains, my better half drove into a half meter deep flood of water, and my precious 2012 320D Luxury line with 105 000kms on the clock inhaled some water into the engine. When she tried to start the car again to get out, the engine got some water in, and it was found that it bent the con-rods. Some of electronics also went haywire, and showed a lot of errors when diagnostics was run 3 days later (was a weekend so the shop was not open to have a look).

The errors have cleared in the meantime, and the ECU was not damaged, however the water went everywhere inside the engine, and the filters and some injectors were drenched in water, which they cleared out.

The mechanic's opinion is that all I need is a new head block with new filters and injectors plugs etc and that the electronics are fine. They quoted the insurance R86 000 for a rebuilt engine with 1 year warranty, or R40 000 for just a new head block with my old engine. Labour is also included.

The insurance wants to write the car off because they deem it too big of a liability for the car to have problems down the line electronically or perhaps mechanically.

I (as you can probably tell) know too little about this car to know if I should buy the car back from the insurance, and then repair it. or just take the payout (which is only around R120 000) and make debt to get another car.

I would greatly appreciate any advice on what I should consider, as well as your opinions or advice surrounding water damaged cars and rebuilt engine - especially since this a diesel.

I have attached the quotes and diagnostics I have received thusfar.

 

[MR_Y]

Sorry about your situation.
Unfortunately, I don't have mechanical advice.
More a practical question:
Do you live close to an area that got flooded recently? If yes, then there is the likelihood of this incident happening again (freak weather events are becoming more common). In which case, maybe consider a higher riding vehicle. Granted no vehicle can withstand a flood, but some can traverse half a metre of water with no issues.

 

[///M Individual]

Really sorry to hear about this.

Have you got an indication of what price insurance will want from you if you choose the buy back option?

I think this is important as it will determine how much surplus you will receive to repair and what shortfall you will have. Based on this you can ascertain whether you would rather put in extra money to repair the car or just put that R120k as a deposit and buy another vehicle.

If you go with keeping the car, an import/used motor would be recommended rather than repairing the current one. This would also mean you can sell salvageable parts from your old motor to recoup some costs.

 

[individj]

i would usually say get rid of it but yes as stated above...it would all depend on what your insurance is willing to sell it to you for.....if you plan to keep it forever then maybe try and get another engine but if you think you may sell it try & save your sub and original engine number.

 

[momo1]

Im sorry about this, could literally happen to any of us with our poor infrastructure, most storm water drains are blocked and every time we have showers I notice water piling up everywhere, so much so that I don't drive in heavy rain unless its an emergency.

I agree with sentiments above, speak to your insurance and see what they'll offer you.
I would personally take the pay out and look for a replacement. flood damaged cars could have a list of hidden gremlins apart from those that are obvious. especially modern ones.

my advice would be to look at replacing as hard as it may seem.

 

[TBP88]

Unless insurance will let you have it for pennies, then definitely just take the hit and get a new ride (as an aside, R120k seems like a very low insured value for an F30 320d!?)

 

[Solo Man]

My 2012 F30 320d manual is valued at R140k by the insurer (Santam) which i assume is the amount i will get out when car is written off. So R120k is quite low for one with low kilometres to boot. I am retired so no excess either. OP probably still under the excess clause. R140k is still too low for 2012 F30 320d in my opinion as my previous 2016 320d f/l was valued at R270k.

 

[Malone1]

Hey Bud

Sorry about your incident. I would definitely check on the value the insurance is offering and get as much as you can and then replace the car. Water gets in everywhere and you could end up with multiple intermittent faults caused by small components get rusted.

Not all faults would show up immediately.

Save yourself the frustration.

 

[TBP88]

Hey Bud

Sorry about your incident. I would definitely check on the value the insurance is offering and get as much as you can and then replace the car. Water gets in everywhere and you could end up with multiple intermittent faults caused by small components get rusted.

Not all faults would show up immediately.

Save yourself the frustration.

This, added to that the potential for damn to have gotten into carpeting, etc. etc.

Just all round, it's not even remotely rare enough a car to justify the mission of fixing it up.

 

[TurboLlew]

Have it written off and move on IMHO.

Even buying it back might not be feasible: Hypothetically you buy it back for R60K and you fix it for the R40K 'cheap' option fixing only mechanical issues... Chasing down random electrical issues 6-12 months down the line (not immediately visible as the cables and connectors corrode/rot over this period) is not going to be fun. Not in the time/experience and definitely not in terms of the money. Flood water is also different to 'regular' water that might enter via pure rainfall or being over zealous with a pressure washer. There is dirt, sewage, fungal spores that might only 'bloom' months later, potentially corrosive things mixed in with the water... especially around construction sites/industrial areas etc.

You can have it repaired 'properly' by stripping everything and changing out your harnesses and modules that were under the water line but that is NOT a cheap or fun exercise either.

Only those who have experienced this (or have had a close person share their stories) will understand just how bad this gets. Your insurance also knows this.

 

[individj]

it doesn't take much to hydrolock an engine depending on intake etc....do you have any idea of the impact...i mean was it over the windscreen or was it a splash in front?

 

[NBN]

As hard as this sounds , I think you can never tell with water damage and is it risk you are willing to take ? Also check if your car is insured for market value / replacement value / book value because R120k seems very low considering what some of the guys are asking for their diesel beamers

 

[Twincam Shark]

This happened to me twice
Once with my 320D e90 and the second time with my 335i e90

The 320d was paid up and i got paid out only R115 000 for mine
I did not even look at the buy back option as there is always things that will creap up after getting it repaired.

 

[zabbo]

Take the payout and move on as others have indicated.

Another thing to consider if you do decide to buy it back and do the repair is that it will then be coded by the Insurance (Code 3 - Rebuild) and this will make reselling it in the future a ball ache and negatively affect the resale value too.

 

[TurboLlew]

The reality is that unless you are insuring your car for an 'additional' agreed amount - that book value is going to be what you get. That book value seems to have 'improved' a little bit but is nowhere close to what people seem to be asking these days. Make sure you are insured for the market value of the car. Also make sure all your extras are listed!

This is another reason not to entertain tele-surers since they often will gloss over this and the excess when beating your current rate. You would be amazed at how many people know nothing apart from what they pay monthly (sometimes not even that).

 

[lebofa]

Buy the car back if the price is reasonable, get a low mileage used engine from a scrap yard and throw it in. These cars have fuses to protect the electronics and as for harnesses, try and clean all harnesses before connecting back. Get WD40 Contact cleaner, it's very cheap. Most of the harnesses have an 'O'ring sealing where the plugs connect to prevent water and dust from going into the plug. Nothing a good Mechanic and a good Auto electrician will not fix, but I would not rebuild the engine. IMHO, once you open an engine and rebuild it, it will never be the same. Better to just get a used engine. There is beemer spares ,https://www.beemerspares.co.za/ , in midrand that carries a lot of used engines, some from low mileage cars, just call and enquire.

 

[PsyCLown]

@marnusvdm Curious as to what you decided to do?

Also would the insurance even allow you to buy it back from them directly? I thought most insurance companies insist on it being sent to a salvage yard where it is usually auctioned off.

Accident damage is one thing, water damage is another - as mentioned by others the water can cause issues later down the line due to rust / corrosion and the electronics may work fine now and not so fine in a few months - this in turn could lead to additional money being required to repair it.

 

[marnusvdm]

Hey Guys! Thank you for each and every response. I did take into account what everyone said about the water damaging components in the long run and electronics being damaged as well.

The insurance told me I am welcome to purchase the car for the settlement amount x 50%. The insurance paid out R166 000,00 so if I wanted to I could have the car for R83 000,00.

I did decide however to just take the payout and not risk driving a rebuilt diesel engine and also having to fix and sort out the damaged electronics. When I inspected the car 2 weeks later, it did some random electronic things such as the lights turning on, even though the car was off, and the HUD display wrong messages.

It was sad, but I had to let her go. I have attached pictures of the old girl.

Now, I am considering to get a X1 sdrive 20d

Thanks for all the responses and I am very glad we have such a great BMW community in SA






Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[TBP88]

sad as it is, this is replaceable, even like for like if you so please.

Good luck finding your next ride - glad you didn't hop down this rabbit hole!

 

[PsyCLown]

Glad you decided to take the pay out and that they increased the amount. I love that wood grain interior trim your car had.

As you can see, already some problems starting to pop up, the headache of chasing them down and trying to get them fixed is a rabbit hole I would not want to go down... Especially on a car such as a BMW with soo many control modules and electronics. Different story if it was a Corsa Lite or Citi Golf.