About 10 years ago I very nearly killed my 306 1.9TD in a flood. Water sloshed over the bonnet when a truck came hammering through the other way. Later that day I decided to check the air filter which was just behind the air intake (as has been written above; low down in nearside wing just behind bumper) and found it soaking, with the housing dripping water. One new filter later I was counting on a very lucky escape.
Being a sensible chap (!) I had an almost identical incidence in my 206 HDi in the 2007 floods. The car cut out in the water, I feared the worst after pushing it out with help from a fellow victim but opened up the air filter housing (higher up, but intake still in same place) and found the filter saturated. Starting it up with the housing open revealed a puff of steam from the exhaust and perfect running (it's still going at 157,000 miles) and another very lucky escape.
On that particular car, the intake was in such a stupid place that motorway driving in heavy rain would draw spray into the filter. Peugeot's answer? Fit a sponge to the bottom of genuine air filters. I once fitted a pattern filter from GSF which had no sponge. It lasted about 3 months until it collapsed in a sodden mass into the air intake - I only used genuine filters after that.
My wife had a similar experience about 15 years ago in a ZX. The ford was in flood (the fact she'd gone 6 miles out of her way to go that route was another matter...!) and foolishly she thought "It's a diesel, it'll be OK". The air intake was low down behind the front bumper. When I was called to drag her out with my LandCruiser, the water came in over the top of my wellies! She'd had to pass child, dogs and baby out through the windows.
Of course the engine was hydrolocked (and to compound that, froze while sat on the garden afterwards). Fortunately our insurers shelled out for a new engine in a 24,000 mile car! But we never did completely get rid of the smell of riverwater in the interior, and sold it soon after.
So all it needs is a can of juice and an oily rag and a match, then with the insurance proceeds go out and buy another one that doesn't have a knackered engine, isn't damp or burnt out :)
It is still a write off. But it is your folk's "books" that it will be written off from and not an insurance co's.
BX went though the ford OK (only thing the BX was any good for), just jacked it up and picked a day when it was low. When ford was high a pick up Land Rover got in trouble, the pick up box floated the back wheels off the stream bed. Luckily there is a nice sturdy foot bridge just down stream of the ford that stopped it going off down the stream and the driver climbed out on to it. It was a close thing it didn't roll and go under the bridge.
I have what you want for fording. A nice low 140mph 7sec 0-60mph Jap sports coupe. The air inlet is behind the headlamp, which retracts. Best to take the interior out first, about 2 hours and it goes back in the about the same. I took it though a flood about 200m long, deep enough to get water in the car (it was stripped for welding so had lots of holes) but lowest "live" connector is about 3" off floor. Found a French POS at the other end of the flood, bonnet up, dead. One person has reported going though water with the bow wave over the bonnet, that is a semi submersible.
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