Hi,
Coming home the other night in foul weather conditions, high winds and heavy rain. Came over the rise of a hill and then hit a substantial body of water at about 40 - 45 mph, water went about 20 feet high either side of me. The car cut out but almost immediately restarted, I think the car was in 4th gear, and I carried on my way. The thing is when I next tried to change gear, after about 300yds I couldn't. The garage says that the clutch is away and that it was nothing to do with hitting the water but as far as I can see the car was fine, I hit the water and then I couldn't change gear. Is it possible that the stress put on the front drive train when hitting the water and then restrting in 4th gear has caused the clutch to fail. My car is a 2006 1.9 multijet multiwagon. Hope someone can help me work this out.

Hi. Welcome to the Fiat Forum.

Any errors on the dash? You say the water went 20 feet on either side, that's 6 meters of it on either side. Did you actually mean 2 feet?

The engine cut out meaning the revs fell to 0 and then resumed without any errors?

thanks for the reply vladof, maybe it was 10 ft there was certainly a lot of water. When the engine cut out i'm pretty sure it said low oil pressure, but it will give this message if the engine stalls.
I don't have an OBD diagnostic tool to check faults, however this may be my next purchase. I have used the memory sanner U380 in the past.
I'm just trying to work out what happened as the guy in the garage thinks i'm spinning a yarn. what would i know i was only driving the car.
Back to the clutch. My thinking is that it must have put a tremendous strain on thedrive train hitting the water at speed and the clutch has paid the price??

Vladof
when the engine restarted there were no errors
cheers

jek

I wouldn't say it was so stressed out it died. Maybe water got in and caused some damage. Unfortunately, the only solution would be to take it out and see what happened. I would be tempted to suggest to force it a little bit and maybe it would unjam but do this at your own risk.

You can't really tell what happened until you take everything off.

Vladof,
thanks for the reply. I will let you know the outcome when clutch comes out. I think the problem is that it is an unusual one. The reason I posted this was that the mechanic said that the clutch was away but it could also be flywheel etc etc etc so was trying to get my head round what could be the cause as it seemed that the only thing that could have caused it was hitting the flooding. Although the mechanic that I took the car to disagrees.

I think we should wait for other opinions, but as far as I'm concerned, if water would get in there at high speeds than it could be possible to damage the flywheel or clutch itself.

I'm sorry I can't help you with more.

Hope this issue will be solved soon.

jek said:

The thing is when I next tried to change gear, after about 300yds I couldn't.

Click to expand...

What happened when you tried to change gear?

Did the clutch pedal feel normal?

Did the gearstick feel normal?

i know its not the same, but it might help.

i was on the m1 at motorway speeds, and the car infronts hubcap came off and wedged its self in the gear linkage under the car, i couldn't change gear.

clutch felt normal, but the stick felt as if it was being fouled, so i removed the shredded hubcap remains (after coaxing it off in 4th) and the next day i had to loosen the mount and linkages to allow it to "reset" / get back to rest postion....been fine since...(happned about 6 months ago)

thanks for the replies

i actually lost a hub cap but when i went back to retrieve it next day it was pretty much intact. saying that the clutch pedal felt normal and the gear select is fine, i can select any gear normally when the engine isn't started. at the time i thought that a linkage had come off however the garage seems convinced that the clutch is damaged i'll just have to insist on being there when they open her up

cheers

jek