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End of the road....


Willie Hank

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Oh well, it was a good ride, all the way until the end....

We had a flash flood this afternoon in Houston. My wife was coming home from a retreat and only a 1/4 mile from home when she encountered high water at an intersection. The police had it blocked off and diverted her down another street. She then came upon high water on that street and slowly drove through it, but our STS stalled out. She got out and the water was up to her knees and the interior took on water. She called me and I arrived in our van a few minutes later. I got in the the STS and it started the first time. I drove out of the water but the engine was making a terrible noise. I popped the hood and it sounded like the valves were being slapped by the pistons. I turned the car off, and checked, but no codes. I checked the oil, which checked good, no milky white discoloration from water. I pushed the car off to the side and came back later with a friend to tow it home.

We got home, I started it up again and it sounded just as horrible, all kinds of upper engine noise. I interrogated the ECM, and there are no codes registering,...quite bizarre.

I keep hoping the engine sounds will go away when it dries out, but I am very doubtful. Oh well, my STS had a good life, 170K miles on it,...nothing to be ashamed of, I think I will have to retire it... :(

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You may want to pull all the plugs and turn it over some. However, the fact that you could turn it over is a good thing (it apparently did not hydrostaticly lockup and bend a rod).

The air inlet may need to be drained as well (although there should be some provision for this already).

Muddy water in the carpets (and seat motors etc) is not fun - a lotta shop vac work and rinsing.

Good luck :(

Add power to leave problems behind. Most braking is just - poor planning.
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i had this problem just a few weeks ago, heres how i did it

removed the air filter and housing, gave it a few days to dry out..

removed all eight spark plugs and sucked out all the water i could with a straw.

tried cranking it, to clear out the cylinders too, then i added about a cap of oil to each cylinder to relubricate everything. cleaned my battery posts, fired it up and it still made the noise.. i drove it for a little bit and it went away. bectha its gonna say you have high voltage, water gets on some electricals and messed 'em up. hit the interstate

Also, if you have full coverage.. its covered.

if you retire it, can i have some parts? .. same car, same everything... hook it up!

but that above should do ya right.

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lmfao mantis! nobodys cupholder works.. and you know this!

im not looking for any cosmetic parts.. actually ill be getting rid of mine soon, the whole interior.. all excet the seats, until i can get a replacment.

hell, i dont know what i want or need.. but its all mechanical

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It sounds like the engine sucked water and hydrostatically locked for a moment, bent a rod and now the "shorter" rod is pulling the piston out of the bore at the bottom of the stroke and the piston is hitting the crank. That is exactly what happens when one hydrostatically locks like that.

Sounds terminal for that motor as the piston hitting the crank generates lots of debris that damages much else in the motor.

Yep Bob,...I think your "dead on",... again!!

I pulled the plugs yesterday (the air filter was sopped) and the No. 8 cylinder spark plug was bent and some of the ceramic "cleanly" shattered. I got a flashlight, looked down the hole and saw what appeared to be half of the piston. I got a long screwdriver and could easily push further down in the bore. I suspect it is cracked in half.

This is very disheartening as I loved that car, my youngest boy loved it too. All well, it was a fourth vehicle,... I didn't have the heart to split with. I am not sure what to do with it. I'll probably sell it at scrap value since I had liability insurance only.

Thanks for the feedback.

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I was following this post to see what the outcome would be and I just wanted to acknowledge your caddy loss. It's one thing when an owner drives recklessly (head in the clouds included) or neglects the car but to take a well maintained vehicle and have a fluke situation end it.....well that's just an all around sad thing.

-kg

"Burns" rubber

" I've never considered myself to be all that conservative, but it seems the more liberal some people get the more conservative I become. "

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When I see this I realize how lucky I was in January when I went through a very deep puddle at the bottom of an exit ramp, 3 or 4 cars did not make it through, I still don't know how I made it. Sorry to hear about this, Mike

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Wow, sorry to hear about your loss Willie... :( I always thought that was a fine looking 93 STS you had there. I remember you were one of the first members I was chatting with when I joined this board. I believe it was about those fine looking wheels you had on your Caddy. That is what motivated me to update my rims as well.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do with her. Like you said, it has been a good ride! ;)

'09 Cadillac CTS-4 3.6 direct injection, 128 K mi.
'15 Chevy Tahoe LTZ, 5.3i V8, 125 K mi
'70 Firebird Formula 400, Bored+.04, RAIII heads, M21 4spd., in-process restoration!

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KEEP THE CAR!!!!!

What a great project for a young boy to get his feet wet on! If he has any car smarts, let him pull the engine and rebuild it!

That is what I did to get my first car. I bought a 72 Camaro in 83. Engine died a ferw months later. Bought a shop manual and Chiltons engine rebuild book and took over my parents garage. Worked on it every day after work that summer. Bought a short block from a local engine shop and reassembled it with the parts I took off the original engine. Put it all back together and it fired on the first start.

I can still tell you the firing order for a small block chevy!

Wonderful summer!

Mac

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