Drowned Sertao - pay £5,500 for new engine??

Have a search on here there was an xc drowned last year Annati?? Rings a bell worth a search to read the posts
 
If you'd have drained the water from the exhaust and airbox, removed the plug etc at the logging trail - fairly normal offroad procedure

Then got it going and when you got back to the digs, flushed the oil several times - with new from a Welsh garage

Then you would have been fine, but you left it and have now a wrecked bike

Did any of your 'mates' not know how to get water from a drowned engine?:blast

Johnny is absolutely right.

If your dealer has done no more than drain the oil/water from the bike, get it back now.

Tip in some cheap engine oil - from tesco or anywhere else. Run the engine for a minute. Drain the oil, and refill with fresh. Run for another minute. Keep doing this until you get clean oil out. Then change the filter and put in proper bike oil. Take for a run. If it runs OK, change the oil and filter a final time and learn your lesson.

If it doesn't run well, either buy the other engine or sell your bike on ebay.
 
Remove sump plug to drain any water / oil
Remove spark plug
Remove oil filter

this is to drain any crap from the engine.

Replace filter and sump plug.

put small amount of oil in cylinder
If you can get flushing oil then put in engine ( if not use ordinary oil and mix 50:50 with paraffin).

Turn over engine (WITH SPARK PLUG REMOVED) for about 2 mins.

Observe colour of oil that should come out the plug hole.

Drain oil from engine ( it may be a milky colour as it mixes with the water).

Repeat until clear oil colour.

Put in proper oil, new filter, clean or replace plug and see how it goes.

Any abnormal noises stop engine as conrod may be bent.

Hopefully all ok


There, or thereabouts, what I would do...:thumb

No way is this bike £5.5K fecked......;)
 
It will also most probably survive some water in for a couple of days.
 
It will also most probably survive some water in for a couple of days.


Totally agree.
Get the f*cker home and 3 oil changes with the cheapest diesel engine oil you can find will do the job.
The only stumbling block I can see is if they towed that hard, the engine has hydrauliced.....
 
And there's a lot to be said about joining an organisation such as the TRF. You are not just riding trails but learning from others with far greater knowledge of how to ride them and what to do when (not if) it goes wrong.....
Smart-arse novices soon run out of talent when the shit hits the fan, and as in this case, they become the ones we read about.:rob
 
And there's a lot to be said about joining an organisation such as the TRF. You are not just riding trails but learning from others with far greater knowledge of how to ride them and what to do when (not if) it goes wrong.....
Smart-arse novices soon run out of talent when the shit hits the fan, and as in this case, they become the ones we read about.:rob

Never a more true word said

It's like learning the 'knowledge'
 
Totally agree.

I've been in the same situation as OP and I know it's not fun at all.

Just to give him some hope...
In my case I drove the bike in the water. Cleaned the filter, etc, pumped the water out rotating the engine with the starter motor without spark plugs. Tried to restart it. Didn't want to and made horrible noises.
Recovery to the dealer with the response (a few days later) that I indicated in the previous post.

Asked to flood the engine with oil and got the bike relayed home. Since, at that stage, I was pretty pissed off (I had my fair share of horror stories so far) I shipped the bike to a mechanic in Italy that I knew and that is pretty damn good. Especially on GSs. He's an official BMW dealer as well.

At this point the bike had been like that for more than a week.

I was expecting to replace conrods, cylinders, etc. etc...
When he opened the engine there was no damage at all, compression was perfect.

Cleaned the engine, fixed a few things, done some extra work on the bike since it was on the bench... flew back and drove it back to the UK (this was the best part).

Get someone to actually check the engine, not just dump the oil.
 
I've been in the same situation as OP and I know it's not fun at all.

The OP is not the first person to have submerged his bike, and he difinately won't be the last.....
The £5000 price is bollox, the dealler are not interested in doing the job. But the engine cassette change is the easiest path if they did.
The job could be easy one as mentioned simple oil, filter changes, etc, or a little more complex, at the most a full strip down, so a couple of nights for a decent mechanic as a foreigner, so what £500 labour.....plus any parts required. It's not the end of the world.

Like I said, £100 here for the bike......:D
 
Ok so I know bugger all about riding off road and all the suggestions from those folk with comprehensive knowledge of these things seem very sensible.
My question though is why can't the OP claim off his insurance? You'd clearly need to be fully comp of course, but I'm presuming that by green laning you are on a highway and are therefore covered?
Apologies if it's a stupid question, but as someone who would like to take his GS off road (after some basic training and TrF help), it would be comforting to known.I could claim if I damaged the bike too much for a simple repair.
 
The OP is not the first person to have submerged his bike, and he difinately won't be the last....

I agree.
With that I meant: being asked a crapton of money to replace the engine.
 
An alternative thought.

Since the engine is a runner:
Change the oil & filter.
Ride it for a few miles to get the engine thoroughly hot, and keep it so for around 4 hours riding. This drives out the water.
Change the oil and filter again.
Ride away.
If it doesn't work what have you lost?
If it does work, you will then know what the many of us have known for years:
Main dealers have big windows in the showroom to see you coming.

Myke
 
thats why i joined this forum. To get knowledge after everyone has abused you. No doubt it'll be the same on the TRF...No real newby forum...

And there's a lot to be said about joining an organisation such as the TRF. You are not just riding trails but learning from others with far greater knowledge of how to ride them and what to do when (not if) it goes wrong.....
Smart-arse novices soon run out of talent when the shit hits the fan, and as in this case, they become the ones we read about.:rob
 
after everyone has abused you.

Abused! Who's been abused......? :nenau
If there is any video released of the trail ride in Snowdonia National Park that I'm leading this Sunday, you will see people getting abused. And it's funny, as they keep coming back for more and more, so someone must be doing something right hey..... 22 years in the TRF mate, so that's probably hundreds of rides and riders abused! ;)
Shame the OP wasn't on such a ride, cause by now he'd know how to retrieve a stricken bike and get it going again after being submerged...... saving £5500 in the process.:beerjug:
 
Dropped on its right side in some water? I resembled that a couple of weeks ago...

20140615_104035_zps52qx8qc2.jpg


Thankfully I didn't think it had ingested any water. Still did the oil and filter afterwards as a precaution. WTF would you try to start it with plugs in if you knew it had?
 
Just to give you some hope, or at least knowledge as above . .

This was from a ride in May. Mate dropped his Sertao loaded with camping gear in Strada Florida. Pressed the kill switch as soon as it went down.

We dragged it out, did not attempt to start, then stripped off the covers to check the air filter / water intake.

All dry so reassembled and went on our way.

Hopefully you have not hydrauliced yours. Good luck
 

Attachments

  • DSC00028s.jpg
    DSC00028s.jpg
    97.9 KB · Views: 510


Back
Top Bottom