Hi,

Does anyone have any ideas what the following could be:

The other day I drove our P38 through a puddle on a dirt road/tack. I wasn't going fast and some water did splash up over the bonnet. The puddle wasn't all that deep either, about 2 inches at the most.

Now since then we have been hearing a strange sucking/whining sound when the motor is running. It sounds like it starts roughly the same time as the turbo starts to kick in. We are used to the siren type whine the turbo makes, but this is more like something is sucking through something wet or a very very fine rasping/whining sound.

I had a good look in the air filter and all seems ok. I was dry and there seemed to be no sign of having had any water within it's housing.

Any ideas???????

Phil "O Bife"

Doesn't anyone have any ideas on this???????

Hi Obife

Sorry can't help you with an answer to this but the same did happen to me last year.

I was overtaking a car during one of the heavy spells of rain we had about a year ago. Even though I knew the country road very well I didn’t know it well enough. I looked in the rear view mirror and tutted at how slow they were driving just because of a bit of rain and as I looked forward again the road had turned into a small lake about 100 yards long and 2 ft deep in the middle. It was too late to brake so just gripped the wheel lifted off and hoped for the best.

The bow wave went completely over the roof of the car and when I realised the engine was still going I kept momentum and eventually came out the other side.

The engine then started to sound exactly as you mentioned but with one difference it would not rev. It felt like it was only on 3-4 cylinders. I immediately thought oh s**t, terminal damage. Rather than face the ignominy of stopping (as though broken down) I plugged on for the remaining 2 miles to get home.

Lifting the bonnet at home the wheezing as you mentioned seemed to be coming from around the turbo (in my very wet engine bay). I decided to switch off and leave it to dry.

After an hour I took it out for a blast and after initially showing the same problem it suddenly spluttered back to full form.

Thinking about it latter I thought that it could have been water/dirt ingress into the blow off valve thing on the side of the turbo, or something like that, preventing the turbo from producing any boost pressure.

Just a thought, might be worth checking out. Also check to see if any of the 'after turbo' ducting has broken or become dislodged.

Hope you find the problem.

SL