Hey everyone.

Just yesterday my LS430 2004 stopped when driving through water and out of panic I tried to start the car again resulting in a high rattling sound. Today the mechanic drained the water and changed the plugs and few other things and to the car finally started up. I am not sure how is that possible because the water went into the intake manifold and many people were suggesting the engine is gone. Now even when the engine is running there is a rattling sound coming from the right side of the engine (my left) and as I press the accelerator, the frequency of the sound increases up to a point the sound is similar to the one that of when I first tried cranking it up after flood. I am not sure what could be the reasons or does it need an entire engine head replacement or crank. What could be a possible outcome if any of you faced a similar problem please do share.

 

If you drove through water deep enough/fast enough for it to get into the intake, then chances are you bent a conrod so she is going to run bad and sound awful.
A bent rod will require a full engine stripdown/rebuild. Probably cheaper to get a replacement engine, or even another car.

However, it depends on what the noise is and where it is coming from. Any competent mechanic can, with the help of a mechanics stethoscope, find the source of a noise and thus the cause of the noise.

I have driven through 2' of water, but I did it with the air-suspension set to HI and I drove slowly.

 

post a video here and we'll see how it sounds

 

How deep was the water? Where did mechanic drain water from? If water was high enough to get into intake there are going to be a lot more problems to come from electronics. If it just splashed into intake a different story. If he drained the oil and had water do multiple oil changes. May or may not make any difference at this point.

 

Hello, I have attached the video. The file named "Video 2_engine" if you focus on the left hand side you will here the rattling sound. and in "Video 1_outside" you can hear how it sounds from the outside. One thing to note is that I have no leakage and as the RPM increases like when I drive fast the sound seems to become very mild. Only when its idling the sound can be heard clearly. Also the mechanic said something is hitting the Engine head but you can drive the car but others are saying the noise will increase in the future so its better to change the head. I am getting mixed opinions and this is the first time it ever happened to me since I live in middle east and it barely rains out here. Would an engine head replacement would be better or a repair.

If someone could help me give a suggestion to what this sound might be it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Need to do a compression check to determine if there is one or more bent rods.

 

The water went into the intakes. I was lucky enough my engine did start after with a lot of water drained from the exhaust. The water was drained completely, oil was changed and air filter was also changed. There were no water mixed with oil when I drained it. Today I fixed the electronics and everything is fine but I am expecting issues in the future too.

 

I have attached the videos in the thread please check and let me know if you can figure out what I need to do. It would be a great help honestly.

 

Since you don't want to do any actual tests then we'll guess, based on your videos you have one or more bent rods and need a new engine. It was unlucky the engine started would have been much better if it didn't until all the water was removed.

 

It doesn't sound "heavy" enough to be the bottom end. What ever damage that's been done, I doubt it will get any worse. Just my opinion, but I really wouldn't bother trying to fix it or dig into it any further.

 

"Similar" sounds from my engine a couple of weeks ago.
My car was parked for a few weeks in the garage. When I started it one of the morning, that "loose" metal/loud engine sound scared me. I stopped the car right away, checked my oil, looked normal. Started it again the next day and I decided to let it ran for a few minutes, got less and less noise from the engine. Did some local driving for a couple days until the tank was empty. Refilled and drove it for another day, noise went away.
If I were you, I would just keep driving it and see what happen

 

Honestly, that doesn't sound too bad at all. It is not knocking, nothing from the bottom end. Does the car seem down on power ?

 

It could be that the hydrolock popped the timing belt by one tooth so the timing is out and a valve is clipping the piston.
That would cause a drop in power though and eventually will destroy the engine.
If that was my car I wouldn't be doing any long trips until I had figured out what was causing the noise.
I still think you need an experienced mechanic with his stethoscope to find where that noise is coming from. It is very much not normal.

 

A slight bend in a connecting rod won't necessarily cause noise, it will simply cause low compression on that cylinder and likely a misfire. A broken piston skirt, however, will cause noise without a misfire. Either, or both, are possible. You need a proper diagnosis as the engine may be repairable but will likely get worse if you continue to run it.

 

It ingested enough water to actually spit it out of the exhaust?

That engine be toast! 🍞
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