Rules to follow when driving through a flood......

kupus

Right so its coming up to rainy season with floods and I though this would be a good read....got it from http://blog.nononsense.ie/2008/08/18/how-to-drive-through-a-flood/

1. The most obvious piece of advice is to avoid flooded areas if at all possible. Change your route or don’t leave home unless absolutely necessary.

2. Don’t drive through flood water if you are unsure of its depth. Cars can float in as little two feet of water. As a rule, if the water is above the bottom of your doors consider turning around.

3. Try and drive at the highest point of the road if you can do so safely. Often this will be the middle of the road as the waters can tend to be deeper along the kerbs.

4. Never drive through a flood if there are vehicles coming the other way since as the waves coming from their movement could flood your engine.

5. Drive slowly and steadily creating only a small bow wave in front of you. Driving faster does not mean you get through faster as you may drive water into your engine and do some serious damage.

6. Drive in a low gear, keeping the revs high. Water in the exhaust can stall the engine.

7. Don’t forget that in low levels of water your braking distance is greatly extended, so drive at a speed that you know you can stop safely in case you need to.

8. Test your brakes once you pass through the flood as soon as it is safe to do so, i.e. when there are no cars immediately behind you.

9. Have your mobile with you and ensure you have your emergency numbers to hand, such as your breakdown assistance number.

10. Make sure you have spare warm clothing with you, just in case you need to leave your car.

................I suppose the best one to take from that is dont drive through it if you're not sure.

I remember a few years ago going thru galway in either an avensis or a golf and went through a flood about 12 inches high, I got past driving real slow with revs high, but I didnt know that at the time to keep them high:)
On the other side was a nice looking bmw fairly new that did not make it, apparently the driver went too fast into it and it seized up.


So anybody have any other tips that can come in handy?

H3llR4iser

kupus wrote: »

6. Drive in a low gear, keeping the revs high. Water in the exhaust can stall the engine.

This one is a bit tricky. In general, it would make sense - however you might want to think twice about it if your car's air intake lies low; Chances are that the higher negative pressure might suck in water. Knowing where your engine's intake is helps

randy hickey

I suppose another tip would be to familiarise yourself with the level of your air intake.

Edit; Beaten to it by ^!

Alanstrainor

My car is so low id never dream of it...easy to say when you're not caught out in it but still!

R.O.R

H3llR4iser wrote: »

This one is a bit tricky. In general, it would make sense - however you might want to think twice about it if your car's air intake lies low; Chances are that the higher negative pressure might suck in water. Knowing where your engine's intake is helps

randy hickey wrote: »

I suppose another tip would be to familiarise yourself with the level of your air intake.

Edit; Beaten to it by ^!

That's what did for this:


Punto came in the opposite direction and made it through. This needed a new engine @ €17,000 - was only 6 months old at the time.

Insurance companies are now starting to look at claims for flood damaged engines which are caused by drivers driving in to floods. They may no longer payout.

Avoid if at all possible would be my advice.

kupus

^^^^^Was that in Galway, looks exactly like the place I passed a bmw

R.O.R

kupus wrote: »

^^^^^Was that in Galway, looks exactly like the place I passed a bmw

Nah, South County Dublin. Lost a few after that snow.

Did have great fun picking up the driver in a Disco. He climbed out of the window of the 5 and in to the back window of the Disco - in Suit, Smart shoes and an overcoat :pac:

richiek67

R.O.R wrote: »

That's what did for this:


Punto came in the opposite direction and made it through. This needed a new engine @ €17,000 - was only 6 months old at the time.

Insurance companies are now starting to look at claims for flood damaged engines which are caused by drivers driving in to floods. They may no longer payout.

Avoid if at all possible would be my advice.

Ah well, so much for German engineering....Still if you have one of those you can well afford to change the engine...lol...:)

kupus

richiek67 wrote: »

Ah well, so much for German engineering....Still if you have one of those you can well afford to change the engine...lol...:)

What about insurance? If you drive thru a flood and it stalls. Well logically it is your fault, so will the insurer pay up?

H3llR4iser

BMWs are infamous for having a very low air intake - just as most Alfas do; Not 100% sure, but most "not-your-average-grocery-picker" cars tend to have lower intakes.

R.O.R

kupus wrote: »

What about insurance? If you drive thru a flood and it stalls. Well logically it is your fault, so will the insurer pay up?

They did on that one, and a few others over the past couple of years, but that is being looked at currently and may change.

Bigus

For insurance purposes you "crash into a flood" , helps if was dark at the time .

richiek67

richiek67 wrote: »

Ah well, so much for German engineering....Still if you have one of those you can well afford to change the engine...lol...:)

Hardly the manufacturers fault to be fair.
Lad I worked with drove through a foot+ of water in a 320ci, mechanical engineer by qualification (same lad wouldn't have a clue about much).

check_six

Like the submarine jeep vid in OP. The running windscreen wipers as the water threatens to go over the heads of the occupants is a nice touch!

Paulw

kupus wrote: »

Right so its coming up to rainy season with floods and I though this would be a good read.

But ...... summer is over.

Some interesting tips there.

bbam

If you do manage to stall and your confident the intake isn't taking in water you can use 1st gear and turn the starter to creep out of the flood.. I wouldn't go to far but it will get you out of the way and the flood..

kupus

This looks around 6-8 inch of water that the silver corsa is driving thru fairly slowly by the way there is no waves created at the front, (maybe even stopped)..

While the blue honda is just plowing on thru....

Del2005

kupus wrote: »

This looks around 6-8 inch of water that the silver corsa is driving thru fairly slowly by the way there is no waves created at the front, (maybe even stopped)..

While the blue honda is just plowing on thru....

The Corsa could be in the middle of the road and may have forced the Honda driver to swerve into deeper water, a still image doesn't tell any thing.

dr.fuzzenstein

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM0zGe95g-M

That driver sure can hold his breath...or not...

johnayo

R.O.R wrote: »

That's what did for this:


Punto came in the opposite direction and made it through. This needed a new engine @ €17,000 - was only 6 months old at the time.

Insurance companies are now starting to look at claims for flood damaged engines which are caused by drivers driving in to floods. They may no longer payout.

Avoid if at all possible would be my advice.

Saw one of these throw a leg out a couple of years ago. Lady driving it moved a cone with road flooded sign attached and drove on. This was on the Clash Rd , Ballincollig to Curaheen in Cork. Was a notorious road for flooding.

Marlow

randy hickey wrote: »

I suppose another tip would be to familiarise yourself with the level of your air intake.

Yep. Very important. More important than anything else.

R.O.R wrote: »

Punto came in the opposite direction and made it through. This needed a new engine @ €17,000 - was only 6 months old at the time.

H3llR4iser wrote: »

BMWs are infamous for having a very low air intake - just as most Alfas do; Not 100% sure, but most "not-your-average-grocery-picker" cars tend to have lower intakes.

The BMW's have their air-intake behind the front bumper. So water higher than the bottom of the front bumper means do not go there.

richiek67 wrote: »

Ah well, so much for German engineering

This has nothing to do with german engineering, lad. Nothing at all.

BMW's have their air-intake behind the front bumper. VW's usually quite high in the engine bay. Fords have it silly low most of the time.

You can't go by where the car was designed or build. You will need to check for each and every car individually. Stereotypes will help nobody here.

/M

fasttalkerchat

The only time I drove through a deep flood I drove quite fast because I wanted to get enough momentum that I could get through it without accelerating much.

Heard after that it was better to drive slow even if it means spending longer in the water.

Del2005

Marlow wrote: »

Yep. Very important. More important than anything else.





The BMW's have their air-intake behind the front bumper. So water higher than the bottom of the front bumper means do not go there.



This has nothing to do with german engineering, lad. Nothing at all.

BMW's have their air-intake behind the front bumper. VW's usually quite high in the engine bay. Fords have it silly low most of the time.

You can't go by where the car was designed or build. You will need to check for each and every car individually. Stereotypes will help nobody here.

/M

While the main way for water to enter is by the air intake or exhaust, there are loads of breather pipes and other holes in an engine where water can easily enter if you go too deep. Being aware of where the air intake is may not stop the car getting a belly full of water.

Marlow

Del2005 wrote: »

While the main way for water to enter is by the air intake or exhaust, there are loads of breather pipes and other holes in an engine where water can easily enter if you go too deep. Being aware of where the air intake is may not stop the car getting a belly full of water.

If there was loads of other breader pipes, where air could get into your engine, then your car would drive like crap. The only issue with water in the engine, if it comes into the intake chamber, because it's sort of solid, when compressed, hence broken conrods. The other issue can be electronics, that are shorted, but that might be ok again, when everything dries out.

Anyhow, that's why you keep your momentum up, to create a tidal wave effect and the water to a minimum around the car along the car and engine.

The exhaust pipe doesn't matter at all, simly because while the engine is running, there is pressure on that pushing entering water right out again.

/M

Marlow

And if you don't believe me, well how the heck is this lad still driving under water ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8AWpz385dg

This is the reason, why offroad vehicles have a snorkel on the air-intake, nothing else.

Also, one more important thing:
Do not press the clutch, when in flooding. Pick a gear before going in and stick with that. If the engine dies, change gear without using the clutch and limp out using the starter.

The clutch has open breeder holes and if you press it, water will come in between clutch and flywheel and make a whole pile of mess down there. That's pretty much the only other critical point.

/M

kupus

How NOT to cross a flooded street, how are some people this stupid?

quick Question Marlow, how would this be with an automatic car, can water still enter if you slow down and rev up

keithclancy

Once saw a car hit a flood at around 180km/h

Was raining the day before and the overtaking lane on the Autobahn was totally flooded.

He went through it like a boat and came out the other side fishtailing all over the place.

Recovered it though and the horsed off as soon as he had control back ..

Lunatic

Marlow

kupus wrote: »

quick Question Marlow, how would this be with an automatic car, can water still enter if you slow down and rev up

Doesn't matter in an automatic car, as it doesn't have a clutch. Automatic transmissions use a torque converter, so nothing to worry there.

/M

Marlow

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

That driver sure can hold his breath...or not...

The guy commenting on the exhaust is actually referring to the air-intake. That's what is still sticking out. The exhaust is under water. No issues there.

The drivers in these military trucks have diving gear on, so no problem there.

Most of these trucks are obviously spec'ed with the minimal amount of electrics possible and none of them needed to drive. All mechanically injected diesel engines most likely.

/M