The news seems to be full of flood stories at the moment so I thought I'd ask how many of you feel confident about tackling flood water in your car and how many of you know where the air intake is on your car so you don't plunge in to the water, full of bravado and suck the wet stuff into your engine. Those of you with 4x4s or height-adjustable suspension move on now, please.
The Synergie sucks air near to the left headlight so it can cope with water up to the top of the wheels (not the tyres) before I get nervous. Water then makes its way into the gearbox, but that's another story.
My flood/fording technique was learned years ago in Knox Ford near Harrogate where you had to drive 50 yds down the river bed. I tackled it once in a Citroen Dyane, sucked some spray into the engine cooling fan which immediately filled the whole cabin with steam. It made it to the other side, though. My mates were doubled up with mirth when I arrived on dry land.
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land
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Well at the age of 45 (very nearly :( ) and after 20 years of motoring I've never had to drive through flood water and would probably worry more about hitting unseen obstacles than water ingress. Having said that I seem to recall that early Espace? models had an air intake set very low down and at that time there was a spate of incidents in which engines were destroyed as a result of water being taken in. Ironically I did have to drive through plenty of water whislt working in E. Turkey, Tunisia and Abu Dhabi (yes, it was heavily flooded in 1982).
We had access to a number of vehicles (mainly Nissan & Toyota) and thought nothing of charging through deep water, it was great fun and I don't recall anyone being warned about the perils of water being drawn into the engines.
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There is a very simple answer here. Do Not tackle "flood" water in a modern car.
Reason 1. I read somewhere of a person who tackled a swollen ford in a car, the engine stalled and they were stuck in the middle, water still below door level at this point. A 6 foot surge of water rushes down picks up the car and carried the car down stream - at the point where the car turned over two of the occupants drowned.
2nd point.
With a modern car stuffed to the gunwhales with electronics, excess water will cause you grief for years down the road. (see post on here about bloke who got salt water in his ABS)
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Hi Hawkeye,
1) I will not now go anywhere near floodwater in the C5 diesel
2) I now know exactly where the air intake is on the C5, which is around the bottom of the LH headlight.
Or to put it another way, I was driving the C5 across a swollen ford in Oxfordsire, late at night early last year and proved that modern diesel engines just cannot compress water! Bah Humbug.
Prior to that expensive lesson, it had never occurred to me to check the position of the air intake, which I now believe is a sensible precaution.
Regards
Vercin
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The chap down the street has just sold his business at the age of 40-ish and retired.
He has bought a new X5, and seems to sneer a bit at my '96 Monterey, 139K, unwashed and a bit tatty. More used to hurling 2 tonnes up and down from Teesside to London than posing in the local market town (Yarm, if you know it...)
Just wait for the first time he trys to wade through too much water...bang..tap-tap-tap-tap.
:-))
:-((
rg
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Hawkeye,
It is not just the air intake you need to worry about, also the position in the engine bay of electrics, and the radiator cooling fan and the exhaust.
If the cooling fan is running and water enters the engine bay through the radiator grill it makes a very big mess...the fan grabs the water and destroys itself and usually embeds various bits in the radiator. Even electric fans have this problem as most drivers will sit idling for a while watching the water or another driver attempting the crossing and the fan can cut in without warning.
Tips from rural NSW....we had a small creek to ford, normally no water or just a few inches over the sealed surface, but after heavy rain could be 2.0m deep and flowing fast enough to sweep whole trees past in a matter of seconds.
1. watch another car go through to check the depth (depth markers may not be accuract due to resurfacing, pole sinking etc)
2. tarpaulin over the radiator grill to direct water away from engine bay
3. disconnect electric fans
4.keep revs high and steady
keep moving slowly and maintain a SLIGHT bow wave...not enough to creast the bonnet though...this keeps a lower water level at the sides and rear
5 dont stop moving
(subaru air intake at top of radiator grill, electrics all on top of flat four engine, but exhaust low down)
Ian L.
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Interesting replies people.
Ian L, here's me being all smug about knowing where my air intake is and I'd forgotten about the cooling fans. The Synergie has 2 seemingly the size of a dartboard and they run all the time when the climate control is set to auto, which is - all the time. Good point.
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land
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