How to drive through floods safely, without damaging your car

In case of a flooded road, the best thing to do is to not drive your car through it at all. Heck, you should be at home, or at a shelter on high ground actually.

But if you are left with none of the above options, what should you do?

Let’s get straight to the point.

1. Make sure the water level is safe (check for potholes too)

The best way to do this is to get out of your car and check the water level yourself. Thankfully, we have our traffic police, rescue departments, and highway authorities to check this for us beforehand. Roads with unsafe water levels would have been closed by now to avoid collateral damage or casualties.

There is a proper technique to drive through floods, but if the water level is unsafe, a proper technique cannot save you, your family, or your car.

So, if you are in an area where no frontliners are easily available, get out of your car and check the water level first before driving through it. Your car has a “water wading depth”, which is the height of water that it can drive through. This varies with cars and naturally, trucks and off-roaders have a higher water wading depth.

And this brings us to the next point

2. Know your car’s water wading depth

As mentioned earlier, the water wading depth varies with each vehicle. Know your car’s limits. Cars with combustion engines need to “breathe” through their air intake to function. Once water gets into the engine (through the intake), you should just turn the engine off to avoid catastrophic damage.

The standard sedan or hatchback can wade through 10 cm of water pretty safely. Anything more than that and there’s risk of water getting into the transmission vent (catastrophic but not immediate damage).

Immediate damage is caused when water enters the engine while it is running.

SUVs and pickups like the Toyota Fortuner have a 70-cm water wading depth, and some electric cars like the Nissan Leaf will surprise you with a 70-cm water wading depth as well.

But always remember that this water wading depth is the car’s limit. Drive through too fast and water will splash, entering vital areas of your car. If you really want to be safe.

3. Turn you’re Air Conditioning off

Relating to the subject matter of splashing water, you’re Air Conditioning fan (usually situated next to the radiator fan) will cause unnecessary splashing in the engine bay if kept turned on. Turn it off before you drive through that flooded road.

4. Drive at a slow & steady pace and DO NOT over take the bow wave

Should you have assessed the water level (including potholes), know your car’s limits, and turned your air conditioning off, now it is time to drive through that water (since you have no option left).

Watch this video to see how various cars wade through water. Some do it right and create a nice bow wave in front of their car while some don’t.

Even if you have an SUV/4×4, splashing through water is just stupid. It increases the chance of water entering your engine and damaging it.

The proper way to is to approach the water at a slow pace, get up to a steady pace of 6-8 km/h to create a bow wave, and safely get through the water. Use the low gears to do this.

DO NOT overtake that bow wave (by accelerating), since that will cause water to splash over the bonnet and damage vital areas.

What if you’re stuck in traffic and the water level is rising?

This is a terrible situation to be in. If there’s a bit of high ground to the side of the road and you can get on it, do it. But if you can’t, stay in your car if the water level is safe. Should the water level continue to rise, and you are stuck in a massive traffic jam, just turn off your engine and get out of your car. Your life is more important.

Conclusion

Well, that’s what we can tell you about driving through floods. We hope that helps. Again, the fact remains that the best thing to do is to not drive at all in heavy rainstorm and flooded roads.

Archives

Categories

Meta