[hl0m4n]

damn when it rains in NJ, it can get SOOO bad. today i got off a highway in NJ, and then i see the biggest pool of water ahead. i slowed to a complete stop and people were lining up behind me and i thought shiet i could back out slowly back to the highway or i can cross.

looking at it and the cars in front of me going it was a huge puddle 9-10inches max. so i hopped 1 side of my car on the grass curb and gently went through but then it got deeper.

to make a long story short, how much water can our cars clear? i know that you can compress air but not water but in a situation like this i mean what more can you do but go through gently or fast.

[alistair]

The handbook claims 12 inches of "standing water", *slowly*

[Ted]

Can clear a lot more than 12 inches I just found out the hard way with the recent floods here, is more like twice that without any problems. As long as you go slow of course and keep the revs high.

[tctic]

Originally Posted by Ted

Can clear a lot more than 12 inches I just found out the hard way with the recent floods here, is more like twice that without any problems. As long as you go slow of course and keep the revs high.

That's 60cm then. I doubt the car would continue to go if it was a long distance with 60cm deep water. The engine would be flooded by then.

(I heard parts of U.K. are having the worse flood in 60 years. Hope everything will return to normal soon.)

[Ted]

Originally Posted by tctic

That's 60cm then. I doubt the car would continue to go if it was a long distance with 60cm deep water. The engine would be flooded by then.

(I heard parts of U.K. are having the worse flood in 60 years. Hope everything will return to normal soon.)

I was surprised myself, the water was about half way up the door panel but i don't think it would have gone all day like that and judging by the amount of other cars becoming stranded I think I was pretty lucky.

[rog5878]

"the water was about half way up the door panel"

What a nightmare!

Glad that you got through unscathed.

[bronco]

Originally Posted by Ted

I was surprised myself, the water was about half way up the door panel but i don't think it would have gone all day like that and judging by the amount of other cars becoming stranded I think I was pretty lucky.

didnt your interior get flooded?

I think we made mother nature punished us again, for all the crap we dump into the air....

[Ted]

Originally Posted by bronco

didnt your interior get flooded?

I think we made mother nature punished us again, for all the crap we dump into the air....

Nope, kept looking down expecting it to be coming in, was impressed it made it through unscathed.

[Sniz]

thats brave man......I would have parked the car! You need a good old american pickup truck for that situation.

[bronco]

Originally Posted by Ted

Nope, kept looking down expecting it to be coming in, was impressed it made it through unscathed.

I am surprised

[alistair]

Yeah, that's an expensive gamble

Glad you came through it OK.

[Ted]

Wish I could say it was brave or a gamble but really I had no choice, i was down a country lane in the West Midlands when the water started rising real fast, there was no turning back and parking up would have ensured the car got flooded, only option was to keep going and hope.

[MIC328i]

man glad you made it through ..

[hl0m4n]

why is it ideal to keep the revs up may i ask?

[f30er]

lol, i thought for sure that the OP would be from AZ after the rains that came down yesterday!!! I can easily verify that driving through 10 inches yesterday without a problem...
+1 on the high revs, and why slowly? I thought it woulda been better to speed up as soon as you start going into the puddle, not really fast but atleast ~10mph...Thats what i was doing yesterday...

[mjh93sa]

It's all about hydrodynamics. when you go slowly the car will push the water out of the way, if you go too fast it'll come up over the car and likely try to ingest it. Water doesn't compress, con-rods bend

Also you want to keep the revs high so that you have a lot of exhaust gas going through the exhaust system to ensure that it can keep blowing the water clear, otherwise the back pressure of a water filled exhaust will cause the car to stall... then you're really stuffed.

A couple of links:

http://www.smartdriving.co.uk/Drivin...ies/Floods.htm
http://www.driving.org/DrivingInFloods.html

... also if you have to abandon your car make sure it's somewhere high. A colleague had a lucky escape this week as he had to abandon his car and walk home through the floods. The carpark he almost chose flooded completely later. Luckily he abandoned the car at the side of the road a bit further back ... and up!

[Loomp]

mjh93sa - I like how you have a 'shark fin' pictured below your post. Befitting of the topic.

[Revlis]

Originally Posted by agalbraith

The handbook claims 12 inches of "standing water", *slowly*

Yup, S-L-O-W-L-Y cannot be over emphasized... You start pushing a bow wave you might get the water high enough to be ingested and your engine is destroyed... Just about 100% of the time.

I would NEVER think of even attempting to drive through more than about 4-5" in this car... Find a way around.

NEVER try to cross standing water, especially if you are unsure of the area... There used to be some underpasses in Denver that would flood and the whole thing looked like there was maybe 3-4" on the road when in fact there was an underpass hiding below that. Would have been like 15' of water in that particular spot.

[mjh93sa]

Originally Posted by Revlis

Yup, S-L-O-W-L-Y cannot be over emphasized... You start pushing a bow wave you might get the water high enough to be ingested and your engine is destroyed... Just about 100% of the time.

I would NEVER think of even attempting to drive through more than about 4-5" in this car... Find a way around.

NEVER try to cross standing water, especially if you are unsure of the area... There used to be some underpasses in Denver that would flood and the whole thing looked like there was maybe 3-4" on the road when in fact there was an underpass hiding below that. Would have been like 15' of water in that particular spot.

Absolutely. One of the directors at work was telling me of a friend of his who drove his 530i through some standing water in the last round of flooding we had. The repair bill starts with a new engine

[Kruz]

I heard the xi s can almost submerge completely...

[e90fanatic]

Originally Posted by hl0m4n

damn when it rains in NJ, it can get SOOO bad. today i got off a highway in NJ, and then i see the biggest pool of water ahead. i slowed to a complete stop and people were lining up behind me and i thought shiet i could back out slowly back to the highway or i can cross.

looking at it and the cars in front of me going it was a huge puddle 9-10inches max. so i hopped 1 side of my car on the grass curb and gently went through but then it got deeper.

to make a long story short, how much water can our cars clear? i know that you can compress air but not water but in a situation like this i mean what more can you do but go through gently or fast.

lol...yea ive been in that situation...jersey sucks man! esp after the rain, it seems like the entire state melts away!

[dlwhite]

I live in NJ too. My trick USED to be to wait on side of road for a tractor trailer or 2 to go by,and watch the swath that it opened. If it look clear I'd follow the next through. During the deluge that we had I thought 'what if the driver stops and I get water coming back at me from both sides!