We love water. It’s the foundation of life, and it keeps you alive. But it is hard to be appreciative of this source of life when it gets into your car because it makes your life inconvenient. Ever heard yourself saying, “STUPID WATER!!!!!”
So water belongs in certain places and not in others. Your body is 70% water so it’s obvious that it belongs in you so eat your fruits and vegetables, but not anywhere close to your car. But what can you do when you need to travel to point B from point A and somewhere in between is a pool of water? Do you go with the hope that your car will surely make it out alive, or do you play it safe?
We like to take risks because it allows us to experience the limitation that is imposed on us by the physical world. So we’ve gone until recently, and we say this because we came across a helpful and funny article where we’ve learned from the experience of another who decided to rev through a puddle of water with their Mercedes.
Drive through water and these are the horrors you might experience:
- Electrical Shortages which might not sound so serious like a shortage that causes your headlights to lose its functionality. Big deal, right? But, if water gets into your powertrain control module which is the hardware that is responsible for signaling signs to your engine from your pedal, you’ll lose the functionality of your car. Is your last name Rockefeller? No? Then you’re likely to get irritated if your car doesn’t work because that’s an unforeseen expense that might induce anxiety about how you’ll pay for your rent this month.
- And you thought the above was expensive to fix? Oh the above is good news relative to hearing, “your engine is damaged”. In essence, if water gets into your car’s air intake or carburetor, water will transfer to a variety of locations within your engine which can cause corrosion or contamination which could result in engine failure in the near future or just cause engine failure right then and there.
- Ready for the worst part? You might expend all your cash reserves and think, “finally, I’ve fixed my car!” only to experience car failure again. What a, excuse my language, shitty experience. And here’s why this might happen. You might have overlooked the health of your fuel tank. If water gets into your fuel tank, it can cause corrosion of the fuel tank that’ll cause water to jump back into your engine and cause engine failure, again.
You have a brain and we suggest you to exercise it when you find yourself in front of a pool of water that’s blocking your path:
- Find an alternative route to your destination. Sometimes, being late can be excused. And in this context, it seems justified to be an hour or two late compared to a good probability of losing functionality of your car, being HOURS late, and dropping thousands to fix your car.
Note: We’re not talking about a pool of water that’s waist deep. Water that’s at a height of just 6 inches/15cm or ankle deep can find its way into your engine.
But if you’re on a rescue mission and the health of your car is irrelevant then here are some suggestions for driving through a pool of water:
- Slow down before approaching the body of water and enter it at 1-2 mph.Then accelerate to 3-4 mph to create a bow wave, which is water splashing to the sides of your car, to decrease the likelihood of water entering your engine. Avoid going too fast or else you’ll aquaplane meaning your front tire will lose traction and you’ll lose steering-control of your car.
- Make sure you’re reving your car the entire time to avoid water from entering your exhaust pipe. You can easily rev your car without accelerating too much by placing your car in first gear.
- Find the highest elevation point of the road, which is often the sides of the road.
- When you get out of water, use your brakes gently to dry them. Or else, you have a chance of water penetrating your steer line which can corrode them and cause issues with your brakes.
Sometimes, water will just find a way to get into your car and your car will break down. The best thing to do is to get your car away from water as soon as possible to avoid further damage by calling a towing company. Think of it as an investment. You expend a little during that time to save a huge expense in the near future. And, make sure you request a flatbed tow truck to get your car completely off the ground to avoid more water from penetrating your car. Find a towing service like ours, that can do that for you.
