It's called the Lake District for a reason | Driving Through Flood Water
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- Flooding on our roads seems to be more common, but do you know how to deal with driving through flood water?
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Great video. I'd add 'dont enter the water until the car in front has cleared'. If they break down you're screwed if you cannot pass them!
Exactly, I was thinking that while watching the cammer follow the van into a flood! Gulp! 😮
This video reminds me of all those YT videos at the infamous Rufford ford with many cars conking out either in the actual ford or just past it. It became so well known, crowds and UA-camrs alike would regularly gather there and drivers would specifically decide to drive through it rather than take a short and sensible detour.
As did Ashley (to watch)🙂
And, of course, that deeper water could be hiding a huge pothole!
Its England, you can change that to "The deeper water WILL be hiding huge potholeS"
Or the Loch Ness Monster 😱😱😱
Flashbacks to the Vicar of Dibley and her falling into a hole several feet deep haha.
I actually burst a tyre and damaged a wheel because what appeared to be a puddle was actually hiding a huge pothole !
Not advisable to use the clutch in deeper puddles. The bell housing is vented so muddy water and small pieces of debris can get between the clutch plates. Best to select the gear you want before you enter.
So would you recommend 1st gear for a situation like the last one in this video?
@@aspuzlingAlways a low gear in flood water.
@@aspuzlinglow as possible, my car has low range with diff locks so can crawl around 4mph without touching the clutch, airbox is also high up with a vent to allow water to escape before getting near the filter, sort of like a snorkel so you can quite happily travel through water up to bonnet level
Some may be , not all are .
yeah. if I saw that weather, I'd be like yeah maybe not today.
One thing you didn’t mention about keeping speeds slow, even for shallow water, is you cannot see what is underneath the water. In areas that are prone to flooding the under layer of the road surface can get eroded and then the top layer collapses creating an unwanted hole. Hot that hard and it will be more than a couple of cracks in the rim
A lot of people think you need a bow wave to go through water. In a normal car if you make a bow wave it will push water into your air intake, most car air-intakes are just under the bonnet facing forward 5:48 . On 4x4 vehicles that are designed to wade the air intake is usually at the back of the engine bay in a wheel arch and a bow wave will help keep the water lower in that area. Slipping the clutch in water can also cause issues with water getting onto the clutch and it then slipping. 1st gear clutch up all the way and as slow as possible is the best way reving the engine while in water just means if it does get any water in it then the damage will be catastrophic. Water won't go up the exhaust of a running engine and if it is deep enough for it to do so then the car is dead anyway. I teach 4*4 skills and am an ADI as well. The best bit of advice is don't go through water more than a couple of centimetres deep in a car.
yep, more engine speed just means your air intake is a more powerful vacuum pump. so it is more likely to ingest splashed water.
Also consider all the longer term damage done by water forced through seals into electrics, bearings etc. Tickover in 1st avoids high water pressures generated by high speeds.
@@levestane6383 right. you should avoid water getting into water more than the height of your tires, for this reason. I've been associated with a group that has an expectation that sometimes they would have to go deeper, and the rule was any time anything got axle deep, there was to be a repair order filed to check it for water intrusion.
0:47 a van with a falling off number plate - a sign of the depth of water that's to come
Or the sign of a van driver who doesn’t own the van and just boots it through water. But yes, another sign to be careful.
Water hides a miriad of ills, so if you can't see the bottom, don't bother. The road through Borrowdale has depth markers along side the road as a guide. With cars now having electric doors and windows, exiting if taken by the flow can be an issue, especially if you suddenly find yourself in deeper water. The advice is to lower at least one window before the electrics go completely as a means of exit in an emergency.
mythbusters demonstrated that it's not electrics being underwater that stops windows rolling down - its having the pressure differential of water on one side and none on the other.
for that matter, my own evidence was coming on a place where a car ha missed the corner and gone into the river. you could see where the car was, because the lights were still on.
love these educational vids. We are never to old to learn. And take good advice.
Also note just because you've gone back on yourself, the water levels may have risen making a road you just passed, impassable
The motorcyclist didn't seem to worried. Brave. On mine I usually get anxious about invisible stones or potholes, nevermind that water clearance height is a mystery.
We usually get flooding here after prolonged rain. Deep enough to want to go a bit slower along the middle of the road, but passable. Usually a reasonable length of road.
Seems to be a 50/50 chance of getting a 4x4 coming the other eay at full whack, holding its position, not wanting to slow, and blasting its horn, making you have to move back to the left into the deeper water.
Main thing to remember, with flooded roads, is that you can't see what's UNDERNEATH the water.
A flooded road has probably flooded before, and that means there's likely to be potholes, subsidance or even lumps of road washed away completely.
The water that flooded the road could also have washed rocks and other debris onto the road too.
Whenever floodwater is more than a couple of inches deep, always assume you could run over a brick or hit a pothole and drive at an appropriate speed.
langdale ambleside mountain rescue have a good video of how bad that road can get from 2015, i live up here in the lakes iv got cars to float, because of the depth, but never hydrolocked one yet
Was the driver calling his car a good boy at the end? 😂
Good info, slight V.O. error at 2:55 "forces air into the engine" I think that you meant to say "forces water into the engine".
Really frustrating how many houses were flooded last January by bow waves as vehicles went through flood water. Plus you have no idea what debris is covered up by the water, or which inspection covers have popped with the water pressure.
I was always told to avoid creating a bow wave. A bow wave pushes the water up higher than the puddle had been and increases the risk of water going in to the air intake. If the water is above your exhaust, you need high revs, slow speed and DONT stall it. The engine cools when it stops and sucks in water and then the momentum tries to compress the water in the cylinder
engines idle perfectly fine with the end of the exhaust below water. even a stall and restart typically don't result in problems. consider that a statistically significant number of boats put their exhaust under water to further muffle the noise.
Just reminded ...............boots and umbrella!
counterpoint: if it is warmish, sandals instead of boots, because it lets the water drain back out.
I'm curious what what kind of impact driving through floods can have on electric vehicles as they don't have air intakes.
you still don't want to get water where it wasn't meant to be, but more because it might have contaminants that will cause short circuits in the high voltage systems, and may cause corrosion. motors should be made to tolerate being splashed.
Last year that was what happened near me. It got so bad the police closed the road. Sometimes I turn around when I see a flood as I don't want to take the risk. Also if I go out to see friends or going to somewhere i won't go out in heavy rain or the roads too icy 😊
2:26 What a beautiful landscape!
Great video showing how to handle a situation like this
Advice for automatics? I have driven very few automatic cars - dont like them - but ive driven a few buses through floodwater. A regular place for flooding in Berkshire is Loddon Bridge, the buses get through if noone has tried to drive their car across the roundabout. Steady speed, not too fast (the locals get very angry if your bow wave breaches their sand bags) - i used to do the same as i did with snow - little nudges on the gas pedal to keep the revs up and keep moving.
It was light when they set off, but it soon got dark, and it soon becomes more difficult to gauge the depth.
“Just go, go go go for it!” Then 5 seconds later “I don’t want us to risk the car”.
I assume she’s not a driver herself? Glad the driver did the right thing.
0:45 the fact that vans numberplate is falling off says it all
Definitely wait for others to go through first - hairiest when no-one else around and you need to make a judgement as to risk it or not - I've learnt my lesson, not with a seized engine but with water getting into the front wheel bearings in relatively shallow water. Another time when I reckon the water was half way up the doors and with the whole family - that was a brown trousers wade 😵💫
If you are going to drive though some deep water please make sure Ben Gregers is there filming, so we can all laugh at you.
My mate's dad once destroyed the engine on a Sierra 4x4 (V6) by hitting 4 inches of standing water at 60mph and hydraulicing it enough to get a rod through the block.
know where your engine air intake is. My Morris Marina had a circular air filter you could rotate: intake down by the exhaust in winter, or right up under the bonnet for summer. In the summer position you could ford a foot or more deep no problem.
Todays cars including my 4x4 have the engine intake just under the front lip of the bonnet, throw up a bow wave and your engine is fecked.
I would be more confident picking my way slowly through a flood in my old Marina than in my 4x4 Skoda Yeti. Autre temps autre moeurs.
A risk that isn’t mentioned is what could happen to a hybrid. At low speed, the engine would generally not be running, and with the exhaust outlet under water, potentially. Then there is potential damage to the high voltage dc kit. Similar matter for BEVs, perhaps. After all, with lots of them the underfloor traction battery would be under water for a while.
Incidentally, on road surfaces, not all of them have raised camber on curves. Some of them which I’m familiar with (and have used with partial flooding) have a cant round a curve that assists driving round the curve, so one side is higher than the other. At such locations, the low side always floods first, so driving on the wrong side sometimes makes sense to avoid the flood on the curve.
The corsa has Hydro-lock…..it’s going to the scrapyard.
So this video shows, especially the deeper parts later in the video what is max or borderline for normal cars.
Now, there is variations…aside from the obvious high riding 4x4s.
My current car is a little higher than many….not by much, but enough to means there’s more space between the ground and engine/tailpipe…..and yes this does mean it doesn’t handle quite as sharply on twisty British B roads.
Other things to consider, does it have a turbo? Most diesels are now turbo….and a number of everyday petrols are as well (ford fiesta)……the turbo air intake is probably located way down at the lowest point….any water gets in….its sucked straight into the engine. So you can get away with more water if the car is a bit higher up & doesn’t have a turbo.
One of my worst nightmares 😂
I often see a total lack of consideration from bigger shinier SUVs (ok, Audis) who pile on through at speed, glad to have some apparent use for their 4x4. Never mind that they've sent a huge wake up someone's garden path and into their front door.
3:36 If the road is unknown to me I wouldn't be going blind into a puddle like that, esp with car with hazards on too.
5:01 great advice this, cheers 👍
I wish that motorists would recognise that cyclists are cycling at the edges, the deepest part. In heavy rain here, the cars do not slow down or give me extra space. Thus, I am splashed and unsafe. To overcome this I move out into the lane (almost primary). This triggers motorists who, inside their car, can not see the issues I am having.
The risk on a bike is also about the hidden hazards under the water - the submerged potholes, drain covers and debris. I try to navigate around deeper water and puddles as far as possible but, as you say, other road users don't always appreciate the reasons for riding further out from the edge.
What about mentioning the need to dry out the breaks after going through deep water.
5:39 they did everything so well.... then tailgated the van through (what if it had got stuck.....)
Any recommendations for automatic cars?
Any advice for driving an EV through water? Can it cut out the same or is it safer?
The SUV drivers seem to take no notice of puddles and just drive as normal as if nothings going to stop them. In some cases something will stop them!
Additionally, going too fast can kick up large rocks and smash you car, windows etc that have been moved in the water current but are hidden.
Based on all those "Drivers navigate Flooded Ford" videos, I'd say that you should especially take no chances if you drive a BMW or a Mercedes Sprinter van lol.
Is Erin on the roads now?
In this weather I would leave my complicated eletric BMW or Range Rover in the stable and take the horse . Much more reliable than all that german engineering, and RAC men are not exactly waiting for us round the corner.
Horse or push bike, boots.
Just coming back from the supermarket where the self checkouts could not even count my coins correctly 😅.
I bet, Lake District is now full if sat nav driving lost tourists.
My friend pulls out weekend not so sporty sports car drivers on liverpool beach with his Korean 4x4, he gets 10,£ for each sucessful rescue .
Please don't drive through floods of unknown depth if you can avoid it. I wouldn't, even when recording flood data on site was part of my job for 10 years. Another thing to consider about bow waves and ripples to the side is the risk of flooding to roadside houses. If a passing 4x4 sends waves that overtop my sandbags to addtess a medical emegency, fair enough, but not for recreational testing of the capability of car or driver.
All I'd add is don't try to change gear while you're going through deeper water. Don't ask me how I know.
Where on earth are all these cars going that's worth the risk of a new engine?
Home probably. There is an inbuilt urge/instinct to get back to the safety on a home in all of us especially when conditions become difficult or stressful.
The first rule of driving through flood water is:
DON'T DRIVE THROUGH FLOOD WATER!
A car is not a canoe and you will come unstuck quickly.
Petrol engines tend to struggle more than their diesel counterparts in deep water.
probably because electrics tend to not like water.
Slow down, check your brakes and watch the bow waves... ;-)
How not to drive in flood conditions! Too fast, all over the road.
That road should be closed! Access to resident's only.
Stay at home.
The amount of people that have no idea how to ford deeper sections of water is staggering. We really do have a staggering level of incompetence on our roads and little interest from people in improving their driving.
Think Rufford Ford explained alot...
That is because driving is no longer seen as a skill and everyone, including their dog thinks its their right to drive. Part of the loss of perception of being a skill is the plethora of driver aids that isolate the driver from the vehicle such they could well be operating a video console (that will come soon!)
Our roads are - generally - so good that the issue very seldom arises. Most people simply do not need to know and those that once knew forget.
@@QuentinStephens Over the last few years flooding, especially in urban areas is becoming a more regular occurrence due to climate change and a lack of investment in our stormwater systems, I would say that the need to know how to deal with flooded roads is becoming greater not less.
Sorry, but I think the cammers driving is poor. They didn't get stuck, but on the whole too fast into puddles, too pushy with cars coming the other way, and too quick to follow into what could be trouble.
Or just get an EV and you'll probably be fine ;)
I suppose when you ‘own’ an EV you have to take the small distractions like splashing through big puddles to allow you momentarily relief from thinking about the depreciation.
@@AlexDatcoldness They're actually proven to not cure cancer or bring your gran back from the dead.
In the longer term the water will affect the electrical systems.
@@Paul9 Ah, you watched Shmee's video, too :)
We have a saying in Australia - if it's flooded, forget it. We've had so many lives lost in flood situations. People drive across, get stuck - sometimes because the road underneath has washed away - or the water rises and people drown or their cars get swept away. It just isn't worth it.
Fucking everything kills you in Australia though.
That is one of the stupidest sayings I hear. Currently, the road near my local high school is underwater from the rain we had today. It's maybe 10cm deep at the deepest point.... Forget it? Nope. Slow down and use the highest parts.
Or when the creek out towards my girlfriend's mother's place is underwater.... Do we just forget that her animals need food and let them starve? Of course not. We drive through with a LandCruiser... Or one time, we walked across carrying the feed bags - not so much because we were worried the LandCruiser wouldn't handle it, but because the council had road closed signs up, and the police had just left when we were arriving, and a council ute was parked there too. By the time we got the last bags over, people were driving across again (and we ended up getting a ride back across).
Maybe in the city you forget it (especially since the huge volumes of concrete tend to make the water flow faster), but out in the country, you use your brain and make your own decisions.
Unfortunately here in the lakes district if we followed that advice we wouldn't get anything done.
What you see in the video is an regular occurrence these days as the climate changes, roads are often blocked too due to fallen trees.
@@CragScramblerNot just the Lake District. Where I grew up in a village you had one main road with water storage under the road for flood protection and then three country lanes thst could be used. Any wet winter would result in the main road being flooded as the tanks got full and the river was swollen to capacity so you needed to use the lanes and hope there were no fallen trees
Even then the fields would be running water onto the road
You quickly learned how to navigate then them and trust where the verge and ditches were as they couldn’t be seen
@@CragScramblerI get the impression this type of weather and conditions are normal for the region
Low air box - I think you meant that WATER can be forced in, not air! :-) - - I got caught out once. We'd been camping near Holyhead, when Hurricane Charlie struck the UK. We gave up the unequal battle, as everything was sopping wet, so were on the way home in the dusk, along what used to be the main road (before the by-pass tunnels) with the mountain on the right, and a steep drop to the railway and coast on the left, round all the bends and twists at about 20 mph, the car constantly steaming up inside, as the heater and fan were on full blast. Round a corner, I was dazzled by the copper's blue strobes, so didn't see the deep water on the road. The engine stopped dead, and I had to get out and push the car out of the mini-lake. Luckily after a wait, the engine heat dried it out, and after discarding the ruined paper air filter, I got it going on three pots, so we staggered home, with no 4 cutting in and out, all the way!
You probably soaked the ignition because had you ingested water it would have hydrolocked and caused internal engine damage and the 4th cylinder would not have been intermittently firing. I have seen con rods bent as a result of hydrolocking, the forces involved being immense. I imagine that the paper air filter stopped the water entering the engine.
@@clivewilliams3661 - Thanks, I was aware of that, the filter saved us!
Lucky it was just the air filter and not a bent con rod!
You were lucky not to get hydraulic lock .
On one of my cars ( 1963 Mercedes 220S W111 Fintail ) , the air filter housing normally had its inlet pointing to the front , but you could undo it and put it on the wrong way round , so that the inlet pointed to the back ( this was the position for winter driving where the inducted air was warmed by the exhaust ) and this also had the effect of protecting it from flood water to a slight extent .
2:46 Once, as a passenger, I volunteered to get out and wade into a ford to check the depth. By the time I'd got my shoes and socks back on and got back into the car, the other 3 people had eaten most of my biscuits!
Thank you for the survival tip - take the car key and biscuits with you, so the others have a reason to rescue you lol.
Were they dunking their biscuits out the window?
This is such a British comment and thread 🤣🥰
I live in Cumbria and many people are very poor at driving on these roads even in dry conditions. Too many bring cars they don't want to scratch on the near side but seem happy to crash into oncoming traffic ;-) See also: "Let's go to the Lake District to see the snow!" With summer tyres. Sigh.
Didn't someone just take their landrover for a swin in Windermere? But yeah, I know where you're coming from. Many don't understand what a passing point is for and hurtle down narrow lanes as if it was a motorway. I dispise the 'I have right of way no matter what' crowd immensely.
@@toxictony4230 Land Rovers can go anywhere apparently... Even on those two way roads, a lot of people straddle the line and it's really dangerous. You sometimes have to accept that the near side will clip the vegetation; it's just how it is and better than the alternative.
If there’s fast moving water and it appears deep treat it with extreme caution. Not only is possible to be swept sideways but there’s possibly rocks bricks and pieces of tree that you can’t see.Rufford Ford videos are good learning resource.
At 2:36, _"How deep is this puddle?"_ you ask.
Handy hint for anyone unsure. Stop a few feet before the puddle and send out the Mrs to walk through it ahead of the vehicle. If the water goes above her head, it may be too deep for your car. 🤓
Also useful if you're testing for crocodiles in the water.
@@Oligodendrocyte139 Exactly. If the Mrs gets eaten, stay in the car.
" it may be too deep for your car". But on the positive side........
It is imperative to know where your air intake is when driving through floods. Many cars now have the air intake low down so the chances that it will ingest water will be higher. All modern cars have ducted air to the engine, older vehicles relied on the engine bay to supply the air and they are less susceptible to ingesting water. I have been through a river crossing in Iceland where the water was over the bonnet of a Bronco (a 4x4) without issue simply because the engine took its air from the engine bay and the movement of the vehicle caused a depression where the water in the engine bay was lower than the river outside.
Always drive on the crown of the road even if it means driving in single file, oncoming vehicles will have to stop depending on who arrived at the flood first. Passing a vehicle in a flood risks driving on the edge of a washed out road, where gratings can be missing, the edge washed away or disastrously driving along a sodden verge that will result in loss of traction and maybe an accident or being stranded. Also, the other benefit is that there is no possibility of the other vehicle washing flood water over yours that could result in engine damage.
Never stop the engine whilst in a flood, the engine could ingest water through the exhaust by suction. Keep the engine speed reasonably high to keep blowing exhaust gas out.
And don't forget to try your brakes afterwards !
@@derekheeps1244 If you try them you will probably be surprised that they don't work. The instruction should be to dry the brakes, by applying slight pressure with the left foot whilst driving. After a very short period the disc brakes will work perfectly again, drum brakes take a little longer. You may also find that some cars e.g. Merc, BMW, Vauxhall have disc brake main systems but drum brake parking brake - know your car!
just passed my test first time today and i am absolutely thrilled, these videos have helped immensely so thank you so much :)))
Congratulations 🥳
That's brilliant!
Some years ago ai had a Citroen BX10 GTi 4X4 with the hydro-pneumatic suspension On my way to work a police car was stopping cars and turning them back. I simply raised the suspension to the highest setting (Giving more ground clearance than a Range Rover and calmly drove though, lowering the suspension to the normal height afterwards.
A group of builders wouldn’t work in my basement until an inch of flooding had gone, but people drive through this!
2:47 YAY! Waterfall!
The van at 0:46 is a very good tell tale sign of deep water, as the licence plate is coming off
*number plate. Our number plates are related to the vehicle not driver and have nothing to do with licensing.
One thing that is never taught as a practical lesson and only theory but something you learn rather quickly living out in the sticks. Sometimes your only option is the flooded road.
It is also a good idea to only go one vehicle at a time. Your viewer took a chance following another vehicle as the bow wave can be higher for the following vehicle due to the waves amplifying themselves as they meet and collide. You can see this effect in a bath, move your hand through the water and then follow either your other hand, the water ends up higher on the second hand than the first 👍
Can't even imagine how the motorcyclist at 4:00 can go though that deep of a puddle
Yeah i was shocked when i saw a motorcyclist, I wonder if the weather was already like that when they decided to ride it 😧
Looked an adventure bike with a high exhaust and air box
@@BrandonDMorrisseyA bit of rain doesn't kill you. The motorbike was an adventure bike made for off road and to deal with more adverse conditions.
Its not that difficult with the depth of water shown. He had wet weather gear on that meant that with his boots that were at least water resistant, or water proof like mine, the water would have to be at least 500mm deep, which is much too deep to make progress and would stop most cars.
@@FrozenDung I don't think it was an adventure bike as the exhausts are set too low. This was just a standard naked bike.
a tip: don't trust ducks. they will always tell you it's only chest deep.
I'll always remember driving slowly through water & an oncoming idiot completely swamped me, by driving too fast. I managed to keep going. Had I not, the other driver would have risked being drowned. Manually...😮
I recognise that road! I don't live there, but I've driven it many times.
Yep, as per the video, I was taught "low speed, low gear, high revs (slipping the clutch if necessary)."
And, most importantly, if it might be too deep, don't try unless you've found out how deep it is. There are two places on my daily commute which flood most years (often several times). Nearly every time, in one of them there will be a car abandoned in the middle with water up to its windows.
Any tips for automatic cars? I've recently swapped and whilst having had no issues in the fords round my area so far forcing a low gear in manual mode, I'm not sure if I should be quickly swapping to neutral to up the revs without speed
Going through deep water you need to go at about 3mph to create a bow wave infront of you. So stop, select 1st gear. Put back into D when clear. Always test your brakes after!
Well, the Lake District gets an average of over 100 inches of rain a year, compared to the Rainy City (of my birth) Manchester, an average 35 inches, so not so surprising. Also there is only one actual lake in the 120 or so waters in the area, Bassenthwaite Lake, near Keswick. All the rest are either meres (which means lake) or water. I wince when someone talks about Lake Windermere, it's called simply Windermere, you don't call Derwentwater Lake Derwentwater for the same reason. If you mean the village of Windermere, suffix it with the word village.
With the manual:automatic ratio seeming to be increasing in favour of automatics, what advice do you have for those? Especially in models that dont let you knock down a gear, or have a "car knows best" mentality and kick back to their preferred gear after an amount of time?
Also be aware that pot holes get really well hidden on a flooded road, Hitting one at anything over a crawling speed hurts.
Voice of experience talking here.
I think if I lived somewhere like that I'd get myself a Jimny. You really should be buying a car that suits your needs rather than tastes and rural like that, a Jimny is all you need.
The amount of people I have seen recently just booting it through these kinds of floods is crazy - a few weeks back, a woman covered my windscreen in splashed water after she pelted through at 30+. I think the big SUV cars most people drive nowadays seem to give them a false sense of invincibility.
Not sure how I would cope with anything like that with my electric car; I'd seriously not want to chance it.
Viewers speed was too fast in a lot of situations a gentle bow wave not a jet of water
I live up here in the lake district. Driving on these roads can be dangerous on a perfectly clear, blue day. Floods and bad conditions are getting more and more common up here. Just last month we had floods just like in this video.
Yes a wet place and have to be careful on the roads there but what a beautiful place in any weather
1:35 More importantly unless you are driving a lorry or something with a snorkel… that water blaster up might be going in the engine bay.
Possibly hydro locking, very fun lol
Even on a truck you're likely to flood the engine. Whilst the main air intakes do tend to be higher up, they feed down to the bottom of the vehicle before entering the engine, where there is a not-very-air-tight filter before it goes into the engine itself.
One of my colleagues learnt this the hard way when he managed to choke one of the brand new trucks driving through deep water (about 12-18" deep)
Yes if in doubt turn round. But keeping revs high not needed, if have fan fitted to engine speed more revs more the spray in engine. Also exhaust will run ok up to good depth before blocking.
not to mention an engine driven fan can propel itself into the radiator if it strikes water. electric driven fans are usually made of plastic, so they don't tear up the radiator if they activate.
The last car I had with an engine driven fan was an early Ford Sierra, and that had a viscous coupling anyway so it would just slip. Mind you that piece of junk would cut out in a light drizzle so floods would be a definite no no.
Got to respect the confidence of the motorcyclist at 3:58 😁
Ashley is understating "a little fast". They were all way too fast. The car engine killer is water forming a bow wave across the front which is higher than the engine air intake. If you go dead slow, but keep up engine revs to stop water back pressuring the exhaust, most cars will handle a good two feet of depth, even tho' water may get inside the cabin. So rule one is find out where the intake is and two, go slow enough and never too deep so as to keep that intake above the water at all times, and three keep the revs up in a low gear.
I live in Somerset and come across this kind of thing every year
The last time I was returning home and really had nowhere else to go, but I also knew that there were no parts to the road that would be impassable.
I also chose my path carefully and was astounded as to how fast some drove.
If the weather starts up while at home I just wait as the really deep parts normally subside after a while
Winter tyres also help, but one still needs to take care.
I always keep a blanket and some water in the car just in case I have to stop somewhere.
Sometimes our main road gets blocked or closed and the diversion can be over twenty miles including single track roads.
A few hours waiting in the car could sometimes be the best option
My brother had his company Focus written off because of a hydro locked engine. He was proceeding through a large puddle as you should when a git in a landrover at speed came the other way and swamped him.
I remember your learning point 265 driving through shallow water 3 years ago, and Rufford Ford crossing deep water 2 years ago.
I just mention in a separate comment re Rufford Ford. Almost sounds like the name of a Ford dealership.
An older relative told me a story many years ago about their time in the RAF. It was stormy and they had to do some recon mission.
The junior pilots went first but weren't heard from again.
The slightly more experienced went second, but had to abort and return to base.
Meanwhile, the more experienced pilots didn't even leave their chairs.
Yes, I get it is one of those tall tales but the point is still a good one.
happened to be around during a medical emergency while a low lying area was being evacuated. I was able to overhear the incident commander asking if the air ambulance could fly. my first thought was "I can't see the trees from the ground. no way is it safe to fly."
When it comes to puddles, I've always taken 2 approaches:
1. If I can't see the middle white lines, the puddle is probably pretty deep and I'm more than likely going to turn around if there aren't other cars going through to give me extra clues as to the real depth
2. As per your tips, I look for the shallowest part and, most importantly, I go through it slowly
I've had my entire car sprayed far too many times by inconsiderate ****s who smugly pile through without a single care in the world for other drivers. The total loss of vision through the windscreen for a couple of seconds isn't funny.
Exactly!
Plus the real danger that their bow wave will swamp your air box and hydrolock the engine.
You mention using clutch to increase engine capacity but keep low speed. How is the same effect achieved with an automatic? (Sorry if this is a stupid question).
No such thing as a stupid question, there are only questions you don’t know answers to
In an automatic, I would assume selecting 1st gear would enable you to keep the speeds slow while keeping engine speed manageable. It will also prevent the engine up shifting
Over to others with more automatic experience and knowledge to answer more comprehensively
I've a couple of observations - I thought the cam vehicle was a little fast through quite a few of these. That may be just an effect of the dashcam view though.
Also, flooding can occur at the top of a hill, or at any point on that slope; it has nothing to do with elevation, and everything to do with where water can gather.
Having a car with hydropneumatic suspension does mean I can raise ride height if needed, but the modern ones will automatically drop if you exceed the recommended limits - 5 mph on the top setting. That is very difficult to keep to. A couple of years ago, I stopped before a deep puddle to put the suspension up, much to the annoyance of the driver behind. When I went through, they waited and then charged through, and ended up stopping halfway through.
Lesson: don't judge your car by other vehicles - I learnt that many years ago following a milk wagon through a flood in my CX with suspension on high. Didn't realise the air intake was below the bumper (stupid design) and water-locked the engine. I did manage to get out though. Engine needed expensive work on it.
I had a Citreon Xantia with that suspension, rheumatoid arthritis smoothest car I have driven but a pain waiting 30 seconds for the hydraulic system to charge up and release the suspension
I too have done the lift before a flood and a vehicle behind decided to pass me while I was raising the suspension…I stopped in front of them and hooked up the tow rope to drag their car out and left them to dry out 🤭
@@smilerbob The old ones were what we call 'sinkers' but the final manifestation, Hydractive 3+ was electronic and the cars generally don't sink much. The downside is the speed limitations, which are digitally triggered (ie. no leeway) and can lead to problems if you're on the top setting with its 5 mph limit.
@@PedroConejo1939 Another advantage of the old system was the brakes being linked to the suspension hydraulics so if you had more weightnin the back the brake bias would be adjusted though the suspension system
The modern equivalents are probably easier to work on but, as you say, have embedded limitations
@@smilerbob You know, I've never even thought about brake bias in Hydractive 3+. I don't know it if could still be implemented mechanically, like it used to be. Hydropneumatic Citroën brakes were always so good. I caught out a number of tailgaters in much more expensive cars when I had to properly slam the anchors on. I think the BX was the first one not to take braking from the HP system. Still had good brakes though - but nothing like my GSA.
The roads in that area are always prone to flooding. Great advice as always.
Remember those huge splashes you're creating are replicated under your vehicle and into your engine compartment. Select a low gear and slow down.
Just watch the Rufford Ford videos to see how driving fast through water damages your car.
Didn't they finally close that bridge to stop the curious from tearing down it?
@@jaycee330 yes, I think it was too much of a distraction for the locals. Lol