A little scary drive home

Houston just had another horrendous rain tonight, and I happened to drive back home right after the pouring rain. Many roads had at least 5,6 inches depth of water. As I drove through those water ponds, I saw scores of dead cars in the water. Gladly both my TDI and I survived those water ponds.
Later on when I came back home, I inspected the exhaust pipe, and found my jetta's tail pipe is at least 5,6 inches higher than most of the passenger cars.

Many thanks to VW's design.

Be very careful when doing that. While even a relatively small amount of water can stop your car or do serious damage to the engine, it can also cause serious hazard to the driver.

The position of the exhaust pipe is not the most important thing. The worse that can happen there is the engine will stop (that could cause some serious problems for you however). The most serious problems for your car are likely due to the intake that given enough water can seriously damage the engine calling for a new engine, or getting water into electrical components causing problems later. It can also cause unexpected brake problems which could cause an accident etc.

A couple of years ago I drove thru this little puddle after a good rain and a bunch of snowmelt. I entered the puddle at the low end of 2nd gear and immediately a wave of water washed over the hood of the car. I downshifted to 1st, and after 3 heartbeats, the clutch grabbed and I motored thru the "little" puddle. The next day the car ran without boost. The air cleaner was damp, and 3 months later my DMF locked up. I dried out the air cleaner and the MAF the next day, and the boost came back. The dealer replaced the whole clutch under warranty (<50K on the clock).

I think I'm damn lucky that it didn't die right there in the "little" puddle.

Honestly, I looked at the wire fence next to the road, and followed one of the wires into the water. The water according to my fence depth gauge shouldn't have been more than 3" deep.

2 weeks later I drive down the same road and see that I actually went thru about 14" of water. The fence in that area stayed at ground level all right, but the road dipped down....................

I'm really glad that the air intake is up high on the grill!

You guys are a lot braver than I am. You wouldn't catch me driving through something that deep.

I took my A5 through about 6" of water last summer at "idle speed" (5 mph). I was on Rt 38 in Moorestown, NJ after a thunderstorm passed through that dumped 8" of rain within 45 mins and a few drains were plugged. I made the decision after watching the height of the water on the cars in front of me. Probably the best thing to do in this type of situation is watch the other cars in front of you (not SUVs or trucks) to make a decision whether or not to go through and if you decide to wade through it, go slowly to keep water from splashing up. Water running over the hood = very bad!

A co-worker has an A3 gasser and in the latest nor'easter here (about a month ago) he hit a deep puddle on Rt 1 in Trenton, car stalled instantly. He was behind a truck and didn't see it coming at 35 - 40 mph. Fortunately his car started up ~30 mins later as if nothing happened. The weather was so chaotic that day, he could not make it to work and was actually trying to return home. Another co-worker with a 10 min commute under normal conditions spent 3 hrs on the road! She gave up after 30 minutes and spent the other 2.5 hrs trying to get back home.

I took my MkV thru 12-14" of water today, I also smoked the clutch but in second gear... I was a little worried but its still boosting and all seems ok. I let it dry off after the 14" water puddle at a friends for 40 mins before continuing home.

Checking the cars in front of me, and that's what I did. Making sure the water never gets above the exhaust pipe coz the back pressure it creats will instantly kill the engine. I was less worried about intake as the air intack for most vehicles are at least 2 feet about the ground.

It's kinda of interesting manual cars are more vulnerable to water. My friend had his civic parked in a deep pond of water for 1 day, he ended up had his nearly new clutch replaced.

shutterfly said:

Checking the cars in front of me, and that's what I did. Making sure the water never gets above the exhaust pipe coz the back pressure it creats will instantly kill the engine. I was less worried about intake as the air intack for most vehicles are at least 2 feet about the ground.

It's kinda of interesting manual cars are more vulnerable to water. My friend had his civic parked in a deep pond of water for 1 day, he ended up had his nearly new clutch replaced.

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If you move to a lower gear, keeping the RPMs high, water at tail pipe depth will not stop the car. I usually go to low gear.

Intake is a totally different matter and it depends on more than just the depth of the water and height of the intake as it only takes a good splash to cause problems.

My old 1970 Beetle was great in deep water, as long as I kept it going fast enough. I would have loved to have photos of it. It sure got a good laugh from the fire men who were helping cars though the deep water I had to pass. Most of the cars they had to tow out, mine hit the water and I gunned it in low, I felt the front end go down and all I saw was a wave going over the windscreen (not hitting it) the air intake was in the back with the engine about 18 inches above the exhaust. When I came out they were all laughing and I just drove off.

I did watch the clutch to make sure it was not slipping for a couple of days. You are right about wet clutches, but with care they are not a problem.

OK, I would not drive my TDI through flood, but the limiting factor is the air intake, just below the hood where the VW symbol is. RPMs high will destroy the engine if hydrolocked ... bent con rods, etc.. not to mention oil contamination, or the tranny flooding through its vent.

It'll won't hydrolock at idle too if water gets in?

Bob_Fout said:

It'll won't hydrolock at idle too if water gets in?

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Exactly, you can't compress water.

Bob_Fout said:

It'll won't hydrolock at idle too if water gets in?

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It'll not hydrolock at idle????... yes it will. Maybe engine damage is limited, but it will hydrolock if water enters the intake and prohibits compression.

dieseldave2006 said:

It'll not hydrolock at idle????... yes it will. Maybe engine damage is limited, but it will hydrolock if water enters the intake and prohibits compression.

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That's why I had the smiley. The person I was replying to eluded that only water ingestion at high revs would cause damage.

Bob_Fout said:

That's why I had the smiley. The person I was replying to eluded that only water ingestion at high revs would cause damage.

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I hope he is OK! Oil change is absolutely necessary as soon as possible!!

shutterfly said:

Checking the cars in front of me, and that's what I did. Making sure the water never gets above the exhaust pipe coz the back pressure it creats will instantly kill the engine. I was less worried about intake as the air intack for most vehicles are at least 2 feet about the ground.

It's kinda of interesting manual cars are more vulnerable to water. My friend had his civic parked in a deep pond of water for 1 day, he ended up had his nearly new clutch replaced.

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Bill