In light of recent events, I thought it'd be prudent to talk about flooding and how it affects us - the motorheads.
Generally speaking, water + engine = BAD
Not referring to those water/methanol injection kits, those inject very small amounts of water into the intake and usually as a mist. I'm talking about copious amounts of water that seep into your engine bay through your cold air intake (CAI) or through vents on your hood or fenders. Or worse, if the water seeps into your cabin!
Multiple things could happen if your car get flooded or is driven in flooded areas.
- Cracked manifold and/or exhausts. Hot metal + cold water is not a good combination. Enough said.
- Wet-dog-like-smell-cabin disease. Apologies to the animal lovers, but that's what it smells like when your carpets get soaked to the bone and stays soaked for a week! Worse - puddles of water collects and stays hidden under the carpet.
- Fried electronics. ECUs, amplifiers, wiring, alarm modules, all were not manfactured to be waterproof. The first generation Altis had the ECU hidden in the wheelwell area and everytime you drove over a flooded area, many Altis' suffered catastrophic failure because of a shorted ECU.
- Rust galore. Any metallic part of the car exposed to water too long will result in rust (iron oxide). Rust is like that horrible rash that never goes away. It'll spread everywhere and make it itch like hell. Fortunately for us we can apply some steroid cream to cure the rash. Unfortunately for our cars, rust usually means replacement of the whole metal panel. Rust on the chassis however means much worse - unreliable crumple zones, unreliable flex points making your car generally downright unsafe.
- Hydrolocking. The worst of the lost. This is when copious amounts of water gets sucked into the combustion chamber and your piston tries to compress the water. Can you spell : E-n-g-i-n-e R-e-b-u-i-l-d?
July 1st, Drexchan posted an epic rebuild of a Satria Neo that suffered hydrolock-related damage.
One of our very own ZTH member @ detailer muyo recently rescued a flood victim from the stench of death and hopefully prevented the rustedlikecrapitis disease.
Early 2006 I stripped bare my own Kelisa right down to the bare metal because it was driven through flood waters and water had seeped in covering half my shin in murky flood water. Unfortunately I had fried the ECU that was hidden behind the center console and my steering column had started to rust. The rust was just a simple matter of sandpaper and paint, but the ECU was a costly replacement.
Even earlier in 2004 a few friends and I worked on a complete rebuild of a Putra. That was seriously a sad case, the car was rebuilt inside and out, paint was done, everything was new and the owner managed to submerge the car in a hidden water-covered pothole.... twice. Rescued twice. After all that fuss and close to RM40k spent on the rebuild and rescue, the car was stolen. Sigh.
So with that I give you Izso's tips on how to survive floods.
- Remove that CAI or relocate it higher. Most folks hook up their CAIs to the bottom of their bumpers. Bad idea. That's where the water is when you drive through a flooded area. Find a higher up area to suck in that cool air.
- Vents and scoops in your hood look cool but they allow water to flow in freely. If there's an extremely heavy downpour, you might want to check your manifold for expansion/contraction cracks. Otherwise consider a custom manifold cover or ceramic coating.
- If there's a suspiciously large puddle, don't freaking drive over it. It might be deeper than it looks! (Read my earlier Putra story)
- Change your canggified super-turbo-lowered-500bhp-monster for a 4x4. Or a boat.
- If you're caught in a flooded area and your car hasn't stalled, keep on driving!! But drive constantly and at medium speed so you don't agitate the water too much which might flow into your engine bay.
- If you survived a flooded road and want to fix up your car, don't shut off your car immediately. This is my personal view : Quickly dry up whatever wet electrical bits in your car with a dryer and cloth. Once that's done and you're confident it's dry, switch off your engine and start taking out the seats, carpets and whatever that got soaked in the rain.
- If you had amps or whatever electrical components under your seat, check your warranty for flood coverage.
- If you haven't already, consider flood insurance.
Sources :
Paultan.org
TheStar.com.my
Pictures courtesy of :
Drexchan's hydrolock rebuild
Muyo's Altis flood rescue
Paultan.org
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