The Under the Hood
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Dear Motor Medics, The water has been coming and coming around here lately and I have been trying to detour around the flooded areas. After watching others drive through the water, I figured it was okay so I started driving my car through the same areas thinking that if they could get through in a car, I should be able to as well safely.
Well after driving through water just barely above the bottom of my bumper, my car died just as I got to the other side and it just clicks when I try to start it. I have taken it to a shop who say the engine is destroyed and must be replaced.
How can all these other cars drive right through in deeper water than I did and they are fine but when I drove through shallower water I need a new engine? Mike in Redwood Falls, Minnesota
Dear Mike, No amount of standing water is safe. You just don’t know what’s waiting under it. Even if the car in front of you makes it through you just don’t know.
Cars are all different. Some have air intakes which draw their air from below the bumper up into the engine and others have them very high.
If you have a car with a low air intake, then what you have essentially is a high horsepower shop vac. It only takes a partial cup of water to hydro lock an engine and destroy it.
Take care, The Motor Medics
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