For Those Of You Who Loved To Drive Through Flood Water

Hi guys, trust you had a lovely weekend.

The raniny season is back with us, especially those of us who live in the western and southern part of the country rains have commenced.

Last thursday there was a heavy rain in my locality this led to flooding of the major roads in portharcourt, those conversant with ph will know that there are no drainages on their roads, hence whenever it rains theres massive flooding.

A lot of us like to drive through the flood water, av seen hundreds of pictures of drivers putting their cars in the floods, in lagos, ph calabar, aba,kaduna , kano name it.

yes in most cases we dont have a choice, but I dare say you do and must desist from it for the sake of your vehicles heres my reason why:


1. Engine damage
The air cleaner on your vehicle has a pipe that runs down to where your front wheels are, this pipe draws in air which passes thru the air filter to your engine. When you drive through a flood or even stay in a flood with your engine running, it draws in water into the aircleaner and your engine.

Hence your cleaner is soaked with water and is damaged, water enters your car engine and since water is not compressed, your pistons in
in the cause of compressing the water, cause serious damage to your engine block you could end up with a cracked engine block leading to
expensive engine repairs or replacement.

2. Brakes
Water affects your brakes, rendering them in operational, this can cause accidents for inexperienced drivers who dash at 100km/h after
driving thru floods thats instant death from collision as the brakes simply wont work. (remember the effects of expansion and contraction
metals in our basic physics)

3. Other vehicle components located below the fender line ,like kickstarters, horns, engine control modules, A/T module and sensors are
affected and malfunction when unnecessarily exposed to water , some vehicles like the hiace hummer bus have their maf sensors located at
the bottom of the engine when this is submerged in water the vehicle runs poorly or wont even start.

4. Body part rust
One of the quickes ways to promote rust in your vehicle is to drive in water, water with time attacks your coat, this is quicker if there
are cracks in your coat for rust to form. This explains the low price of used cars in flood prone places especially during rainy season.
Dont be fooled by the low price the socalled savings you think you re making will be frittered away in costly repairs and replacements
of damaged car components you mechanic will not immediately detect, even your beloved scanner wont detect physical damaged too.


In summary try as much as you can to avoid driving thru floods, drive around them or do what I do atimes park the vehicle and wait for the
waters to abate, have had to replace my kick starter 3 times in a row due to water damage cos of water damage, that was until I knew its
effects on vehicle.

Even if you drive a jeep you re not 100 percent safe from water damage, flood water rise above 2 feet .

Have a great week and drive safe.