South Florida was deluged by torrential rainfall on Tuesday, flooding many of the secondary roads. Despite attempts to avoid flooded streets, I had to travel through many. Many cars had to be abandoned. My 2K 5sp made it through without incident. I drove slowly, but still got pounded with the wake from trucks or others passing either on the right or from the other direction.

My question is if the car is functioning properly, is there anything I need to be concerned about, ie is there anything I should keep an eye on which might have gotten wet, but is not showing up as a problem at this time?

 

If water gets into your engine via oil pan....etc. You can kiss you engine goodbye. You can compress air, fuel...but not water. Guess what when there is water in your combustion chamber and the piston is trying to compress it. Something will break or bend. Most likely the rod.

 

Did the inside of your car get flooded?
A friend of mine down there in Miami got his car flooded, and his electrical system started going. Wires and connections start rusting, etc...

 

I saw over 100 cars that couldn't go anywhere and probably 500 abanoded cars. Including two pig cars(police).

The first thing I am going to do in the weekend is wash my car REAL good, maybe take out the rims to examen the brakes which I did noticed felt different(I had to pump it alot to loosen them up), and lastly raise the car up and clean the bottom.

 

No water came in the car, or if it did it was some seepage, nothing much. I don't really notice any problems at all...at least right now. Didn't notice a damp smell when I got in the car or any performance issues. If there were problems wouldn't they have shown up by now, or may something show up days/weeks afterward?

 

Well, cool water on a hot engine can crack the block and warp hot rotors but I've done it before but regretted it.

Jim

 

As long as your car didnt stall out in the water (and tried to start it again) and as long as no water got in your car, I dont think you have anything to worry about. My buddys car had about 8" of water inside the car.

 

Driving home last night soon after leaving the parking lot, the a/c shuts down and warm air is flowing through the vents. Soon afterwards the temp guage starts climbing. I pull over look under the hood, smell coolant, but don't see anything else. Get back in the car, starts right away and the guage is where it should be. Seconds later it starts to climb, getting up to the top line of the range, but not over the range (5th gen). I figured I'm better off breaking down on I-95 than I would be in the neighborhood I was in, in downtown Miami. Well the particular entrance to 95 that I got on puts you in an HOV lane only. The cops as always were waiting. I explained my story...he gave me an $83 ticket. I drove to the dealer, with the windows open and the heat fan on 4 and the heat temp up to 85 degrees. The temp guage would go back and forth between normal and the very top of the normal range. When I got to the dealer and explained the problem, he asked if I had driven through high puddles. I confirmed, he said leave it and call your insurance company. He said, that when the water gets up to the fan, the fan functions as a propellar, the fan bends and rubs on the fins of the radiator, flattens portions of the fan and punctures the fins causing a leak. He thought that I had some coolant left which is what kept me going. They will then check the head gasket and transmission while they are there, but expect the car to be in the shop for at least one week after the adjuster looks at it.

 

Question, don't people have common sense to not drive in bad weather when its that bad?! I mean geez. Yeah my 98 got flooded from back in Oct of 98 when Texas got major rains, it sucked in rain throuhg the intake and got enough in the box to suck in.

 

Washed my car today, it looks greaaatttt! Not to mention it's driving as good as ever, I need to find someone to race now that the streets are dry.

I spent ONE whole hour removing some tar like substance from the lower part of the drivers' and passengers' doors. That stuff didn't want to come off, I did manage to take 90% off it off the paint but it took some serious buffing by hand. I could type but my fingers hurt.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Russ2kSE
[I]Dont you understand that Miami had in some spots 16" of rain during a 3 day period? When people are expected to still be to work, what do you suggest?

If its common sense, then you must have not had any either in '98.