Warning about driving through flood water

[Westside Guy]

I live in south Florida and we experience heavy rainfalls quite frequently.

Last week, Hallandale Beach where I live had about 20 inches in a little over 24 hours. You have to be crazy to drive under that type of condition. I ventured out the day after the storm and avoided any street with standing water as you can ever tell how deep it is.

If I don’t have a choice I crawl through large sections of water.

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by RockCrusher

Driver dodged a bullet because the engine air intake is located some distance from the front of the car.

My Boxster's engine air intakes were located on the sides of the behind the doors. But the time I had to drive through some standing water while I was not worried about going through too fast -- but I still went slow -- I was worried about vehicles coming the other direction splashing water up and possibly into the engine air intake on the driver's side.

Believe it or not but I had a hand held CB radio in the car and managed to contact the driver of the vehicle, a truck, coming from the other direction and asked if he would go slow. He said he and he did.

Oh, the driver of the Lambo may have gotten water into the cabin air intake. Looked to me like at one point, make that two points, water was up to the trailing edge of the front lid and to the opening ahead of the windshield.

I would just turn around and call off sick at work

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

Just drive slow and don't make a bow wave. Simple.

There could be a hidden dip in the viaduct so even going at 2mph depending where the air inlet is could 'lunch' an engine... using a hot rod term.

[BMWbiker]

Originally Posted by M5Rick

I would just turn around and call off sick at work

On a few occasions, I’ve turned around, found a detour, or just stayed home. Such situations have been rare for me.

[eugenebmw]

Originally Posted by M5Rick

I would just turn around and call off sick at work

You kill 2 birds with one stone. Vacation with pay and not risking to have an expensive bill for car repair. Hopefully BMW owners know fixing any BMW are very expensive