Well nuts

"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa) 07/07/2015 at 00:28 • Filed to: None

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Driving in the left lane of a four-lane major road in traffic and all of a sudden it goes from sparse puddles to 18 inches of water. I was in the Civic. Dropped to 1st and slowed to 20mph and soldiered through it. The water obviously was high enough to slosh over the alternator (why did they put it near the BOTTOM of the engine?) and it came up through the drain hole (irony!) in the floor pan and utterly SOAKED my seat. A truck drove by in the opposite direction and the resulting wave was large enough to come up through the shifter boot and soak the remote for my stereo. Sigh.

Guess tomorrow I get to learn how to use our industrial-strength water extractor at work. Carpets gonna be clean as heck. Ignore the not-routed sub wiring.

Ike > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 07/07/2015 at 00:31

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If smelly, I know a trick. Box of dryer sheets spread though out the car, works wonders and is very cheap

Frank Grimes > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 07/07/2015 at 00:31

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sucks but at least its an easy fix!

jester74 > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 07/07/2015 at 00:32

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We have the same drainage issues here in DC on our highways. The left lanes will simply not drain in spots and it's pretty damn dangerous, especially at night.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > jester74 07/07/2015 at 00:51

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Oh, yeah. The highways are awful. This was just a semi-major road in the middle of town with just enough traffic to make turning around impossible. And any sort of u turn would mean going into the gutters next to the curb, which is 5 inches lower than where I was and certainly would have resulted in hydrolocking. Crap situation for sure.

jester74 > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 07/07/2015 at 00:54

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I hear ya. I drive a 67 Bug and it's low. Fortunately, all the important bits are high enough to where I don't have to worry about that.

AM3R shamefully returns > jester74 07/07/2015 at 01:31

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Yeah it's bad in DC, I'm in NoVa and it's astounding how bad it is sometimes.. Always make sure to take backroad home when it rains heavily for more than a day.

mazda616 > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 07/07/2015 at 09:06

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That’s awesome that the car made it through. Sorry about the mess afterwards, though. My car doesn’t like water because the serpentine belt and a/c belt are both routed extremely low. Anything more than a puddle makes the belts squeal like baby pigs for a minute or so.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 07/07/2015 at 09:15

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If you’re going to ford water that deep, it helps to loosen your fan belt first to prevent damage to the fan and spinning water in the alternator. Also, helps to not have carpets.

(Note: this post is teasing based on off-roader practice. If only, IF ONLY you had actually not been on the road...)

MonkeePuzzle > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 07/07/2015 at 09:50

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the civic’s interior can be stripped out in less than an hour, put back in the seats and leave out the lower dash parts, then put it all back together when its dry.

would be my approach.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > mazda616 07/07/2015 at 10:01

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Literally any moisture makes my belts squeal. Super annoying when it comes to sneaking out for sin to see a movie. At one point the car started floating, and that’s when the water came in.

Seriously impressed, though. There’s no way my alternator wasn’t dunked a few times since it lives only an inch higher than the bottom of the oil pan. Also pleased my exhaust didn’t crack from the sudden temperature change.

Yay!

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 07/07/2015 at 10:07

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That only works for cars that:

1. Have a fan belt

2. Have the alternator somewhere the fan would blow on it

I had electric fans, and the alternator is on the rear driver’s side of the engine below the intake manifold. So that’s fun :P

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > MonkeePuzzle 07/07/2015 at 10:09

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I’ve had the interior apart once before but, oh gosh, that was such an immense pain. We have a super-duty 3000 watt “extractor” that’s basically a shop vac on steroids and is designed to get water out of cars like this. Hopefully I can make it work.

mazda616 > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 07/07/2015 at 15:58

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It’s kind of a common issue for a mild squeaking with moisture for the 3, but mine had a gigantic hole in the splash guard for a while and rocks/dirt/water got on the belts a lot. I had them replaced and then patched the splash guard while I waited for prices for a replacement to come down. It was like $200.00 for a little piece of plastic! That was in 2011. Earlier this year, I got on RockAuto and found the part for $26.00. Yay for car getting older. So now I have belts that were new in 2011 and a fully functioning splash guard again. But if water drips into the right place or makes its way through the splash guard in any way, squeak squeak squeak.