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Comment by tim333 | Hacker News Reader

My dad went through one of those in England where it was a bit deep. The car had to have a new engine.

Make a mental note of the level of the air intake for the engine in your car, if the water doesn't make it that high you should be fine as long as you don't get stuck (no, i don't where it is on my car).

The engine gets damaged when water gets into the piston chamber i think. Water compresses less than air so important things bend or crack if the engine is running too long with water in it.

I wonder how electric cars fare with deep water.

I wonder how electric cars fare with deep water.

The ground clearance for my EV is 7 inches. The manual specifies it can handle 18 inches of water.

I don't know if that's the point where water messes with the electronics, or a swift current would start to move it sideways.

> I don't know if that's the point where water messes with the electronics, or a swift current would start to move it sideways.

Flotation might also be a possibility?

Less of a possibility than in a similar combustion vehicle, though, since EVs tend to be heavier.

It’s probably all well and good until a vehicle gets old and gaskets no longer seal, immersion becomes more of quicker contributor to failure, electric or not. E.g. cracked boots on a ball joint or not so sealed wheel bearings.

Also why I don’t like pressure washing anything mechanical.

E.g. Drove through a heavy rain storm and my ecu decided one of my wheel speed sensors was faulty and suspended my abs and traction control. Even after drying it out on a nice day of driving, the error persisted but I was able to reset it with my vehicle specific obd reader and not an issue again. Ugh.

I fear that advice might make some people overconfident when the water isn't stationary. Flooding doesn't have to be that intake-high to sweep a car sideways off the road.

All liquids are incompressible- water doesn’t compress at all.

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