What To Do If Your Car Is Caught In A Flood

Category: How Tos 

Are you a driver, or you have someone that drives you, then this is very important for you, especially at this time of the year that there has been continuous rainfall, particularly in this part of the world, especially with poor drainage system and bad roads.

So what do you do if you are driving and you suddenly find your car stuck in a flood?

See the step by step what you need to do to safe your car from getting damaged!

Also See: Want to Start Driving? Learn the Basics of Your Car First

1. Don’t start your engine. Even if the vehicle is submerged and the water goes down, it’s likely water would have made its way into the engine. 
2. Open your engine air filter and check for moisture. If it is moist or damp, do not crank the vehicle do not attempt to start it.
3. Give some time for the water in the air filter to go down, if you need to move the vehicle, a good option will be to get it towed.
4. Get your mechanic to drain both the engine oil and transmission fluid immediately and replace both fluids. He/She should also disconnect the fuel sending unit (fuel pump), pull out the spark plugs one after the other and then crank the engine, while making sure that water in each cylinder is blown out of the engine by the compression/exhaust stroke.
5. Once water is out of all the cylinders, the fuel pump should be reconnected. You may now start the vehicle (but do not rev it). Allow that vehicle to be idle for some 30 minutes.
6. Once it is up to operating temperature, engage the gears one after the other. Wait five seconds as you move from gear to gear. From P (park) to R (reverse), R (reverse) to N (neutral), N (neutral) to D (drive). Move back again from D (drive) to N(neutral), to R (reverse) and to P (park). You should be able to drive the vehicle after this.

Check your engine oil and transmission fluids frequently after this and change them if need be.