Just drove Civic through a flooded road, it handled it like a champ!!

jred721

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So I was on my way home today and I was coming back through a narrower residential street which a lot of people use as a cut through to avoid all the traffic on the main road, and it was raining REALLY heavy and all of a sudden towards the end of the road there was a backup because people were too afraid to make the left turn onto the main road because the visibility was near zero and water was everywhere.

Worst part was, I ended up getting stuck on a bridge that was right over a stream that was flooding and was stuck there for about 12 mins while the water was up to the doors, literally the worst place to become stuck. Eventually, the line started to move and I made it onto the intersection where I drove on to the main road. To my luck, that road was also mildly flooded and it was like driving through a pond. Visibility was still near zero and everyone was going very slow with their emergency lights on, unfortunately I was in a bit of a rush because I had my daughter who was sick in the backseat and looked like she was about to throw up, so I needed to get home.

I went a little faster than I should have through the road but I made sure I was cautious and aware of the car's stability, and that's when the tornado warning screamed through my speakers because of CarPlay and my daughter started to burst into tears. Luckily, it didn't hit us and I pushed the car through the road and man the Civic literally went through it like it was nothing, I was honestly surprised. There were a lot of cars next to me slipping and almost hydroplaning, but somehow the Civic was stable throughout and we made it home safe and my daughter ended up being okay. I know it probably has more to do with the tires and my overall control of the vehicle but still, I was impressed as hell!!
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latole

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I'm happy for you that the road trip finally went well.
Yes the Civic is a good car.
 

Gruber

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I'm happy for you that the road trip finally went well.
Yes the Civic is a good car.
For going through flooded roads? When you can't even see what's underwater?
Let's not get crazy. Civic with 5" ground clearance can make it, if you're lucky, CR-V is better, Pilot even better and so on....
 
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(*ahem* lets not forget about tire type eh? )
What tires please?
I have the FT140's, and they perform equally as good.
 
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jred721

jred721

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(*ahem* lets not forget about tire type eh? )
What tires please?
I have the FT140's, and they perform equally as good.
Im running Riken Raptor ZR A/S RF rated tires because I upgraded my wheels to 18" ESR SR12's. Funny thing is, they were the cheaper option on tire rack and they've performed great in pretty much all conditions, as well as given the car a really nice upgrade in grip on the road. Amazing tires for the price.
 


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For going through flooded roads? When you can't even see what's underwater?
Let's not get crazy. Civic with 5" ground clearance can make it, if you're lucky, CR-V is better, Pilot even better and so on....
Honestly not sure what your trying to say here, but I said in the post that I know that a lot of it has to do with the tires and the way I was handling the car at the time. I was just speaking about this experience because I've been in cars that handle wet conditions awfully, so it's nice to see the Civic in these types of things.
 

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Your situation brings up an important fact regarding factory airbox versus long cold air intakes that drop down to where the OEM airbox used to be. Basically, that cold air intake will become a "straw" that reaches across the room and drinks up that milkshake. So, if you install one, keep that in mind.

That being said, about seven years ago, our town suffered from high water, streets were flooded. To make a long story even dumber and having nothing better to do, one evening I made a tall refreshing beverage, donned a wind breaker, a floppy wide brimmed boonie hat and my sandals and went out on the sidewalk by a flooded road near our place and positioned myself on the upside of the road just out splash range and cheered on those fording the flooded road. Man, I never heard so many slipping fan belts, coughing engines, etc. It was quite entertaining.

If you install a cold air intake, especially the long ones that go down into the engine compartment, keep in mind these will suck up water and engines don't love uncompressible water in their intake.

Glad you and your family made it out OK, keep driving safe and take care.
 
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latole

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For going through flooded roads? When you can't even see what's underwater?
Let's not get crazy. Civic with 5" ground clearance can make it, if you're lucky, CR-V is better, Pilot even better and so on....

No this is not what I mean:banghead:
 

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Glad you guys made it through, we had a family member with a newer Dodge Dart that hydrolocked itself while going through a deep puddle.
 
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jred721

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Your situation brings up an important fact regarding factory airbox versus long cold air intakes that drop down to where the OEM airbox used to be. Basically, that cold air intake will become a "straw" that reaches across the room and drinks up that milkshake. So, if you install one, keep that in mind.

That being said, about seven years ago, our town suffered from high water, streets were flooded. To make a long story even dumber and having nothing better to do, one evening I made a tall refreshing beverage, donned a wind breaker, a floppy wide brimmed boonie hat and my sandals and went out on the sidewalk by a flooded road near our place and positioned myself on the upside of the road just out splash range and cheered on those fording the flooded road. Man, I never heard so many slipping fan belts, coughing engines, etc. It was quite entertaining.

If you install a cold air intake, especially the long ones that go down into the engine compartment, keep in mind these will suck up water and engines don't love uncompressible water in their intake.

Glad you and your family made it out OK, keep driving safe and take care.
Yup that's very true, that's why I chose to install a K&N Air Filter instead of an intake, and did a KTuner tune and leaving the rest of the car stock. I still get a pretty decent increase in power while keeping the car mostly stock so it's reliability is good and I don't have to worry about stuff like hydro-locking when driving through a deep puddle or something. This car was supposed to be more of an a to b commuter car anyway, if I had an Si or something i'd probably say to hell with it and install an intake, but since this just a regular civic with the 2.0 engine, I didn't really see the point since the gains with an intake are pretty minimal anyway.
 


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Glad you guys made it through, we had a family member with a newer Dodge Dart that hydrolocked itself while going through a deep puddle.
Yeah I've heard a lot of stories about people driving through deep puddles and stuff and hydro-locking their engines, so I was honestly kind of worried the same would happen to me but luckily nothing happened.
 

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Honestly not sure what your trying to say here, but I said in the post that I know that a lot of it has to do with the tires and the way I was handling the car at the time. I was just speaking about this experience because I've been in cars that handle wet conditions awfully, so it's nice to see the Civic in these types of things.
So here I explain what I was trying to say: When driving a civicx and faced with flooded roads the best thing to do might be to park the car in a high place, take an umbrella and walk.
 
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jred721

jred721

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So here I explain what I was trying to say: When driving a civicx and faced with flooded roads the best thing to do might be to park the car in a high place, take an umbrella and walk.
Thats true for the most part when you're presented with an option. But in the situation I was in, I was sandwiched in Traffic on a narrow road and needed to get home due to the heavy storm and tornado warnings in the area. The roads were flooded, but not flooded to the point where it justified stopping. I was also only about 2.5 miles outside my home, so it just made sense to power through with the rest of the traffic and move forward.
 

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Glad this worked out for you but I hope it does not encourage anyone else to try anything similar. :D
 
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jred721

jred721

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Glad this worked out for you but I hope it does not encourage anyone else to try anything similar. :D
Yeah, it was kind of a toss up here but in these conditions I would say that it wasn't deep enough to warrant stopping, but it was deep enough to make you lose control if you weren't careful. Ideally speaking one should turn around if they're presented the option, but the rain came so quick that it was pretty much impossible to avoid. The word I was looking for was a flash flood, which is why the roads went from slightly damp to a shallow pond.
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