1.3L

Just wondering what the deepest amount of water forum members have driven their 8 in without floating away or causing damage to the car. It appears that we're about to really get hosed out here on the west coast. Some predictions say this will be our worst storm in 55 years. I've been through the bad ones, so this storm should be a whopper

1.3L

DrRockin99

I try not to let my car see water !

youpey

i had driven through a storm that the water was up to the doors and the water was thrown onto and above the hood. i was very upset the township didnt put up any signs. i didnt sleep the entire night because i was worried something bad was going to happen...needless to say it was fine.,. try not to drive if you dont have to

trainoffools

Worse than El Nino' of '98? That was the year I moved from SoCal.

Best find a garage to park it in or install that Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang rubber boat accessory. :D

theCATALYST

We get high water on the Texas coast now and then, and I have been lucky enough to not have to drive in it. If you have a covered shelter, keep your 8 parked, rent a truck, or if you have another vehicle use it. I wouldnt test mother nature.

StewC625

Safe rule of thumb is that if the water is more than 3" deep for more than the length of the car, you should avoid it. At speed, that much water can cause sudden aquaplaning (especially with wide, low-profile tires). If you are crawling through it and you absolutely know that the road is stable under it, then crawl away. Any deeper than that and any speed at all, and you risk splashing water into things that shouldn't be splashed into.

If you get caught by surprise and the car starts to float or water starts coming into the doors, ABANDON SHIP! No car, not even an RX-8, is worth drowning for.

Most insurance companies will automatically total a car if the following conditions were met:

1) Water entered the interior and saturated the carpets/bottom of the seats AND there is water present in the engine oil.

OR

2) Water reached a depth of the radio in the interior, regardless of if the engine oil contains water.

In either case, the issues posed by replacing the interior and sorting out all the electrical gremlins that come from such a soaking usually are not worth the insurance company's time.

I've lost two cars in floods - both were parked in inopportune spots. My first flood car, a 1986 Integra, the water reached the top of the dash. I called the insurance company and told them and their answer was "is the water above the radio"? I said yes, and they said, we'll need to verify it but plan on that being a total. As soon as the water recedes, we'll send a truck to pick it up. I had a check two days later. This was parked in my apartment lot and a nearby creek overflowed. Muddy, nasty water. Should have seen the mess that poured out of the car when I opened the door. Can you say "Risky Business"?

The second time, the car was parked in a parking garage and a water main broke - this time, clean water, and didn't get up to the level of the radio - about 5" of water in the car. But, the engine computer was soaked, the engine oil had water in it (presumably it came in through the dipstick hole), the trans had water in it, and the ins co. called it a total. This one was a 1992 Acura Legend.

Needless to say, my ins. co. doesn't like it when it rains near me.

G-ReX

Sounds like you should change your screen name to "U-boat commander".

We flood here frequently and there's always some doofus on the news saying "The water didn't look that deep when I started driving into it!", and in the background is a car up to the doorhandles in water. Just don't go there.

beachdog

The standard air intake is less than 2' from the ground and lower with some of the aftermarket intakes. Drive into a puddle deep enough to have waves and you will be in trouble. I seem to recall one of the forum members hydrolocked the Renesis in less than 12" of water.

StewC625

"U-Boat Commander" ... nice use of movie line quoting!

Stew

Dlrosie

If I ask myself "could the water get too deep", I drive my Jeep.

Stone

I would't risk it I hydrolocked a 89 Grand AM back in college damn lucky I didn't break anything. I really wouldn't try it with a RX8 don't want to have a $30,000.00 bath toy.

dannobre

iTrader: (3)

deepest I ever saw a car was 320 feet. Someone drove his off a cliff and into the water near a scuba dive site :D

NomisR

I don't think a rotary can hydrolock if I remember correctly as there are no valves, connecting rods, etc. All that is needed is to drain the engine of water, oil change and new spark plugs. All this is from memory though, I could be wrong.

Phase2

Here is my rx-8 Velocity red U-Boat edition.
There was a broken water pipe up the street and my car happened to be parked in the middle of it. The water almost got to the underside of the doors.

Nothing happened, although it did give me a small scare.

Here's a picture from the local paper.

beachdog

and in this case, replace the engine due to broken apex seals...

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...ight=hydrolock

truemagellen

your actually using your turn signal to turn in that pool...MUHAHAHAHAHA

Phase2

There was an idiot in the sidestreet who did not want to go backward, so I indicated I really, really wanted to get out of the water and into the street.

truemagellen

that's cool

StewC625

Amazing. No water into the interior?

srm858

I had my car towed into the dealer about a month after I bought it in August, 2003. It wouldn't start and I thought it might be because it rained a lot the night before when I drove it home and the ignition got wet. I tried to dry the car out for 3 days with a fan, in the garage, but it still wouldn't start.

When it arrived at the dealer, I mentioned the rain, and the possibility of damp ignition. When I went to pick it up, they gave me a bill for $300 and said the intake had a quart of water in it. I argued a lot, saying I could not have driven the car home if it had a quart of water in the intake. They said tough luck and I had to pay. They also stated you should never drive the car thru more than 6" of water, because the intake is very low. While this is good advice, the intake is not low, but about 2 feet from the ground.

About a week later, I discovered thru this forum, the car had simply flooded (with gas) and I had proof they ripped me off. I called and wrote to them, but they stuck to their story. As I promised to them, I have never been back there. By the way, to you Boston residents, it was Mazda Gallery in Norwood. They took my money once, but never again. Unfortunately, Attleboro Mazda is not much better.

Q-chan

iTrader: (1)

Unfortunately many things said here and in the other thread ("REPLACED ENGINE CLUB") regarding hydrolocking are not correct.

Consider this:

1. Internal combustion engines need to compress the air-fuel mixture to produce a sufficiently power-generating combustion. (Remember: The RENESIS engine has a compression ratio of 1:10, means it compresses the air-fuel mix to 1/10 th of its volume before igniting.)

2. In both, the reciprocal engine AND the rotary engine this compression happens in a gas-tight closed chamber, and it really doesn't matter if the chamber is sealed by closed valves or covered ports.

3. All liquids are virtually incompressible. If the engine ingested a sufficient amount of liquid into its combustion chamber, it will lock. If this lock happens dynamically, i.e. while the engine is running, substantial mechanical damage will occur. The weakest part will fail: The pushrod of the reciprocal engine, or the seals of the rotary.

So just be careful....

RX Renesis

if the cylinders/chamber r flooded with water can that be fixed? or does the whole engine needs to be replaced?

Q-chan

iTrader: (1)

If the engine (piston or rotary) was not runnig while or after flooding, it can be fixed. Removing the spark plugs elliminates the compression and allows to empty the fluid. Since most rotary engines have the spark plugs on one side of the case, they have the advantage of emptying the fluid naturally when carefully cranked with removed plugs. On piston engines you might need to siphon the water out through the plug hole...