Car stalled due to flooding, how to start?

Insurance companies, car manufacturers, and news articles all tell you not to restart your engine and to call a tow truck if your car is flooded and at risk of hydro-locking. However, this advice is not always helpful.

Imagine you are on a picnic with your family in a remote area, you are on a business trip in a remote area or a landslide in a mountainous area isolates you from the outside world. Unfortunately, your car is also flooded and hydro-hammered, besides there are many dangers lurking if you cannot start the car and continue driving.

In this situation, you cannot expect anyone to rescue your car. The skills below will help drivers escape from water hammer safely.

Gasoline motorbike

The first rule to always remember after water causes the car to stall is that you must not restart it, even once. Trying to restart the engine will cause the piston to bend and the connecting rod to break, at which point the car will fall into a "recoverable" situation.

Before getting out of the car, you need to check the water level outside to make sure it does not overflow the door edge, overflowing onto the interior floor. If the water level is too high, you can climb out through the window or sunroof. You can turn on the switch to start the power lock for the window, but before that, you need to turn off the air conditioner so that the fan does not work, because it can cut into the water and break the fan blades.

Open the hood and remove the two battery terminals to avoid short circuit when water enters the car. At this time, the important thing you need to do is remove all the spark plugs of the car, although the manufacturers have different engine designs, the spark plugs are always designed to be easily replaced.

On some vehicles, you will need to remove the plastic engine cover before you can access the spark plugs. Remember, the engine will be very hot at this point, so you will need to wear gloves to avoid burns.

Next, you reinstall the battery terminal and start the engine. Of course, because the spark plug has been removed, the engine cannot operate, but the pistons still move. At that time, it will push water out of the cylinder through the spark plug. You turn the key a few times to let all the water out. Finally, reinstall the spark plug and start the engine.

Crutch

Diesel engines do not use spark plugs to ignite, but the piston presses the mixture of oil and air to cause combustion in the cylinder. Specifically, when operating, diesel engines create a lot of friction, if there is water in the oil, it will cause more serious effects than gasoline engines. Therefore, if a diesel engine is water-locked, the handling steps are similar to gasoline engines, but it is also a bit more "annoying" when it requires a lot of engine oil to deal with the situation.

First, you need to push the car to a drained area, remove the oil cap in the engine compartment to create a vent. Then, open the oil drain screw under the car to let the water flow out with the oil. Next, add oil back into the engine and drain a second time to clean out the remaining water.

Similar to gasoline engines, but instead of removing the spark plugs, you will remove all the oil injectors (nozzles) before starting the engine, the water that accumulates on the top of the cylinder will drain out through the injector holes. Finally, you just need to fill in new oil, install the injectors and restart the engine to continue "roaming" on the road.

Note

For gasoline motorbikes, if you can start the engine, you must move to the nearest garage to change all the engine oil, because when water gets into the cylinder, it will definitely mix with water in the oil. At this point, the oil will lose its lubrication and increase friction in the engine.

In addition, after the trip, you need to bring the car to the dealer to check the entire engine and electrical system to ensure that the moisture from flooding will not cause future damage.

According to VNN