Can you drive an IS300h through a ford or road flooding?

[Thackeray]

Kubair's recent experience has raised some questions in my mind. 

In his case, he drove through a puddle and the hybrid system stopped. This doesn't sound typical, as cars constantly have to deal with wet weather in this country.

But it does raise a question. Can you drive through a ford in a low to the ground hybrid like the IS300h? What about the frequent winter road flooding that you see in the south of England and probably in the north too? Can you safely drive through water up to the door sills?

There's a 650 volt Battery in the back that most of the time I'm unconcerned by. But I'm less confident about the combination of flood-water and 650 volts.

Should you avoid fords and road flooding at the expense of a 20 mile detour? Or can you safely follow other conventional cars through the water?

[Zotto]

Keeping EV with an hybrid to pass a flooded road is somewhat safer than driving a car with thermal engine ON with the risk to have water in aspiration circuit. Of course, not pretending to transform hybrid car in a U-boot.

[rayaans]

46 minutes ago, Thackeray said:

Kubair's recent experience has raised some questions in my mind. 

In his case, he drove through a puddle and the hybrid system stopped. This doesn't sound typical, as cars constantly have to deal with wet weather in this country.

But it does raise a question. Can you drive through a ford in a low to the ground hybrid like the IS300h? What about the frequent winter road flooding that you see in the south of England and probably in the north too? Can you safely drive through water up to the door sills?

There's a 650 volt battery in the back that most of the time I'm unconcerned by. But I'm less confident about the combination of flood-water and 650 volts.

Should you avoid fords and road flooding at the expense of a 20 mile detour? Or can you safely follow other conventional cars through the water?

Depends on the depth. I certainly wouldnt risk going through it unless the depth was less than bottom of the bumper. 

[reeac]

It's a good question. I recently got caught in a flood in my Jazz and it was deeper than the front ground clearance so I could feel the drag on the bodywork. Got through ok but then measured the clearance on the Jazz and compared it with my IS300h. Surprisingly they had the same ground clearance at the front but the Lexus exhausts were about 1.5 inches lower than that of the Jazz which could have been a "show stopper" apart from any electrical problems. The whole electrical system must be splashproof but immersion could be another matter.

[gdh300]

I wouldn't ford anything that was higher than the sills in any car. Easy to say from the comfort of my sofa, but I suppose I've been lucky I've never been confronted with a flood somewhere I didn't know, or where it wasn't possible to judge the depth.

I'm sure if it's not above the sills, any electrics associated with a hybrid system would be fine, assuming there isn't a huge bow wave! But it's interesting what Roger says about the exhaust of the IS300h. With a manual car or a torque converter automatic it's possible to keep the revs up while going slowly (like our dads taught us!), but can you do that with a hybrid? The 'disconnect' between the ICE and the pedal makes that difficult I'd have thought? Can you even ensure the ICE is running as you go through at slow speed?

[Rabbers]

Conventional wisdom, with which I would not quarrel, holds that you should not drive through water higher than your wheel axis - and then always as slowly as you possibly can in order not to create waves and splashing - which also means you should not, even when you know the drivers are not idiots, follow other cars into the flooding until their wake has subsided.   But whatever your personal attitude to the risk may be, it would be best to know what your insurance policy says about responsibility for possible damage of any kind.

 

[Zotto]

Ok, not IS, but Hybrid: 

 

[reeac]

My experience  is that on our local roads you can't estimate the depth of water unless you see another car go through ahead of you and also the depth can increase rapidly with time as water flows off surrounding fields. If it looks serious then I use first gear and go very slowly but keep the revs up by slipping the clutch. The biggest hazard is water ingestion into the engine so you need to know how high up the air intake is. In my Jazz it's pretty high up in the front wheel arch and reasonably protected from inflow due to forward motion. I would be a lot more cautious with the Lexus.

[Zotto]

Moving in EV there is no water ingestion, it is for this reason that I wrote with hybrid the risk is less.

[200h]

personally i wouldn't risk it

i have had the experience of hydraulically locking my engine

in a narrowed section of a 2 way road stuck under a canal brige

and i blocked the road, the AA said they where experiencing high call

volumes at this time of day (5.30 am) i dont think so and turned up

at 8.30 am.

[Texas]

I would rather do a 10 mile detour than risk driving into a unknown depth of water. 

paul m.

 

[NemesisUK]

3 hours ago, Zotto said:

Moving in EV there is no water ingestion, it is for this reason that I wrote with hybrid the risk is less.

Water can still enter the inlet manifold and be ingested next time the ICE fired up.

Especially when that white van comes towards you creating a huge bow wave that washes over the bonnet

[Thackeray]

Thanks for all the responses. I was mostly wondering about the effect on the Battery but maybe it can survive a certain amount of water without damage. I don't suppose being completely under water would do it much good. It also sounds as though there must be safety systems to prevent any harm of electrocution from a flooded Battery - I hope so!

I found a video showing both the effect of getting water in the engine and water around the battery area. The Battery layout in the IS300h is probably different from the RX400h shown here but interesting to see that the Battery seemed to be unaffected by this probably small amount of water.

It seems the conclusion must be to avoid where possible all but the smallest amount of road flooding.

[Texas]

Personally if I can't see the kerbs at the road side then it too deep for me. Call me a pussy and all that but you'd kick yourself afterwards!

Paul m.

[darrude]

I'm guessing the 'puddle' he quoted was more than what most people would consider a puddle.  Said his car needs a new engine as well as hybrid system so must have been quite deep.  I don't think it is an inherent fault with hybrid water proofing, rather just exceeding of standard wade depth that would affect most cars.

I feel for him, I live in a rural area quite prone to flooding and it is shocking how many people ruin engines driving through water.  The hill at the bottom near where I live is nightmare for it, there is a dip just before the river that is prone to pooling water.   Only single track road with no pavements either side, if you didn't know you would never guess the road dips like it does   Hope he gets it sorted on his insurance.

If I was forced to go through a deep puddle (and I can't think of a situation where that would happen), I would force EV mode.  Fingers crossed it won't ever come to that, I'll take Texas's approach.

I might contact the council, never thought before, but could be worth a warning sign.

 

[gdh300]

On the other thread, Zubair reckons the water was almost 2ft (600mm) deep. I'd say with even a small bow wave, that's perilously close to the engine intake. Plus the exhaust and a lot of electrics underwater as well, not looking good...

 

[Silversalmon]

Now that you illustrate it, seems likely that would do for the engine... Hope insurance covers it. poor old Zubair 

[doog442]

Keeping the revs really high can over come the exhaust issue but when it comes to an air intake you've had it.

 

 

 

[gdh300]

32 minutes ago, Silversalmon said:

 Hope insurance covers it. poor old Zubair 

You'd like to think so wouldn't you, otherwise what do we pay through the nose for? I would have thought their assessor will take one look at it and write-it off.

Must admit, I have no idea if on my own policy if there are any exclusions around flooding. I suppose they will differentiate in their weasily way between you driving into a flood, and a flood coming to your parked car.

[rich1068]

1 hour ago, gdh300 said:

On the other thread, Zubair reckons the water was almost 2ft (600mm) deep. I'd say with even a small bow wave, that's perilously close to the engine intake. Plus the exhaust and a lot of electrics underwater as well, not looking good...

 

Haven't really been following this but that's bloody deep for a saloon.

[scudney]

To me commonsense would say why would you?especially when bearing in mind that modern day cars hybrid or no hybrid are packed full of electrical wiring underneath the floor and elsewhere as well as the fact that water 💦 and electricity don't usually mix well together. 

[dutchie01]

56 minutes ago, gdh300 said:

You'd like to think so wouldn't you, otherwise what do we pay through the nose for? I would have thought their assessor will take one look at it and write-it off.

Must admit, I have no idea if on my own policy if there are any exclusions around flooding. I suppose they will differentiate in their weasily way between you driving into a flood, and a flood coming to your parked car.

im afraid not. It was his decision to expose the car to that level of water taking the risk the car would be severely damaged. I would be surprised if they pay..

[Guest]

The new is300uw has been announced.

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[rich1068]

Back in the day I had the Corgi model of that.

[gdh300]

14 hours ago, dutchie01 said:

im afraid not. It was his decision to expose the car to that level of water taking the risk the car would be severely damaged. I would be surprised if they pay..

From reading about on the internet, I think it will depend on his insurer. I checked my policy, and no where are there specific exclusions for 'water' or 'flood', or even the old favourite 'acts of God' (whoever your god may be).

Also it is how his statement is written. In the other thread he says "...and was getting dark. I was in a country lane driving 30 to 35 on 40 because I was unfamiliar with the road..."  That's more favourable than if he had stopped, got out looked at it, and decided to proceed.  

Unfortunately you only find out how good an insurer is when you have to make a claim. Some of these cheap insurers you get on the comparison websites, makes you wonder doesn't it?