Been some very heavy rain again today around our town so the channels (edge of the road line up to the kerb) are pretty flooded in the odd place, it would appear that the best way to avoid this new local phenomenon is to drive in the middle of the road directly at the traffic coming the other way. Thing is it’s not even hugely deep, if you can see the top of the kerb it’s less than 5 inches ffs! Maybe just slowing down would help. Is this a local thing or has it spread nationwide yet?

No, I was taught to do that nearly 30 years ago now but to move over of course when close to the other traffic.

Definitely a thing around my part of the world.

It’s almost like natures own traffic calming around here. Loads of drivers, especially the yummy mummy 4×4 ones, won’t drive through puddles so sit and wait (sometimes) until they can drive down the middle of the road so they don’t get their tyres too wet!

We need to know what car/vehicles they’re driving please…

Then we can pour scorn on them..

Low profile tyres and hidden potholes (or missing manhole/drain covers).

I’d rather drive in the middle of the road than permanently **** my engine thanks. Although if there was oncoming traffic, I’d either slow down or stop if necessary.

It’s ’cause they have the old two part paper licence.

It specifically says you can  ” TEAR ALONG DOTTED LINE”

At what point will the water **** your engine? We’re not talking a Mumbai monsoon river crossing here. One of today’s perps was a golf actually, are they on the naughty list? Anyhoo he was just maintaining a good 30 but at least a foot over the white line causing the other carriageway to swerve and weave etc.

It specifically says you can ” TEAR ALONG DOTTED LINE

Two flies on top of a box of cereal, first one asks the second why he keeps running along the lid and back…

Having written off an engine in a car whose air intake was not very sensibly positioned down by the nearside fog light – in what was not much more than an oversized puddle in a dip in the road, which just happened to be much deeper at the edge of the road where the car journeyed into it – I’d say it makes a lot of sense to stick to the crown of the road.

Having said that- in a later model of same car, I’ve had to drive through flood water to get home where I knew it was deep owing to the fact that the headlights were illuminating the water from underneath as the water rose over the bonnet, and felt the car go light as the cross current form the stream causing the flood started to pick the car up, and engine got through unscathed that time somehow…

How do you know there aren’t deep potholes in the water?

whose air intake was not very sensibly positioned down by the nearside fog light

Who puts an intake there? Name and shame please.

Strangely enough I have not noticed this before, until today – car type probably irrelevant, but anyway it was a bloke in a 3-series estate doing <40 in an NSL up a hill with no standing water, literally driving up the middle of the road.
I wanted to overtake as there was really no reason to be going that slowly, but couldn’t because he was taking up the whole road.

I did eventually overtake him and through the next village he decided 30 was obviously too slow, caught me up and tailgated me, so it wasn’t like he was doing it to be uber-cautious.

Twice in past three days I’ve had to take action to avoid being hit by an oncoming car straddling the white lines. Wasn’t even wet.

Reminds me of my first driving instructor who would shout at me for driving through puddles of any size it seemed. I ended up a nervous wreck coming up to lesson day. Just couldn’t work out why he’d be bothered. He was a **** psycho though.😀

On the roads round here it’s the only way some of them are passable.
Lots of cars have intakes down low, my Saab does for a start.

It takes a surprisingly small amount of water to hydrolock an engine (think, your 4 cylinder ~2l has ~500cc uncompressed per cylinder. If it’s running, say, a 10:1 compression ratio, then, unless my understanding is way off, a bit more than 50cc in a cylinder is enough to hydrolock, which can bring with it bent rods, valves, snapped belts/chains etc etc plunging an intake into a flood at low rpms is easily enough to do that.

Don’t underestimate how easy it is to do a LOT of damage in a flood.

Having bent two wheels on potholes on one particular road near me (holes/drains every 100m) I now drive down the middle of that road when there’s no traffic coming the other way.

It sound like they know about the camber of the road so not so daft. It’s the fannys that still drive as normal and risk soaking pedestrians need sorted

I do this on the country roads near me. It’s barely wide enough for 2 cars, so ploughing into a puddle at high speed isn’t a great idea. Obviously when traffic is coming the other way I slow down and move back to my side in good time. I also don’t do it around corners that I cannot see around.

Happens on Rover Way in Cardiff every time it rains as the road is flat and at sea level so the drains block stupidly easily, especially by the metal sorting hangar. It’s fun seeing the 4×4’s and SUV’s dive into the puddle they’re trying to avoid when they realise the HGV, or in some cases the giant Tonka trucks from Sims Metals, coming the other way is driving through the puddle on it’s side of the road creating a massive wave and is also not going to yield!! The puddles are never deeper than 3-4 inches so second gear at 2k revs will see you through them all easily even in a sports car, the time to worry is when the train on the track next to the road is producing a bow wave.

Wot Car???

C’mon, what were they driving Man..

I’m raging inside and need to vent my spleen on something from either 4Ringer or Bimmer..

🤷‍♂️

Alfa?

Friend damaged his Mondeo Zetec S after a bow wave from another car hydro locked his engine. Easy done driving through floods – get water rising towards the headlamps, water rushes into and up the air intake.

Won’t mention my boss who drove his S70 into a flood and it stopped. Water flooded into the car (above sill) written off. Wasn’t impressed when his replacement BMW 5 series came with a “BMW emergency assist pack” – I put a mop and bucket and rubber ducks labled with ‘BMW emergency assist” in the boot of his newly delivered car.

Dunno about the wet but that’s how I drive across Rannoch Moor at night, gives me an option both sides for when the deer jump out.

Low air intake on front? Just do deep water sections in reverse, flat out obvs you don’t want that water up your pipe.

Who puts an intake there? Name and shame please.

There are quite a lot of cars these days that run a duct from the aircleaner housing to one of the front corners around the foglight holes, bumper, or worse, the wheel well.

The standard of driving nowadays is excruciating. And downright dangerous.

Dunno about the wet but that’s how I drive across Rannoch Moor at night, gives me an option both sides for when the deer jump out.

Yup likewise I was taught to drive in the middle no matter what the weather if the road is clear, especially in the dark.

You’re a bunch of sissies – you should be out cycling through the puddles.

Twice in past three days I’ve had to take action to avoid being hit by an oncoming car straddling the white lines. Wasn’t even wet.

Different issue Shirley?

Totally reasonable to avoid puddles imo – unless I’m in my Amarok in which case puddle jumping is the best sport ever! Added points to get cab high spray both sides!
If I remember rightly, bmw 6 series has a crazy low air intake, the old citron zx / Peugeot equivalent did as well.
My old golf mk6 2.0tdi at one point had water coming over the bonnet and was ok. Suspect I was lucky though!

Agree with dannyh.
Include myself in that given an idiotic mistake at the weekend🤭🤫🤥
3hrs down to Stafford and then back up next day. Middle lane hogging has never been so bad, it’s ridiculous!!!

It sound like they know about the camber of the road so not so daft. It’s the fannys that still drive as normal and risk soaking pedestrians need sorted

This. Anyone who drives so as not to soak me as I walk beside the road gets my gratitude. Happens all too often.

Peugeot 306 GTI6’s used to have the intake mounted low down, loads used to die in floods. I hit standing water in the van afew years ago, turned the dashboard into a christmas tree was chasing down an ABS related problem for months afterwards, so try not to steam into puddles these days!

EDIT, thats meant to contain a quote..cant get my head around how this forum works #techtard

Yup likewise I was taught to drive in the middle no matter what the weather if the road is clear, especially in the dark.

same, whether its for puddles, animals shooting into the road, anything unexpected it all, its safer to drive in the middle if theres nowt else about. and back onto your own side around corners, brow of hills, basically anywhere that you cant see its clear.

Quite normal in our area , plenty of roads closed and a couple of villages cut off yesterday in the flooding , still had muppets getting stuck in the water and causing huge problems for others .
My driving instructor tolled me to drive in the middle of the road when driving through water and that was nearly 40 years ago .

If approaching significant amount of water I’ll always move to the middle. This has the effect of being at the peak of the camber and to slow/ stop oncoming traffic so my engine doesn’t get borked…. people drive too quickly thru water in the false belief that’s what they should do.

I had a lift off a mate who is a police advanced driver and he spent most of the time in the middle of the road (dry) if there wasn’t oncoming traffic.

Seemed to make sense.

People are talking at crossed purposes here. OP talked about eejit drivers forcing oncoming driver to change course because they don’t appear to want to get their shiny faux by four wheels wet (which I’ve noticed too) and then got a load of replies about how to drive through floods. It appears everyone is correct in their assertions, but some need to work on their comprehension skills! 😂

OP didn’t mention 4×4’s but he did mention a Golf.

Middle lane hogging has never been so bad, it’s ridiculous!!!

Outside lane hogging on some duel carriage ways, every morning on the A435 – I think the sat nav says for the round a-bouts “ be in the right hand lane” so the morons stay there.

I get driving in the middle of the road through deep water, but no slowing down when traffic is oncoming is stupid and driving in the middle of the road around a blind corner is even worse.