Flood water

[Lynny]

At 10.00pm on Friday night I hit flood water at 40 to 50km per hour. I have a RAV4 HYBRID bought in Feb2021. I couldn’t see as it was night & raining & a very dark street.  I drove through about 4 metres of water & made it into a drive way 20 metres away. I am wondering if anyone can give me advice. The filter could be wet.  What is my best action to take from here?  Is it going to affect the warranty & electronics. There is nothing wrong with the exterior at all. Apparently the creek came up at 5 in the afternoon, but there was no road block & SES there. If anyone can give me advice I’d love to hear it. I haven’t moved the car. I turned it on & it shuttered so I turned it off

[campbeam]

6 hours ago, Lynny said:

 What is my best action to take from here?

I am not sure what you meant by "shuttered". Does the engine start but is not idling smoothly?

Check the air filter and confirm that it is dry. If it is wet then potentially water could have been drawn into the engine potentially causing a hydro-lock and damaging the engine.

Next step would be to contact your insurance company and discuss. If the vehicle is drivable they may want to inspect the vehicle or have you take it to a Toyota dealership for their inspection. 

[Tony Prodigy]

The vehicle definitely needs to be taken to your local Toyota dealer for a full analysis. When your dealing with a Hybrid vehicle, there is more potential for issues than just a combustion engine vehicle. 

Not sure how high the flood waters were at the time of your situation, but yes, it is possible water may have entered the air intake and saturated the air filter causing it to shudder on start. Not enough air coming through can cause a shaky start and the computer has no way to compensate for this.

If you have someone who is handy, perhaps they can pop the lid off the air intake filter box and have a quick look. You may also have had some water ingress into some of your electrical plugs in the engine bay. Perhaps a disconnect of any suspect connectors and a blow dry would also be a good idea too. It just needs to dry out. I'm sure it will be ok, if the water wasn't that deep. It may just be incidental splash back when you've traversed through higher than normal road water.

Please keep us posted on your progress.