It was about 8 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning. I was out for coffee with some friends in my "Black and Green" ecomodded Honda. As I left the coffee spot to go to the markets and do more holiday preparation, the rain was coming down fast--flash flood threateningly fast. I left anyway.
Driving along a major artery my first warning was catching out of the corner of my eye what seemed to be water shooting straight up out of the asphalt. I did a double-take, not being able to believe my eyes, but I was too late to get a better look. I kept going and the rain kept coming.
The first puddle was a pool blocking the entire four lane road. A pickup paused and went through. I did too. It got deep, but not dangerous. I saw water shooting into the air through manholes that had been pushed aside by the pressure. I kept going.
At the next red light a few yards further down there were multiple residential waste containers in the intersection. They had apparently been washed down a hill from neighborhoods above. I kept going.
Near the creek, on still lower ground, I and 20 cars met a massive puddle. Cars and trucks were going through. I thought to stop, but there were lots of cars behind me on this divided road (no place to turn around). I should have pulled over anyway, but a Prius seemed to make it fine, so I went.
I barely made it through and struggled to keep traction. I got through, but I immediately got hit with multiple misfire codes. With a tree now blocking the road, I pulled into a hotel lot with a badly smoking car. Soon, it would not start when I shut it off. So I got permission to park until I could start or tow the car the next day and went on with Thanksgiving. Had a great time.
It would not start the next day. The air filter was wet. But the engine would try to fire and would almost start sometimes, so I knew it was not hydro-locked.
Testing began. Swapping out the air filter, spark plugs, and spark wires with known good parts improved nothing. The distributor turned out to be shot. A few weeks after getting it running, my 10 month old starter motor died. Both parts were warranty replacements.
Actually, I kinda made money. Because I bought the distributor in 2012, I got 30 bucks from the chain store because the price has since come down. And because of clerk errors both times, I got both the new distributor and the new starter with renewed lifetime warranties.
That water is always deeper than it looks.