My son drove his Prius into 2+ feet of standing water

GasSavings · Dec 31, 2025 at 12:37 PM

Hayslayer said: ↑

The reality is the car is now effectively junkyard material.

Driving a car (engine running) through 2 feet of water, when the air intake is only 1 foot above the ground is an engine slayer. The engine effectively acted like a shopvac/wetvac and sucked water straight up the air intake ductwork into the engine until it locked down, which was probably pretty quick and catastrophic. At a minimum, you now have bent connecting rods. The car continued driving only due to battery power. The engine was already toast. Then, anything that had water in it (ie engine, transaxle, etc) was turned into an ice cube and likely damaged more components.

By the time you deal with the drivetrain problems, corrosion issues are already going to start forming on any electrical plug that found itself submerged, turning the car into a future money pit of problems. If you want to throw money at it, take it to a dealer and let them examine it. They'll provide you with a list of everything that needs replacing/cleaning and hand you a bill for $500 for the time took to inspect. Unless they're nice enough to just tell you straight out of the gate that the car is done.
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you’re probably right. I can’t turn the engine over with an 18” breaker bar and 19mm on crankshaft pulley bolt. I shifted into neutral, but Toyota told me to lift the front wheels off the ground and try it again. Wouldn’t N neutral do the same thing?

VelvetFoot · Dec 31, 2025 at 12:48 PM

What if n isn’t working and engine and trans are stuck somehow? I think it sounds logical.
Edit: That bulletin mentioned about not being able to shift out of park. It was an old bulletin, but what if it was really in park, again, somehow?

bisco · Dec 31, 2025 at 1:43 PM

GasSavings said: ↑

I came here looking for troubleshooting techniques not sarcasm but I haven’t received much yet. Let’s see what tomorrow or the next day brings. In the meantime it’s thawing in the garage.
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how is that sarcasm? if it was, it was not intentional

BiomedO1 · Dec 31, 2025 at 1:56 PM

GasSavings said: ↑

you’re probably right. I can’t turn the engine over with an 18” breaker bar and 19mm on crankshaft pulley bolt. I shifted into neutral, but Toyota told me to lift the front wheels off the ground and try it again. Wouldn’t N neutral do the same thing?
Click to expand...

Yes; they are assuming the engine and transmission is locked together. That's a false assumption since there's plenty of 'play' between the two. Then again, it's been under water so circuits could be bridging/shorting across or relays may not be releasing.
It isn't a manual transmission where the clutch is engaged and the transmission is in gear. Even then, the car would 'rock' back and forth - due to transmission gear reduction and slack in the differential.

VelvetFoot · Dec 31, 2025 at 3:15 PM

Hope springs eternal.

My son drove his Prius into 2+ feet of standing water

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My son drove his Prius into 2+ feet of standing water

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