# Caught in really HEAVY rainstorm!



## Diana Anderson (3 mo ago)

Probably going to sound silly here so please bare with me…

Had my M3P for about a month now and only drove today in the rain. The rain was pretty normal for the journey until one part when out of nowhere the heavens just opened and it rained hard for about half a mile and then back to normal. 

Now when I say hard, I have never experienced rain that hard! The traffic pretty much came to a crawl with hazard lights on, you really couldn't see in front of you, the wipers were useless.

This is the first EV for me and crossed my mind that there was a lot of water coming down, but a lot of standing water on the road. Not flooding but just heavy rain standing water as it was trying to run off the road, maybe like one inch.

I know these cars go through rigorous testing, but any possibility of water getting into places it shouldn't in those conditions?

Even going slowly water has to spray in all directions under the car. Can't get out of my mind there's a huge battery right under there.

Assuming it must be fine as most car washes have high pressure undercarriage sprays (I don't use those washes) that Tesla must have considered, right?


----------



## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

Diana Anderson said:


> I know these cars go through rigorous testing, but any possibility of water getting into places it shouldn't in those conditions?


Only if you left one of the car windows open. Then you'd have a soaking wet seat and carpeting!

Water gets into connectors through pressure. In order to get water into places it shouldn't be in the car's electronics, you would have to immerse it deep enough in water so that the weight of it forces water in.


----------



## DocScott (Mar 6, 2019)

There's lots of anecdotal evidence that Teslas are actually better in super-wet conditions than ICE cars. If they get completely submerged, that's another matter--that can cause trouble for either EV or ICE! But the kind of thing you describe shouldn't be any problem.


----------



## Jim Perkins (4 mo ago)

The battery is sealed/shielded as are many of the electrical connection in Tesla vehicles. Without a doubt somewhere water got into the the vehicle. Think about it, the cars aren’t advertised as waterproof and not even necessarily fully water resistant. The engineering on these vehicles as I grow more experienced is excellent. I’d say everything is fine since you weren’t electrocuted?


----------



## OlsonBW (1 mo ago)

Diana Anderson said:


> Probably going to sound silly here so please bare with me…
> 
> Had my M3P for about a month now and only drove today in the rain. The rain was pretty normal for the journey until one part when out of nowhere the heavens just opened and it rained hard for about half a mile and then back to normal.
> 
> ...


Diana - You can search on YouTube for "floods Tesla" and you will find quite a few videos showing Teslas having zero problems going to flooded parts of the road with no after effects as long as you keep the doors closed.

You do NOT want to fully submerge the car because it is not a submarine and while the windows are strong you don't want to test them to see if they are water right around the Windows. I don't think they are but again I wouldn't test.

Really the only thing you have to worry about on flooding is salt water and it literally would be no different than any other care if you take it down to the ocean and drive through the surf. You SHOULD wash your vehicle if you have gone through SALT water. But normal water is not a problem as long as it doesn't get into the cabin and that still probably wouldn't affect the batteries but it would affect the carpeting, the seat materials (cloth/foam/leather/fake leather) but I wouldn't want to get water into the fuses.

But the stuff you went through ... nothing to worry about.

Congratulations on your first EV. I hope that you, like me, find it a MUCH better vehicle than any previous gas/diesel vehicle I have ever owned.

Not having to go to gas stations (which is always inconvenient) anymore. Yes I do have to go to a charging station but usually if I'm away from home this is done at a hotel or a Tesla Super Charger.

At hotels I will connect and charge up all the way unless there are other cars waiting to charge and then I charge just enough plus a little extra for what I will NEED the next day. I usually can go back later at the hotel and plug in to charge up more and unplug and move my car before going to sleep at night.

At Tesla Super Chargers I normally charge to about 150 miles when I'm low but that is enough for two hours of driving and that's really all I need per charge at Tesla Super Chargers UNLESS I have a section (hilly/mountainous) where I might get a lot less range than I normally need before the next pit stop.

Typically I never NEED to charge up all the way unless I'm specifically going long distance. 

And for charging at home every night. Unless you really need to charge more than 80% (you are going to need that range the next day) I would suggest charging to 75% because anything above 80% and you will be causing your battery to lose range faster so your car if you ever are to resell it will be worth what the FULL RANGE is PLUS how good of shape and mileage you have on the car. 

Meaning that more and more people will get smart and make you charge your car up to full before they come and look at it to buy it so they can see what the full range is. They will then compare to see what is the better deal. So you really want to make sure your car keeps the most range during its lifetime which means not charging it more than 80% (I do 75%) on a typical basis and only charge to max charge when you are really going to go that far that day.


----------

