Just lost it on the motorway
Discussion
Hello all,
It's been chucking it down here and I hit a bank of water on the motorway at 60mph. I span, crossed all 3 lanes twice and came to rest, thankfully, without hitting the barriers or any other vehicles. Good on them all because they all managed to stop.
I've got an E46 325ci. The abs and handbrake light are now on. Hoping the system has just overheated due to my heavy braking and it'll be ok later on.
I've never been as scared as that before.
Drive safely you lot.
It's been chucking it down here and I hit a bank of water on the motorway at 60mph. I span, crossed all 3 lanes twice and came to rest, thankfully, without hitting the barriers or any other vehicles. Good on them all because they all managed to stop.
I've got an E46 325ci. The abs and handbrake light are now on. Hoping the system has just overheated due to my heavy braking and it'll be ok later on.
I've never been as scared as that before.
Drive safely you lot.
Max_Torque said:
was the DSC working on your car BEFORE the spin?? doesnt sound like it?? or did you put a few "wild" steering inputs in ??
I'm pretty sure it was. As to my steering inputs- really can't remember! More than likely I panicked. The first thing I knew was bein whipped to the right, pretty sure I tried to correct with appropriate steering but just can't be sure. Too busy s
tt1ng myself! 
Max_Torque said:
was the DSC working on your car BEFORE the spin?? doesnt sound like it?? or did you put a few "wild" steering inputs in ??
DSC doesn't work when your wheels are skimming across the water. By the time grip was re-gained, it sounds like the spin was too far in to be redeemed by the gods of ESP...Max_Torque said:
was the DSC working on your car BEFORE the spin?? doesnt sound like it?? or did you put a few "wild" steering inputs in ??
Once a cars aquaplaning on top of water it has no grip so the DSC's not going to make any difference at all until the cars touching tarmac again and by then, chances are it's already too late.(As appears to be the situation in this case).blueg33 said:
...I had a similar circumstance a few years ago in a 5 series. Replaced it with an Audi quattro which is much more surefooted in those conditions.
Whilst it's true that four wheel drive is better in wet conditions than two wheel drive, once a car has lost contact with the tarmac due to aquaplaning on deep water, it makes no difference, no grip = no grip, no matter how many wheels are driven.Four wheel drive, traction control systems et al are all useful tools to help in the majority of incidents but they're not completely infallible!.
Vvroom: Glad your okay and nobody was hurt.
Neutral_Nas said:
This is the reasons i always use the middle lane, i once aquaplaned @60mph in to a barrier while driveing in Lane 1 in my MK1 Golf GTi , i guess it was because HGV's had caused dips in the road.
I dont care about be labled a MLM
, as i rather drive where i feel safest.
drive with appropriate speed to the conditions.I dont care about be labled a MLM
, as i rather drive where i feel safest.its people like you that cause accidents making people move lane to overtake you in wet conditions.
i wouldnt say the middlelanes the safest place to be, what happens when you aquaplain and smash into someone else's car? in particular the poor bugger whos level with you at the time. motorways are not clear all the time.
id much rather hit a barrier than someone else's car.
4rephill said:
Max_Torque said:
was the DSC working on your car BEFORE the spin?? doesnt sound like it?? or did you put a few "wild" steering inputs in ??
Four wheel drive, traction control systems et al are all useful tools to help in the majority of incidents but they're not completely infallible!.Vvroom: Glad your okay and nobody was hurt.
Of course nothing is infallible, but quattro makes a big difference.
k15tox said:
Neutral_Nas said:
This is the reasons i always use the middle lane, i once aquaplaned @60mph in to a barrier while driveing in Lane 1 in my MK1 Golf GTi , i guess it was because HGV's had caused dips in the road.
I dont care about be labled a MLM, as i rather drive where i feel safest.
drive with appropriate speed to the conditions.I dont care about be labled a MLM
, as i rather drive where i feel safest.its people like you that cause accidents making people move lane to overtake you in wet conditions.
i wouldnt say the middlelanes the safest place to be, what happens when you aquaplain and smash into someone else's car? in particular the poor bugger whos level with you at the time. motorways are not clear all the time.
id much rather hit a barrier than someone else's car.
If I'm in the silly car and get caught in heavy rain then the middle lane is definitely the best place to be when the inside lane has tracks from the trucks in. Even if the dry the car gets pulled about a bit on roads like that. I wouldn't like to spend too long on them when they're waterlogged too. Wide tyres, not much tread and light weight are not conducive to those conditions. I move back to the inside as soon as I can though or briefly to allow stuff to get past me if I'm obviously obstructing people.
I would suggest that if people were crashing when trying overtake me in the rain then they are probably going to fast for the conditions.
Edited by gingerpaul on Sunday 3rd October 17:46
Funk said:
Max_Torque said:
was the DSC working on your car BEFORE the spin?? doesnt sound like it?? or did you put a few "wild" steering inputs in ??
DSC doesn't work when your wheels are skimming across the water. By the time grip was re-gained, it sounds like the spin was too far in to be redeemed by the gods of ESP...(very rarely is it a loss of grip that causes a problem, much more often it is the regaining of the grip that does it)What usually happens is as follows:
1 car traveling in straight line, hits standing water, reduces grip and the driver feels the steering go light, and usually the car starts slowly to drift down the "road camber". Driver realises this isnt exactly where he wants to go, so starts to wind on steering lock. Car doesnt seem to respond, so drive winds on more and more lock. Generally no yaw gain happens at this moment as the front tyres have "cleared" a path through the standing water for the rears so understeer is the prevailent mode)
2) car either gets to a bit of non-flooded road, or car slows enough to allow the tyres to displace the water volume and re-contact the road surface, then, as you now have some steering lock on, car makes an abrupt swerve, and possibly spins / hits something (yaw acceleration at speed is usually beyond the capability of the dsc to react)
(also not helped by the enormous lateral stiffness of modern cars, next time you're doing 60mph on the motorway, notice how little you have to turn the handwheel to say change lane, it'll be less than 10degrees, so a sudden input of say 90degrees of handwheel angle will cause a massive yaw rate !! Most of the driver training courses done on wide runways etc start by asking their pupils to cruise at 60mph, then suddenly stick in 90deg handwheel input and do nothing = much dissiness!!)
As a bit of advice to the OP, i would suggest running the events leading up to the event through their mind, and trying to learn the visual and audible cues that would have given an indication that his speed was clearly excessive in that instance!
We should have a scandinavian style driving test in this country that includes some measure of basic vehicle dynamics as std!!!
Believe me max torque its very easy to spin a 2 tonne car on water.
A hire company gave us a 4x4 x trail with partly worn tyres.
The bloke driving hit standing water on a very slight right hand bend on the m6 toll. The back end went left, span 3 times smashed into the barrier span 2 more times and came to rest. All at 70 mph.
Conclusion, slow down the rain. Especially with any thing but good brand new tyres. If you hit deep standing water your tyres can loose complete contact with the road as the grooves can't push the water away quick enough.
Scary, but I'm still here.
A hire company gave us a 4x4 x trail with partly worn tyres.
The bloke driving hit standing water on a very slight right hand bend on the m6 toll. The back end went left, span 3 times smashed into the barrier span 2 more times and came to rest. All at 70 mph.
Conclusion, slow down the rain. Especially with any thing but good brand new tyres. If you hit deep standing water your tyres can loose complete contact with the road as the grooves can't push the water away quick enough.
Scary, but I'm still here.
Edited by briers on Sunday 3rd October 18:56
Never using Cruise Control in the rain.
If you aqua plane, and the rear wheels leave the road surface, and get slowed down by the drag of the water, the Cruise will keep adding power to try and maintain the same speed.
Obviously the ABS, and DSC will be trying to keep you on the straight and narrow, but the cruise will be almost working against it.
Also the best advise when you hit standing water at speed, is to maintain as straight a line as possible without touching the brake or accelerator, If you have the Cruise on, it will be countering this advise.
If you aqua plane, and the rear wheels leave the road surface, and get slowed down by the drag of the water, the Cruise will keep adding power to try and maintain the same speed.
Obviously the ABS, and DSC will be trying to keep you on the straight and narrow, but the cruise will be almost working against it.
Also the best advise when you hit standing water at speed, is to maintain as straight a line as possible without touching the brake or accelerator, If you have the Cruise on, it will be countering this advise.
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