Flooded cars

[chris68coupe]

Just out of interest, saw a Porsche up to it's drip rails in a flood on the telly and the windscreen wipers were still working :noidea:. Why dosen't every thing short out? Surely as soon as the battery is shorted by the water the whole electrics would be dead!

Any ideas?

 

[TransAmDan]

Water isn't totally conductive. Salty water is more conductive than pure water. If you get a class of water from the tap, and do an ohms test with the probes about 1 inch apart in the water its almost open circuit, certainly up in the meg ohms region, its not until you get millimeters apart that you start seeing the ohms coming down.

Quite often you see flooded cars with the wipers going, I guess the control for the relay is shorted as the contacts are close, the relay is probably watertight, and the contacts on the relay are far enough apart to not short.

 

[chris68coupe]

OK, thanks for that Dan.