She lives in New Orleans and has had several cars flooded into extinction. My internet searches did not turn up anything and talking to the dealership about this is modern Sysaphusun rock rolling.
The CRV isn’t designed for that kind of duty. Even if you snorkeled it, if it were in a significant flood, electricals and other components would be damaged. The snorkel only helps the engine make it through a flood without sucking in water. It doesn’t protect anything else on the car.
You’d be better off mounting a lot of styrofoam along the bottom so that the car would float in water. But then finding it after it floats away in a flood will be an issue.
I said it wrong. It is a CR-X. It’s the Honda off road vehicle.
A snorkel still won’t help it.
You were right the first time, it’s a CR-V, and a snorkel won’t help.
I’d like to hear how a snorkel is going to protect any car from flooding conditions.
He was right, The CRV is a glorfied Civic more than anything. It’s not really designed for off-road use, it’s designed to keep you on the road.
I would think the snorkel would let the car run in water as high as the top of the wheel wells. I expect when water got in the spark distribution system it would short out - and those electronics are below the wheel wells. I expect that at the wheel-well tops the car would float anyway.
Then your neighbor might give consideration to a few other things; omitting any spark or air intake issues.
Engine or transmission vent openings, water through the firewall/floor pan/door openings (and inside those doors), starter motor, a 100 different electrical connections, and the immersion in muddy water of brake, halfshaft, and all suspension components; all of which will likely fail due to this.
And that’s just the mechanical opening salvo; assuming that the driver of said vehicle does not cease to exist as recently happened here in OK when a cab driver chose to drive through water several feet deep. This led to the car stalling which then led to the cabbie trying to push the car out and this in turn led to the cabbie drowning.
That car could very well float away long before the water reached the wheel tops so if the water is that deep this person should remain where they’re at until it goes down. A few years ago I saw a 95 Thunderbird swept off the highway in less than a foot of water but in this case at least no one died.
If she went threw a puddle and the motor got water in it and it wrecked the motor this is why.
newer cars are so crowded under the hood they run air intake “tube” down to the lower part of front bumper.
I see 2 ways to fix,put a cold air intake which would put air intake on top of engine.
2nd way is to cut stock air intake tube somewhere after filter and hook a flexable tube and rout it up and cut a hole in hood or rout it inside of car threw fire wall. Connections will have to be air tight and sealed.
It is still best to find another way around.
Your expectations are almost entirely wrong, actually. The snorkel does nothing but draw air from higher up than the stock location. It doesn’t do anything about electricals. The ignition system actually will probably keep running if submerged, because it’s pretty much moisture sealed since rain water can get to it. But if you get the car in water to the top of the wheel wells, that means it’s over the door sills, which means water will come in unless you have a watertight door system, which the CRV does not. Now that water’s getting into the car, it starts attacking the electronics under the floor, which on that car may include the engine computer. If you try fording floods in a CRV, you risk destroying the vehicle. It is simply not meant for major off roading. If you want to drive through floods, you need a vehicle that’s designed to be submerged, such as an old Land Rover or a more modern Toyota Land Cruiser.
Oh, and the car won’t float in water unless you add buoyancy such as packing the body with styrofoam (which is not at all a practical solution). The engine is too heavy otherwise, and will sink the car.
Deep water operation is a lot more complex than just the air inlet snorkel.
You see them on jeeps and hummers, but that’s just scratching the surface.
For the best advice on true deep water running, seek out Jeep and Hummer clubs and accessory catalogs.
You have way, way, too much time on your hands.
Thinking about converting a Miata to electric:
http://community.cartalk.com/posts/list/2147252.page
Looking for a snorkel for my neighbors 1999 Honda CR-V:
http://community.cartalk.com/posts/list/2147251.page
Looking for larger oil filters:
http://community.cartalk.com/posts/list/2147248.page