I Hydroplaned and flew off the road!!!

[FourthGenHatch]

It has been raining slightly all day long. I was very bored so I decided to drive down to visit my Grandmother and Mom 30 minutes away. Everything was fine. On my way back I decide to go a more backway that will take me right near my house. So I drive down and I believe I actually missed the place I was supposed to turn but went down this very narrow curvy road anyway instead of turning around and hoping I could find my way back home. So the road is wet and slick and I can feel my backend sort of rotate around the turns but I have it undercontrol and I'm going slow enough. Then all the sudden I don't really remember all that well but I turned the wheel and my car just kept going straight and I flew off the road, over a curb, right through the branches of a tree and then smacked right down. I was scared as ****. I looked around to see if anything was broken and then I turned off everything and I think I might have turned my car off, not sure, but it probably stalled when my foot came off the pedal. So I get out of my car and the front was pressed down to the ground and there is a huge thing of dirt all around my front wheel where it scraped it up like you would on a golf course or something. My rear wheel was easily 6''-10'' off the ground and I thought I had driven over a stump or something. I was about 1' from either hitting a mailbox on one side or hitting a huge tree (whos branches I drove through), so I was very lucky to miss them both I suppose. Despite this I noticed not a single person driving by (and there were quite a few) stopped to help me or anything. So I got back in the car and turned the key and it started. So I put it in 1st and gunned it to see if it would move but it didn't want to. I tried some more and eventually it shook loose and I sort of off roaded down this hill onto this guys front lawn and driveway. Everything seemed fine so I drove back on the road. I stopped at a nearby parkinglot to check the damage. There appears to be none at all. There was a ton of dirt and sticks on my car but everything seemed to be alright. Then I drove back home and on the way it started to pour terribly and it washed most of the stuff off but now I was freaking out because I could feel it hydroplane sometimes. But I got home and everything seems fine. I want to go check under the car when it dries to see if anything happened. I hope I didn't damage the gas tank or something. Here are pictures and you can see it looks damage free but I will have to wait to be sure...

[CRX586]

Glad to hear you're ok and that your car isn't damaged...

Similar thing happened to me, only we were driving on a narrow mountain road and it had just started snowing... I guess I hit the brakes too hard cuz my car ended up spinning out - we were damn lucky we didn't fall off the side of the road, and this truck saw me and kinda blocked the traffic until I could get back in the right direction...

Anyway, it sucks how many people will not help you when you have the kind of problem you had... how can you miss a car going off the side of the road?

[Tony]

Good to hear your alright, and the car is alright. Ive hydroplaned before, pulled like a 360 or more, don't know for sure. It was on a narrow country road and I came over this hill and forgot how the road gets flooded, tried to slow down some before I hit it, but waited too long, causing me to spin. Amazingly I stayed in the middle of the road, just busted my hub cap and stalled my car.

[Melt]

The front right wheel looks slightly bent to the right, but maybe you had the wheel turned. Glad to hear you and the car are ok though.

[FourthGenHatch]

Well I was turning in from the right so it should be like that since I never center it or anything if I'm just parking.

[habib_88]

From personal experience i'm glad to hear you and your car came out together. I wasn't as lucky in the rain in my old DX (that and i was a dumbass for speeding).

Somethings to check to help the front end keep grip in the rain that i've noticed. Straight alignment, good ball joints, proper tire pressure. If those things are all in check you should notice a improvement in the front end in the rain it shouldn't take off without warning. Your car might be a little different but it worked on my car and it was with those things all done when i noticed it was little easier to predict in the rain.

[zcmadman]

ive got 2 bad stories...
first one...about a year ago some of you may remember me talking about how i bent my frame...well i was coming home from school after weight lifting, and right b4 home there is a really fun 90 degree turn to slide around. this was when i had my old steelies so it didnt matter too much...anyways, my mistake was that i had a water in between my legs, b/c lack of cupholders,started ebrakin, then water fell, panicked,slammed on brakes, slid into a railroad tie emankment thing, bent my front left wheel all up, gashed my tire,and that bent my whole left wheel back about an inch. i am a slackard and to this day have still not gotten it fixed. now my car when i brake pulls to the left and will have to be fixed b4 i lower it. yeah it sucks...
2nd one...last night it was raining and this place was flooded and i didnt know it and i was just drivin down the road bout to get on a on ramp....and at the bottom little did i know was about a half of foot of water and all i saw was just water come up like a wave and cover my car and it pretty much stopped me in my tracks. i didnt slide or crash so thats cool, but i thought for sure my motor got hydrolocked....thankfully i chose not to get a cai but a hks short ram and i think it saved my motors life! it just sputtered a little bit and i got home safer and definately slower.

[Melt]

Originally posted by zcmadman
....thankfully i chose not to get a cai but a hks short ram and i think it saved my motors life! it just sputtered a little bit and i got home safer and definately slower.

Which is the exact reason I chose to go short ram.