Aerocovers come off driving through flood water

[Herodotus]

Driving to work in a heavy downpour recently and I came upon a flooded section of road - essentially a dip in the road with water running across and probably around 6" deep. So I ploughed through it at I guess around 20 - 30 mph and made it across fine. When I got to work I noticed that all the aerocovers were missing so immediately thought they'd been stolen, however I Googled a bit and found someone who had posted about losing them when going through floodwater. Sure enough when I returned home and looked around the area of road concerned I did find several remnants (evidently broken up by the traffic) and one complete cover. This is obviously a lesson for me to be less gung-ho with my pride and joy, but also a cautionary tale for others who may be tempted to do similar. Certainly it's not something that's mentioned in the user manual!

 

[skygraff]

Good to know.

However, while almost no car manual will bother reminding us of such things these days (old ones used to help you drive, build, and stay healthy enough to fit in the car), most authorities, driving schools, and (some) state driving laws/test agree on two relevant concepts:

1) 6” deep water is enough to cause hydroplaning and
2) Drive slowly and steadily through the water; 1–2 mph, then accelerate up to 3–4 mph.

Additionally, what looks like only 6” of standing water may, in fact, hide deeper points or even road damage so, as they say, don’t drown, turn around.

Sorry you lost your covers but glad that was all you lost.

 

[nate704]

 

[EVRider-FL]

You can buy an aero wheel cap kit (https://shop.tesla.com/product/model-3-aero-wheel-cap-kit) instead of replacing the aero wheel covers. We removed the aero covers from my wife’s 2018 Model 3 and installed the wheel caps, which I think makes the wheels look much better. The aero covers improve range, but that wasn’t a concern for us.

 

[brkaus]

20 mph in 6” water is crazy. I hope that’s an over estimate. Definitely don’t want water flying when going through standing water.

 

[Herodotus]

You can buy an aero wheel cap kit (https://shop.tesla.com/product/model-3-aero-wheel-cap-kit) instead of replacing the aero wheel covers. We removed the aero covers from my wife’s 2018 Model 3 and installed the wheel caps, which I think makes the wheels look much better. The aero covers improve range, but that wasn’t a concern for us.

Good suggestion, thanks but I did manage to get a full set of good quality 2nd hand covers from eBay for $100 equivalent so reasonably happy with that. However I did rather like the overall look without the aero's.

 

[kpanda17]

Great tip

 

[Rothgarr]

Same happened with my Rimetrix covers. I splashed through a river that had crested over a road and when I got home I noticed one of the RImetrix had come off.

 

[kpanda17]

Maybe one or more Ty wraps to the rim underneath

I have Uber covers on my M3 with sports
I would not want to loose them at $75 each