How you should drive when its raining.

Slow down

While it might be obvious, it’s not usually practiced – but the easiest and safest thing to do while driving in rain is slow down. Not just because visibility is reduced, therefore making it harder to detect hazards, but because stopping, braking and turning in the wet requires more distance due to reduced friction between your tires and the road.

Even with good tires, braking in the wet is about half as effective as in the dry. So, if a child darts out between cars in a residential zone, or a car or pedestrian cuts across your path, a vehicle travelling at 48 km/h will require 37 metres to stop in the wet — about the length of three school buses; that includes the driver’s split-second reaction time, plus the needed distance to halt the vehicle. Reducing that 48 km/h to 32 km/h cuts the stopping distance by more than half, to just 18 metres. Even a little slower is a lot safer. “Speed limits are set for ideal conditions, and since driving in the rain isn’t ideal, drivers need to adjust their speed and brake sooner,” says Scott Marshall 

The art of driving in the rain

Out on the road, keep more distance than normal between other vehicles when it’s raining. Stay well back, or overtake, big trucks and buses so as not to get stuck in their spray. In heavy rain, follow the tracks of the vehicle in front, which will have pushed some of the water away. On roads where heavy truck traffic has left sags in the pavement, keep the left tires closer to the road’s crown, where the chances of standing water are less. Remember, too, that roads get covered in lubricants when dry, and in rain these oils come to the surface of the water on the road, making them especially greasy.

Dry the brakes

Wet roads mean wet brakes, and the four wheel discs on most cars can be coated with water just when you need them most. Some cars automatically touch the pads to the rotors to scrub water, and add heat to the rotor to remove water, but you can do this too by gently touching the brakes after splashing through a wet spot.

Dry the interior

Rainy days bring 100 percent humidity, all of which flows into your interior, easily fogging the inside glass. Turn on your AC to dry the incoming cabin air, and set the airflow to the dash vents, not defrost, which will only make the front glass sweat in warm weather. Avoid using the “re-circ” button unless the AC is on.

Use technology wisely

Today’s cars come with more driver assist functions than ever before, but many can’t adapt to rainy weather. Cruise control, adaptive cruise, lane keep assist and forward collision warning systems can create a false sense of control. If cruise control is engaged and your car starts to hydroplane, there will be no weight transfer to the front wheels as there would be if you lifted off the gas – and adaptive cruise control might not keep the correct distance needed in the rain. ABS systems, however, are excellent in the rain, as are traction control and stability control. Use your car’s technology when it makes sense to do so.

Wash your car!!

Some of us!! Do not wash our cars during the rainy season saying oh well let the rain do the washing. Well there's this shocker that sometimes we have acidic rain, when the residue for acidic rain remains too long on your car, it could ruin the paint on the car as well as cause quicker corrosion to the exposed metal parts of the car.

The same way you wash your car when you come back from a dusty road, you should wash the car after driving in the rain.

Driving quickly through a pond of water

Oh well we all have this temptation of driving quickly through water ponds on the road or a deposit of water, either for the fun of the side flash or for the fear what's in the water.

The best way to drive through a water deposit is slowly, this would prevent water from rushing into the engine bay from beneath the car, increasing the chance of ruining a component, and then there is the risk of deployment of the airbags if the sensors feel too much pressure from the wave of water hitting it. So please guys just drive slowly through that pond.

As tempting as it is to charge through that puddle at high speed, it’s usually a bad idea. Water can shoot up into the engine bay and fault or short-circuit sensitive electronics or processors. It can also cause the steering wheel to pull hard to one side, potentially creating an accident. And if confronted with deep water that looks shallow enough to cross, do not attempt, because if water seeps through the door seals into your interior, it will become a greenhouse for mould and potentially stink forever after. If your car does get submerged, do not attempt to start the vehicle right away as the water could potentially trigger the airbags.

Be safe, be Motosmart.....