I’m originally from the north east (New York and Boston) and the wet weather conditions are much worse than in Austin. Big rain storms, snow, ice, etc. In my 30+ years of living on the East Coast, I never once drove down a flooded road or had issues with hydro locked engines. Even on highly modified cars I had with large, exposed, open air intakes.

Like you said, this is a car not a boat. Even if the water gets splashed into the intake flap, that water would have to travel 1.5 feet to reach the filter, completely saturate it/soak through it, and ingest enough water to lock up the engine. The chances of that happening from one splash is slim to none. This is why it's not a widespread issue - no one else has experienced this scenario with their W205 C63 to my knowledge. Has anyone put their car through an automated car wash where the engine is running? If it was that easy, you'd be hearing more stories of W205 C63 hydrolocking when pressurized water is sprayed on the front end. You need a fairly large amount of water to reach and pass through the filter, and that generally only happens when it's submerged under water (all it takes is 1 second in a deep puddle and you'll do it).

I don't think there is a flaw with the intake either. I just think this YouTuber didn't take appropriate precautions when driving in a flooded area he was well aware of. He monetized the videos and made them clickbait. His alarmist video is why this thread was started. Yet, there's not a single instance of this happening to anyone else with the W205 C63.

So no, there is no intake design flaw. There was, however, a major driver flaw.

I appreciate the insight. I get that weather in Central Texas can get bad, but don’t disregard the hurricanes and storms that hit the Northeast. Remember Hurricane Sandy? The Atlantic gets some pretty awful storms.

Let’s not ignore the fact that this guy lives in Pittsburg which is still considered the north east.

I mentioned this before, but better judgement would have avoided this from happening. The NE may not get the sudden downpours like central Texas, but the storms are large enough to flood and create extremely dangerous driving conditions. This guy shouldn’t have been driving in those conditions under any circumstances. Pull over and wait it out, or don’t drive in the first place.

Sensationalizing and amplifying this as a “flaw” is purely for clicks and generating revenue. That’s what annoys me the most, because we have threads like these where people start questioning whether they can drive their cars in the rain at all.

Stock intake system on the Subaru STI You see on right the container that sits in fender wheel well area . Design to take in excess water and reduce intake noise. This what my old STI had .