Drove in deep water, is the car okay?

Old here, glad you made okay along with your Prius. Road flooding was bad here months ago, I drove thru 8 inches of water on some long stretches. Have it all on dashcam footage also. The yellow double lines were barely visible looking down from driver side. I didn’t back out because water would go into the tail pipe and others drove behind me single file. Good thing I had cars in front so I could gauge the depth before entering. Cal Trans/DOT & Dept of H20 never updated their websites that roads were flooded that morning, detour was additional 45 mins, had to vent sorry.

If you must drive on flooded roads, if you can see double yellow solids, you’ll be fine but don’t go faster than 5 mph, and if water is splashing/flying out of the fenders, you’re going too fast. Had 3 cars in front of me in 2 days die because they went too fast engine failed on the flooded road.

The next week, at our Prius meet up, I unclipped the plastic engine under panel to inspect, nothing looked affected by the water. The white spongy cotton dampening cloth was still wet though.

The wheel bearings and brake caliper pins lost some grease due to water washing it away. You can always reapply lube on the pins but not so much with the wheel bearings. In couple of months I’ll have to relube the pins sooner than the usual every 3 years or 36,000 miles.

 

My experience is that the first thing to complain are the wheel speed sensors, used for antilock braking and traction control. They're built into the wheel hubs, so exactly halfway up the height of the wheel. They generally dry out on their own but it may take a couple of days.

 

welcome!
i think you're fine. report back if anything funny happens.