A YouTuber tried to save an Audi e-tron GT caught in a hurricane with rice. The car was able to restart, but the operation seems overall absurd.
It is customary to attempt to absorb moisture from an electronic device with rice. This can indeed prevent moisture from spreading to the battery and the most sensitive components of the device. Can this solution – which rarely works on telephones and others – be used in the case of an electric car?
This is what YouTuber Rich Benoit, from the Rich Rebuilds channel, tried to find out. The latter became famous with his reconstructions of cars, and in particular of Tesla.
Recently, he bought an Audi e-tron GT that was damaged by a hurricane and flooding. Its objective is to turn a car that has been submerged in water into a fully functional vehicle.
With just over 4,000 kilometers on the clock, the electric sedan suffered heavy damage during floods. We can also see that the model was strongly marked by the waters. But thanks to this, Rich Benoit apparently bought it at a price reduced by half compared to the new price of the model.
A functional but regrettable method
Initial findings pointed to a major moisture problem, and a specialist explained that replacing parts would not be enough to fix it. He suggested Rich Benoit use a desiccant, and told him about rice. But to place a car in rice, you need a frame around the vehicle, and rice. Lots of rice.
Rich Benoit thus used 1900 kilos of rice to dry his electric Audi. With 1.9 tonnes of food, he succeeded in his operation by leaving the Audi in the cereal grains for several days.
After getting the car out, which they had wrapped in paper, they managed to start it again. Indeed, the vehicle reacted to the start and the attempt to operate it. As Rich Benoit says, the car then displayed “any error code known to man”.
It is not known what will happen to the car afterwards, because the fact of having successfully started does not prevent oxidation, and therefore future problems. But whatever the outcome of this modification, we can especially deplore the use of two tons of food for something as futile as a YouTube video.
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