About a few months back, we experienced heavy flooding in the Houston area. A few friends and I had to make an emergency trip across town that day, and unfortunately I lost the game of paper/rock/scissors to see who had to drive.

To make a long story short, my car was fine, but the water level was high enough to engulf halfway up to my tire height. As a result, I started hearing a bad sound everytime I braked. Once the flooding stopped, I still heard the sound everytime I removed my foot from the brake pedal, but it was much more subtle and sounds similar to a rusting that is found on older cars.

Is this something normal (a gradual situation that eventually all cars get to) or is it a negative impact of the water level possibly infiltrating my braking system?

My car has 35,000 miles.

Thanks,

 

I'm not sure how high the water was, but if it's a brake noise, get it checked ASAP.

Water is devastating to ABS systems, at a minimum flush your entire system with high quality fluid. Brake Fluid absorbs water, so make sure the fluid you buy is still sealed and throw away the excess fluid (in the bottle) when you are done. Don't let it sit on the shelf once you break the seal.

You might also want to change your Power Steering, Transmission and Diff fluids to make sure you don't have any moisture related failures in the future.

Fluids are cheap, hard parts are expensive. Some times, in high water, the vents for those systems will fill with water and cuase problems down the road.

Good Luck!