Flood damage

synthius2002 17 years ago

During a recent flash flood, lots of cars here were stalled on the streets.

A friend of mine just finished replacing a stabilizer pin, timing belt, other belt, and who knows what else. The car won't start, and the shop and insurance people say to throw it away. He says it won't crank properly, but I haven't heard it myself.

My only personal experience was with hydro-lock, but not from flooding. I can't believe a 4' deep puddle would flood the engine intake.

Any ideas of what to look at next?

Nils

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ben91932 17 years ago

Pull the plugs and crank... All you need is fuel spark and compression! HTH, Ben

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Tegger 17 years ago

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote in news:93c0c338-cf60-49a4-b2a6-158d225ee982 @j14g2000vbp.googlegroups.com:

You had one of those fancy "Cold Air Intakes" didn't you?

A four-foot puddle has immersed the entire interior as well as the entire engine.

Flood-damaged cars are normally written-off, not fixed. And with good reason.

The primary problem these days is electrical damage. Modern cars have very extensive, complex and sensitive electrical systems, and much computerization. Get that stuff wet and the cost to replace it all will likely exceed the value of the car when it was /new/, let alone what it's worth now as a /used/ vehicle.

If your friend has the receipts from the work he had done, he may be able to negotiate a few bucks more from the insurance company, maybe 25 on the dollar (if he's lucky, and if the total was high enough to be worth the hassle).

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Steve W. 17 years ago

Sounds like it's JUNK. Flooding will destroy a car in very short order. The water gets into the engine, trans, wiring and more. Basically wipes out the car.

4' is PLENTY deep to flood most autos. 2' can kill many of the low riding import rigs. I would pull any good hard parts. Sell off the parts and buy a different auto.

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N8N 17 years ago

Four FEET?

Two options:

1) as soon as the water recedes, immediately disassemble entire car and treat every individual part, wiring connector, etc. with some kind of water displacer/corrosion preventative. Reassemble, change all fluids, try it.

2) buy a new car

cost of the two options is probably roughly equivalent. Sounds like your friend already missed the window for option 1).

nate

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