Flood Damaged Vehicles

Anonymous-0 · May 5, 2011

My elderly parents are located near the Ohio River. On Monday the flood waters suddenly filled the house and garage. They were not able to get anything out. The car was in the garage and the water got into it. There was a new garden tractor in the garage and it was completely covered with water. Are these vehicles salvageable? Any ideas from anyone? Hate to just send the stuff to a recycler.

D7fever · May 5, 2011

friend of mine lost his boat and motor down the river in a flood, found it several miles down the river, retrieved it, got it running , but was never right enough to use, silt in everything, maybe a complete rebuild might have fixed it, but doubtful.
Once the silt gets into an engine, not much hope for it, gets to be a sad situation.
Maybe someone else might have a different view.
Good luck

Tom-TX · May 5, 2011

For the new lawn mower, I would think, you could do a complete disasembly, clean, new gasket kit, and reasembly on the mower engine and transmission. Through cleaning of the frame and deck. New seat,new battery. Have no idea about the car. Tom

ohiojim · May 5, 2011

yes they salvage them all the time,...don't believe i'd buy one if i knew it was under water

robgIN · May 5, 2011

I agree the mower you might save. But as for the car I would not ever want to own a flood vehicle.Besides the obvious engine, trans, etc, all vehicles are full of electronics. Almost everything is electronically controlled on newer vehicles. You might get ir dried out and working but you will fight a never ending battle with corrosion on connectors, in modules, etc. Its not worth the headaches.

Anonymous-0 · May 5, 2011

A few stories - my Dad worked in NYC and said when they loaded cars on the ships for export once in awhile a sling would break and they'd drop into the river. He said they would be fished out and returned to the factory. New interiors applied and mechanical flushed out and either sold as new or as demos. We had a big flood in 72, Agnes. They rounded up all the flooded cars, flushed out the mechanicals with kerosene, cleaned them up, and sold them. Friend fished a motorcycle out of the river, flushed it out with kero & ran it. Check with some marinas, outboards go swimming regularly. Up north snowmobiles through the ice. And look for 'The King of Obsolete' he's resurrected many things from lakes. Good luck! joe-

keh · May 5, 2011

A car that was sumerged in water is good only for parts. Electronics are shot, new wireing harness needed, engine and transmission have to be rebuilt. New wheel bearings needed. Water in body panels. Upholstery ruined. Collect insurance and let the car go.

KEH

Bryan inIowa · May 5, 2011

Drian every thing fluid wise on the mower , power wash EVERYTHING ! WD40 all switches and linkages,cable etc . should be ok . We salvaged lots of them here in CR after the flood , city said everything was contaminanted and was to go to land fill ,,,booey ! Seen nice Scag ZTR's in the junk pile . the car,,It could be made to run,,butnot reliable . Carpets and mat ,interior needs to come out , shampoo, power wash , drian fluids, see if it runs. Beware of electrical gremlins to show up for years after thou .

ericlb · May 5, 2011

i agree you can probably salvage the mower with some work, as to the car call the insurance company, even if you by some mirricle get it to run, it will be a electrical nightmare from now on, you dont want your elderly parents in a unreliable car, let the insurance company have it and get them another one you'll be glad you did

JML755 · May 5, 2011

(quoted from post at 07:44:32 05/05/11)
......... New wheel bearings needed. ....

KEH

I don't disagree that a submerged car with all it's nooks/crannies and myriad of parts that are NOT supposed to see water will have it's issues, but I don't think wheel bearings are a problem. Bearings see water all the time in normal use and are often submerged. And use it for parts? If you don't trust the car as a whole would you trust a part that came off of it? :wink:

John Harmon. · May 5, 2011

I hope your folks have flood insurance.Not many people do. If not,the car,I would get rid of it along with the mower.It is going to be a sad thing for many people trying to recover from the floods all over the country this year.

Michael Soldan · May 5, 2011

Around here every winter someone puts a snowmobile through the ice, they fish them out ,power wash and drain the tank,get heaters and fans blowing on them to dry out as quickly as possible.Dealer told me that he did several and the key was to get them dry as quickly as possible,otherwise wiring starts to turn green. I think that lawn tractor can be saved the car not so much. Thats just my experience.

Brian G. NY · May 5, 2011

Generally, flood water is full of sand and silt;
think about that in regards to bearings.
KEH brings up an issue I hadn"t even considered; the electronics.
I have heard that there are lots of salvaged cars sold to unsuspecting customers and have also heard there are a myriad of problems that show up with these cars months and even years afterwards.

Goose · May 5, 2011

When I was in the boat repair business, I redid a few outboards that had been sunk.

You have to completely disassemble the engine and flush it out. You'd be surprised how much silt gets into everything. Wash down everything else and reassemble the unit. If you can get it done within a couple of days, it should come out OK.

This is in fresh water, as is yours. I was told by others in the industry if an outboard gets sunk in salt water you have four hours to get it torn down, cleaned up, and running again.

The car I'd give up on. When I was a Claims Adjuster working vehicle service contracts, whenever there was a flood or even heavy rain in an area we'd take note and watch for strange claims from that area. The typical service contract excluded flood damage.

CLTX · May 5, 2011

IIRC, outboard engines submerged in salt water had to be taken care of, to a point, immediately, or within four hours, as Goose stated. Many times, this involved submerging the engine in a tank of fresh water until the engine could be properly attended to. If the engine was exposed to air for more than a few hours, it rapidly became junk, due to corrosion.

Mike (WA) · May 5, 2011

Car dealer lot got flooded here- All the cars went to Utah, which apparently has more lenient salvage vehicle laws than we do.

Don't see how it would be economically feasible to rebuild a flood car- all new interior, electronics, etc.

Had a client whose car was at the dealership for repair at the time- he was hopelessly underwater on it (pun intended)- worth about 5K, he owed over 12, had come to me to see about a bankruptcy. He had insurance for the balance owed, and was overjoyed at his "loss".

big fred · May 5, 2011

Depends on the part. Wheels and tires are okay, window glass is okay, hood and trunk lid are okay, plastic bumper covers are okay. Probably a lot more parts are salvageable. The ones I listed are often needed as replacements, so there's a demand for them.

bobs old iron · May 5, 2011

i wounder what japan is going to do with their cars from the tsunami, clean them up and pass them off as 2012 models at half price and tell us they are trying to get back on their feet, huh.

Hill-Billy Rock-Star · May 5, 2011

I know here in Michigan the insurance companies total a car out due to flood damage if the bottom of the seat where your butt sets gets wet. If your going to try and claim it on insurance I would not tell them it was in the Garage if you don"t have flood insurance. I would tell them your father drove in to water that he thought was only 6" deep and turned out to be 3 feet or so the car stalled. Insurance companys rip everyone off I don"t have a problom with a little pay back.

NCWayne · May 5, 2011

I'd probaly try to salvage the mower if the insurance didn't want to total it out but the car is a loss. I went through an old Ford truck for a guy some years back that had been submerged in a flood. Once washed out the engine was fine but the electrical system was another story all together. I won't go into detail here but suffice it to say the silt in flood water will get into places you'd never believe it will get and cause you more problems than you'd believe. Given that the truck was old enough to be pre-electronic and the car in question isn't I can forsee nothing but problems with it from now on.....Get it paid for by the insurance and scrapped as soon as possible, you'll be glad you did.

Bob Kerr · May 7, 2011

No one brought up what happens to the clutches in automatic transmissions either. The friction material is applied with a water based adhesive to the steel plates. If it goes underwater, trans trouble is not far behind.

Flood Damaged Vehicles

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