Possible to salvage a car flooded by salt water?

Iwannahurl

A large number of vehicles were flooded by sea water in Galway during Wednesday night's storm (18th December).

Can a car immersed in salt water be salvaged? Is it worth the effort?

Hal1

Coming to a dungdeal near you soon.

NuckingFacker

The short answer is no. The electrical system will be ruined and become more ruined as time passes, think ecu, bcu, abs and airbag modules - the panels will rot from the inside out and the interior will be utterly manky. All the bearings will be shagged, the brakes, and on and on. Economically impossible. Thing is though, someone will do a cosmetic job on a few and sham them off on some poor souls..

punisher5112

1st thing car will never be right.
It will smell bad and that will never be gotten rid of.
Electrics will corode among lots of other parts.

I done up an old almera years ago that was flooded in Ringsend from a underground car park, it was some amount of work taking everything out and jet washing the whole inside and getting second hand interior and re fitting among a lot of other stuff.

Honestly not really worth the hassle.

Dark sun

Could be done but your only asking for trouble not wort the hassle, be better off selling for scrap or parts.

Odelay

Dark sun wrote: »

Could be done but your only asking for trouble not wort the hassle, be better off selling for scrap or parts.

And lord help the poor fooker buying the parts........

sport_nut

why not claim against insurance as a write off

punisher5112

Most will unless only third party then not so.

visual

I really wouldn't like to be duped in buying a flood damaged car. It would break your heart with constant expensive repairs until you finally throw in the towel or pawn it on to some other unfortunate. Even the scrappy would end up with grief selling dud parts

NuckingFacker

Buying a flood damaged car would be like buying a peugeot - constant electrical problems and corroding wiring. Do peugeot build their cars under 6' of salt water?

punisher5112

NuckingFacker wrote: »

Buying a flood damaged car would be like buying a peugeot - constant electrical problems and corroding wiring. Do peugeot build their cars under 6' of salt water?

Bit like Renew as soon as you can I mean Renault... and Fiat, Alfafa.

Rubbish cars for the Irish weather and the damp we get as it plays havoc with them.

Should all buy a Hilux that will work no matter what you do with it:pac:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnWKz7Cthkk

Atlantic Dawn

The alloys would be ok, the rest of the car should be buried at sea.

Iwannahurl

Thanks for all the replies.

sport_nut wrote: »

why not claim against insurance as a write off

Thing is, I am wondering whether all the motorists will be insured in this instance. The car park in question has been flooded before, and there may have been warning notices up.

The car at the top right of the photo above is a very nice Volvo XC90 with leather upholstery, which is why I was wondering about salvage possibilities. What a waste...

B00056718

Somebody I know bought a faultless Fiat Stilo once. After couple of weeks they rang me as they knew I had the FiatECU software on my laptop.

It scanned 19 different errors. Camshaft sensor, abs sensor, connections to multiple airbags, random misfire, conflicting input from steering torque sensor etc.

Turned out it had been flooded with fresh water before. Don't think there is much hope for that XC90

NuckingFacker

Salt water is also insidious - the faults become worse as time passes and connectors corrode. You could dip a simple vehicle in sea water and it would probably function when it emerges -assuming you change all fluids and drain out the cylinders - like that Hilux, however as the corrosive action of the salt begins to really kick in, the vehicles a gonner. That's a simple vehicle. A modern car or suv, kiss it goodbye. It would be like throwing a telly into the sea and expecting it to work again afterwards.

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

NuckingFacker wrote: »

Salt water is also insidious - the faults become worse as time passes and connectors corrode. You could dip a simple vehicle in sea water and it would probably function when it emerges -assuming you change all fluids and drain out the cylinders - like that Hilux, however as the corrosive action of the salt begins to really kick in, the vehicles a gonner. That's a simple vehicle. A modern car or suv, kiss it goodbye. It would be like throwing a telly into the sea and expecting it to work again afterwards.

How long would that take? Hypothetically if you could somehow remove the smell from the interior, and whack the car up on donedeal, how long before the poor unfortunate new owner realises their mistake?

flashforward

Would all the plastic parts not be ok for salvage? Bumpers, plastic wings etc?

Seweryn

flashforward wrote: »

Would all the plastic parts not be ok for salvage? Bumpers, plastic wings etc?

Plastics would be OK. To make it ecomonically sensible, you would have to get the car for nothing.

NuckingFacker

Johnny Electricity wrote: »

How long would that take? Hypothetically if you could somehow remove the smell from the interior, and whack the car up on donedeal, how long before the poor unfortunate new owner realises their mistake?

It's done all the time. They swap out the interior, bang in a commercial dehumidifier and power-wash the hell out of them. People begin to cop a musty smell after a while, the electrics seem a bit erratic from the word go and then it sits down on them. If there's a profit, people will do it.

The world of cut and shuts is also still going, which is an eye-opener. I was looking at a citroen on a lift the other day that was mated at the front pillars - the work was well done and it looked absolutely spot on, the question I had was why bother, the profit in that is miniscule but it seems there's a lot of very talented europeans working at low margins and happy to do so. Just don't be the one who crashes it. Or have to keep tyres on it! The alignment was out by 25mm overall ffs but it still looked the part! There's a whole world of ruthless fun out there.

visual

Gear box solid axles if fitted and engine all have breaders as fluid expands when warm and contracts when cool water will enter through these breather holes.

You might notice higher oil level on dip stick for engine oil but many gearboxes don't have dip stick so will go un noticed.

When water enters its also got grit so a gear box will wear more quickly same with bearings in engine and wheels

You propably wouldn't notice for a while unltil bearings start to wear
The electrics will corriod at contacts
Starter motor alternator and pumps lives would be shorten.
While headlamps can be cleaded they will never be as good as previously.

A cleaned up flood damaged car could be difficult to spot when buying even with a pre inspection.

You drive away with you newly purchase car thinking you got a good deal then the repair bills start to hit. It won't be everything at once but a constant drip of repairs and weird electrical faults.

Insurance companies write flood damage cars off because they also know they can't be put right.

There will always be a few that will clean up these cars and sell them on but who ever buys one no matter how cheap will be sitting on a time bomb and need very deep pockets

grainnewhale

visual wrote: »

Gear box solid axles if fitted and engine all have breaders as fluid expands when warm and contracts when cool water will enter through these breather holes.

You might notice higher oil level on dip stick for engine oil but many gearboxes don't have dip stick so will go un noticed.

When water enters its also got grit so a gear box will wear more quickly same with bearings in engine and wheels

You propably wouldn't notice for a while unltil bearings start to wear
The electrics will corriod at contacts
Starter motor alternator and pumps lives would be shorten.
While headlamps can be cleaded they will never be as good as previously.

A cleaned up flood damaged car could be difficult to spot when buying even with a pre inspection.

You drive away with you newly purchase car thinking you got a good deal then the repair bills start to hit. It won't be everything at once but a constant drip of repairs and weird electrical faults.

Insurance companies write flood damage cars off because they also know they can't be put right.

There will always be a few that will clean up these cars and sell them on but who ever buys one no matter how cheap will be sitting on a time bomb and need very deep pockets

as you already said though. you wont know until maybe 6 months down the line. the biggest give away would be the price. moral of the story if you selling ****e price it dear to avoid suspicion

mickdw

I once flew a radio controlled helicopter into the sea and had to wait till next morning to find it. It was unbelievable how much it had deteriorated. Parts had completely rusted, soldered connections and push fit joints were in bits, even wire cores were rusted a fair bit in places.
A completely flooded car is a no hoper.
On the other hand, a car that was only flooded to about a foot high internally could reasonable enough.

grainnewhale

flashforward wrote: »

Would all the plastic parts not be ok for salvage? Bumpers, plastic wings etc?

no they would fall apart due to plastic oxidisation

Del2005

mickdw wrote: »

I once flew a radio controlled helicopter into the sea and had to wait till next morning to find it. It was unbelievable how much it had deteriorated. Parts had completely rusted, soldered connections and push fit joints were in bits, even wire cores were rusted a fair bit in places.
A completely flooded car is a no hoper.
On the other hand, a car that was only flooded to about a foot high internally could reasonable enough.

Any water getting into a car will destroy, most electrics and loads of breather holes are just below the sills, which is why your not supposed to drive though water deeper than the tyres.

Insurance companies shouldn't be allowed sell these cars for salvage, they should crushed before any payout as the only thing left of value is the VIN plates.

grainnewhale

Del2005 wrote: »

Any water getting into a car will destroy, most electrics and loads of breather holes are just below the sills, which is why your not supposed to drive though water deeper than the tyres.

Insurance companies shouldn't be allowed sell these cars for salvage, they should crushed before any payout as the only thing left of value is the VIN plates.

you don't need to crush a car to destroy vin plates. that would be a waste

grainnewhale

Del2005 wrote: »

Any water getting into a car will destroy, most electrics and loads of breather holes are just below the sills, which is why your not supposed to drive though water deeper than the tyres.

Insurance companies shouldn't be allowed sell these cars for salvage, they should crushed before any payout as the only thing left of value is the VIN plates.

breather holes for what

mikeym

Reminds me of an episode of Top Gear featuring the invincible Toyota Hilux.

2:20

CJhaughey

grainnewhale wrote: »

breather holes for what

Diffs, gearboxes, etc

CJhaughey

grainnewhale wrote: »

no they would fall apart due to plastic oxidisation

Plastic doesn't react to salt water like ferrous metals and electronics so yes plastic panels are fine.

grainnewhale

CJhaughey wrote: »

Diffs, gearboxes, etc

yes but for obvious reasons these would be on the top of the same so regardless where the outlet was, the water level would have to be above them for it to enter.

Sobanek

I always wondered how the Polish did it...

Here's the story: Friend buys a US Imported 2007 BMW 550i in 2011.
Car imported from the US in 2008.
After twelve months, he decided to sell it.
Shared the VIN number in the ad.
Get a call, with the guy calling him all sorts of names.
After checking the VIN turns out the car was flood damaged.
No problems over 12 months except a faulty airbag sensor.

How?????

NuckingFacker

Sobanek wrote: »

I always wondered how the Polish did it...

Here's the story: Friend buys a US Imported 2007 BMW 550i in 2011.
Car imported from the US in 2008.
After twelve months, he decided to sell it.
Shared the VIN number in the ad.
Get a call, with the guy calling him all sorts of names.
After checking the VIN turns out the car was flood damaged.
No problems over 12 months except a faulty airbag sensor.

How?????

freshwater, probably. That's a whole different ball-game. It's the NaCl that does the real damage.

the_syco

sport_nut wrote: »

why not claim against insurance as a write off

Would this be seen as an "act of god"?

CJhaughey

the_syco wrote: »

Would this be seen as an "act of god"?

Lightning is an Act of God, Flooding is usually claimable.

Del2005

grainnewhale wrote: »

yes but for obvious reasons these would be on the top of the same so regardless where the outlet was, the water level would have to be above them for it to enter.[/quote"]

The vast majority of cars delicate bits are below the sills, to allow more space for people, even 4x4s don't have breathers much higher than the tires unless speced up hugely.

Once something has a hole water will get in. Mechanical bits can be repaired with complete dissembling, greasing and reassembling. All electrical connections need to be redone but the cables will always be suspect. With sea water everything which uses electricity is hugely suspect and even mechanical repairs require much more work.

Del2005

grainnewhale wrote: »

you don't need to crush a car to destroy vin plates. that would be a waste

You've missed the point. The only value in flooded cars is their VIN, the remaining parts only have recoverable scrap metal or plastic value. The insurance companies selling the cars for several thousand Euro only encourages unscrupulous people to rip off innocent people. In the vast majority of insurance claims most cars can be repaired for a fraction of the write off price, flooded cars can never be repaired.

grainnewhale

Del2005 wrote: »

grainnewhale wrote: »

yes but for obvious reasons these would be on the top of the same so regardless where the outlet was, the water level would have to be above them for it to enter.[/quote"]

The vast majority of cars delicate bits are below the sills, to allow more space for people, even 4x4s don't have breathers much higher than the tires unless speced up hugely.

Once something has a hole water will get in. Mechanical bits can be repaired with complete dissembling, greasing and reassembling. All electrical connections need to be redone but the cables will always be suspect. With sea water everything which uses electricity is hugely suspect and even mechanical repairs require much more work.

does dragging on the ground not do them any harm

grainnewhale

Del2005 wrote: »

You've missed the point. The only value in flooded cars is their VIN, the remaining parts only have recoverable scrap metal or plastic value. The insurance companies selling the cars for several thousand Euro only encourages unscrupulous people to rip off innocent people. In the vast majority of insurance claims most cars can be repaired for a fraction of the write off price, flooded cars can never be repaired.

you missed my point there are other ways to prevent a car going back on the road than crushing them. if its wrote off and the logbook destroyed. the chassis number cut out.

ZeRoY

If fully comp then a write off should get you the value of the car - there is no point in even trying to get a car fully flooded by sea water to get fixed, its straight to the dump.