On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 00:03:30 +0000, Bruce L. Bergman wrote:
On 19 Dec 2004 13:02:28 -0800, wrote:
Hello...
It might be the wrong list. but, going by the responses to an older
question, i decided to try my luck.
You might have better luck in alt.autos.toyota - This message is
being crossposted there for your convenience.
;-) TeGGeR, Gord, Phillip, a.a.toyota denizens: Be Nice & Behave.
Or Else I'll sic Gunner from r.c.metalworking on ya, and when he's
done there won't be much left... ;-)
My sister drove my 1999 Camry into a slightly frozen ditch in Minneapolis.
Good. (Sorta.) ;-) You can let your sister help pay the difference
between what the insurance will pay for the car, and what it will cost
to replace the car with a comparable one - you always end up getting
screwed a bit on the insurance payout, but it's still a whole lot
better than losing it all.
Hey, Bruce, and OP; we have been buying up waterdamaged cars since the
great flod in PA a couple months ago, and have only had one hydraulic lock.
Do what Bruce says; drain everything. Then refill and try to start it.
Hopefully the engine quit (or your (sister?) shut it off when it got
submerged. Then, if you *do* have a garage, let it dry, but also, if the
passenger compartment got invaded, remove the seats (14mm socket) and the
console, and pull the carpets, and dry them thouroughly. You can also take
them to a professional detailer that has an 'extractor' and have them
professionally cleaned and dried. As long as nothing got locked (by being
filled with water) it should come out ok. Flood damage is about the
easiest type of 'accident' to recover from. If not, we'll buy the car
after your ins co. totals it, do all of the above, and sell it!
Then it was towed to our place.
The front of the car was under water up until the front doors. The
towing guys and the cop said it was junk. I am not aware of all the
inside goings on of a car. I guess, the first step will be draining the
water. In one of the other threads, i read a comment about
autotansmission not working. I wanted to know if this car would be
drivable again. The dealer will be taking a look tomorrow.
thanks in advance...
Sreekanth
It all depends on what on the car got submerged, and for how long.
If it went in nose first and only submerged the engine compartment,
the engine stopped before sucking in much water, and didn't get any
large quantities of water into the passenger compartment, the car
MIGHT be salvageable. If nothing else, it's a good body shell for
parts and the interior.
First step is to get it stabilized - RIGHT NOW!! TODAY!! (Okay,
after you finish reading this...) Do it before the water has time to
cause any more damage.
Get the car into a heated garage where you have room to work on it,
or into a closed garage and get some portable 'salamander' heaters
running (carefully!) to raise the temperature and drive out the
moisture. Have low and high ventilation grilles in the garage walls
open so the moisture has a way out.
Get a good carpet cleaner wet vacuum and get all the water out of
the carpet and seats. Then pull the seats and carpets out of the car
so they can dry from the backside, along with any trim (door panels,
kick panels) that got wet. Get fans circulating air inside the car
(and have heaters running in the garage) to get the interior dried
out. BEFORE it has a chance to start rusting or mildewing.
While the car is drying, you can start under the hood. Drain and
change the motor oil, transmission, PS and all engine fluids,
including changing the brake fluid and doing a full brake system
bleeding - brake fluid sucks up water like a sponge, and quickly rusts
the system from the inside.
Clean out and dry the distributor, starter, alternator, etc. and
look for signs of trouble. Try testing the components separately off
the car, so you can eliminate them as trouble points later. If it was
underwater for a while (like the starter motor) toss it and get a
fresh rebuild - paint "flood" on any cores you return so they don't
try reusing them.
Pull the sparkplugs before you try turning the engine over. If it
wasn't damaged by hydrolock before (ingesting water through the air
intake while running), the starter has enough power to finish it off.
If it squirts big gouts of water out the sparkplug holes when you turn
it over, that is a bad sign. Do compression and cylinder leakdown
tests to see if the bottom end is toast.
If the car has airbags, any components that were submerged are
trash, including impact sensors and the system 'brain box'. If the
EFI computer was submerged, it's probably toast too, along with any
fancy electronics like cruise control units. And these items get Real
Expensive, Real Fast, and will lead to the insurance company totaling
out the car rather than pay to fix it up.
If the insurer decides the car is junk, you have to make a judgment
call whether you want to buy it back from them and repair it yourself,
or have the work done - Cars that were flooded are rarely the same
afterwards, you'll be fighting annoying electronic gremlins for years.
This is one of the big reasons they push CARFAX, so you don't get
stuck buying a damaged used car that will be nothing but trouble.
-- Bruce --