I drive my brand new car into Lake Ten Killer 25 years ago.
Well, it wasn’t exactly like that.
It had rained something awesome for days and I was driving by, it occurred to me the fish would nearer the shore looking for bait fish.
So, I drove my car through a field and then all of a sudden it wouldn’t move anymore.
Irritated, I opened the door and found I was in 1.5 feet of water.
Called a friend who had a tow truck and he pulled me out.
Told me I was screwed, as water was probably in the crank and engine.
I laughed and asked if was really a tow truck driver, as I seems he didn’t know much about automotive engineering.
I informed him the only water was in the engine was if the water came in through the carb, or somehow crawled up the manifold, through the exhaust.
So, got it home, sent it through the car wash and carefully washed the engine compartment and all under the car.
I then pulled the seats and carpet. Took the carpet down to the car wash and sprayed it clean, then I dropped two fans in front of the carpet as it lay on the porch to dry it.
While the carpet was out I carefully cleaned inside the car, including in the runners on of the door jamb, to ensure that area was pristine.
Since I was there I took time to install a new stereo and a kill switch that disabled the ignition with a hidden switch.
After it was all dry, I put it back together and it never smelled nor had any problems for 200k miles, until I sold it.
This SUV is FUBAR though as the water was nearly you the roof , which enabled water to inundate the engine and the entire cabin.
I was thinking with all the electronics like power windows, computers, GPS etc. that didn’t exist 25 years ago with salt water to boot they are out of luck. I always figured that you could drain the water out of the engine and transmission, change the oil and start it up quick to dry it out on an old car you would still be OK. I read an old car magazine where somebody did that with a 60’s Cadillac whose front end was submerged at a car show. They were able to drive the car home but the magazine didn’t know the long term impact.
I don’t think you could get a car of recent vintage started because all of the electronics. As you note with it up to the roof I am sure it is totaled.
After the war when things got a little more favorable on the farm, Dad bought a Massey-Harris 26 combine. It had a 4 cylinder Continental engine sitting low underneath. My oldest brother operated it for a few years. Then when he went off to school, the job went to brother #2.
Either his first or second year, the wheat was ripe & it was time to harvest. The engine would not turn over. Solution: Hook the tractor to it and tow start it. The engine would not turn over. My brother decided to look farther & removed a spark plug. The cylinder was full of water. He removed all the plugs & we towed it a bunch to get the water out of the cylinders. I suspect he changed the oil, but we did the harvest with it that year and maybe one more, but it eventually started to use oil and Dad had the engine rebuilt.
What had happened was that the flap on the vertical exhaust pipe had rusted off, allowing snow & rain to flow into the engine all Fall, Winter & Spring. After that we put a tin can on top of the exhaust pipe.