Posted on 09/04/2017 10:29:07 AM PDT by Forgotten Amendments
Drive the car with the windows rolled up and the heat on. Do this on a dry day. If you see fog forming by the air vents, it’s another Danger! Danger! Will Robinson! warning. You will probably smell funk, too.
Check all dash warning lights. They should all come on briefly when the ignition is first turned on, then turn off after a few moments. If some – especially the “check engine” light – don’t come on, it’s possible the bulb was pulled to make it appear that all is ok. Find out why the light isn’t coming on.
Look closely at the instrument cluster for signs of mist/haze on the interior side of the clear plastic. Check all head and tail-light assemblies for the same thing. Sometimes, you’ll see actual water floating around inside.
(Excerpt) Read more at ericpetersautos.com ...
Check behind brake pedal for rust and under seats.
I heard yesterday that up to 1,000,000 vehicles have been flooded by Harvey.
Thanks for posting. Hoping I’ll remember this caution in the next couple of years.
I was just telling the wife yesterday that we will have to be careful buying used cars for a few years.
New cars, too, according to the article.
Check for fish in the trunk......
bookmark
My daughter bought a Katrina car from a friends brother for $600. Had 90,000 on it when she bought it
that darn thing went to 150K with me only having to change a heater blower switch.
ymmv
Yes, but they will be buying these cars a salvage. They will be buying it with a Salvage Title.
As a salvaged car it can not be sold as NEW.
A salvaged car can be retitled but only as a used car.
The only people that can get a new car title are new car dealers. And they have to have documents from the manufacturer showing build dates.
That can occur on cars that have never been in a flood.....
1. Do not attempt to start.
2. Disconnect battery.
3. Power wash everything inside and out.
4. Drain and replace all fluids
5. I placed a dehumidifier on a large tray in the car and kept emptying it until it no longer filled the resivor. It will take a few days.
I learned from a submerged laptop. Do not add electric until completely dry inside. If dry, you stand a good chance of it working again. Did this with a copier as well and it worked fine.
Do you know that it was flooded?
Just because it was there doesn’t mean that it was flooded.
If you went to the article there is a picture of a parking lot that the cars are flood over the doors.
I would take one of those cars as a gift but only to have it towed to the nearest salvage yard to sell as scrap.
A rare car like a 55 T-Bird might be worth while if you got it at a price where you could afford to have a frame off restoration.
But other than that you are better off walking away.
Even sealed bearings are not going to stand up to days or weeks of soaking.
The cars – many of them brand-new – are declared total losses and the dealership gets compensated by the insurance company. The cars ought to be recycled at this point – or parted out (some parts are still perfectly usable). But because it is not hard – for the expert crooked car seller – to pull out the carpet, dry the obvious things, clean the car up and then (critical) efface any mention of “salvage” or “flood damage” from the car’s title/vehicle history report – and then sell the seemingly near-new/low-miles car far, far away from the source of its swim, he does exactly that.Crooks are crooks. Watch out for new cars, too.
It had a salvage title. Traced to NO.
But, realistically, for a modern car that gets even partially immersed, all the electronics and textiles have to be replaced. That means engine and transmission as well (at least rebuilt) since there are many electronic components inside the drivetrain.
If it isn't a valuable vintage car, it's probably not worth repairing.
Sure crooks will give you a line like.
This car only has 600 miles on it. The original owner drove it for a week and didn’t like it for some reason. The dealer wouldn’t take it back unless he traded it in on a new car. But the dealer didn’t have anything he liked so he brought it to me.
Let the buyer beware.
I remember shopping for a used car some years back. One lot had lots of SUVs (which I wanted) at great prices but soon we began to notice certain things inside and outside the cars. I surreptitiously wrote down VIN numbers while my dad was chatting with the salesman (this was before cell phones became commonplace).
We left without buying anything and I went online to Carfax or whatever it was at the time. The cars had all been brought north from Georgia, where there had been horrible floods a few months earlier.
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