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Flood damaged cars Legal Problems
31 messages, Last post on Jan 09, 2012 at 2:46 PM
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What is this discussion about? Car Safety, Buying Insurance
#1 of 31 flood damage by mmmm6
Jul 08, 2001 (7:01 am)
I am considering buying a flood damaged car from a dealer. Does anyone have any experience with this and what would be the major problems I could encounter? I would appreciate any advice.
#2 of 31 by eneth
Jul 08, 2001 (11:40 am)
You don't want it. Any car that has been flooded is considered totaled - it will have a salvage title in most states and be worthless on the used-car market.Flooding causes all sorts of problems with cars - most of the damage unseen. Skip that car and buy something else.
#3 of 31 Good advise! by isellhondas
Jul 08, 2001 (1:07 pm)
And the problems will never go away. You will have electrical problems years later.#4 of 31 Nothing smells like the inside of a flooded car by kinley
Jul 08, 2001 (8:47 pm)
on a hot day with the windows rolled up. Makes you want to throw up.#5 of 31 and rust never sleeps by lokki
Jul 08, 2001 (9:41 pm)
Water got into places that were never intended to get wet....Given all of the above, you'd have to get the car for almost free, and be ready to just walk away from it when something major goes wrong,
#6 of 31 demolition derby by blarg1
Jul 09, 2001 (12:11 pm)
offer the dealer this...you buy the car for $100. then dealer sponsers you in a demo derby.paint his name all over the car... find a couple guys to work on the car-ad in the paper? then smash it up, and save someone else from buying the floater.
#7 of 31 My Uncle had a nice Chrysler New Yorker... by wilcox
Jul 09, 2001 (5:16 pm)
It got into a flood in Florida. Water went up to the inside floor board. When Uncle died (2 months unrelated), my brother bought the vehicle from the "estate". He likes to buy cheap cars. It had been repaired just after the flood and you would have never known what it had been through. About 7 months afterwards the car went to pieces...all kinds of things began surfacing....brother sold it but it took a while, and he took a pretty good "bath" on that cheap priced good looking car.#8 of 31 flood experience by lngtonge18
Jul 10, 2001 (12:10 pm)
It is possible for the car to run again, though it may never be quite the same. I have been trying to help my friend with his 93 Buick Century which was completely submerged in a flash flood. The engine was full of water, as was the gas tank and tranny. Believe it or not, the clock on the radio still works and all power windows still work. The power locks froze completely on 2 of the doors, so bad in fact that you cannot manually unlock them by hand, you cannot unlock the front doors with the keys, and none of the doors were capable of being unlocked with a jimmy. This car would have been a death trap had someone been inside the car and drove into a river. I have never heard of locks freezing so bad that you can't even force them open with tools. At any rate, we drained the water and oil from the engine and forced the water out of the cylinders by taking all the spark plugs out and cranking the engine. We can get the engine to start and stay running when using starter fluid, but it stalls once you stop spraying the fluid. The fuel pump is running, but we think there was too much water in the gas for it to ignite. So, we have now drained the gas tank and hope that we can get it to stay running once pure gas is put back in. I have confidence that this car can run again as long as we can purge the fuel system of water, but its life was severely shortened. At any rate, if this car will start after being completely under water and most of its electronic gadgets still work, than some refurbished flood cars should be ok cars as long as they are real cheap and you don't expect them to last too long. I will update here whether we ever do get the car running again. I hope we can as my friend is broke and has no insurance so he's in a real rough time right now.#10 of 31 Can it be a great deal? by acelink
Oct 05, 2001 (7:12 pm)
While surfing the net, I found flood damaged vehicles for sale on www.ecocar.com. I was especially interested in a fully loaded, white 1993 Supra 5 speed (non-turbo) that looked immaculately clean. They say it runs and drives, and if I disregard the fact that the car has been water-damaged, its asking price of $9,900 is very tempting indeed.Is it possible to bring this car back to the working order by simply disassembling the engine and transmission to clean out the rusts within with something like WD40 and by replacing key electronic components (bear in mind that I trying to salvage as much as possible to save money)? I am sure it is not simple as that. I wonder how manufacturers deal with their new cars damaged by water. If you know something about fixing water-damaged cars, please enlighten me.
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