I have resurrected 3 Flood vehicles in total. I have driven each of them for over 5 years with little to no issues. The way I got one of my flood cars was the worst case scenario…It got flooded while on the street with Brackish water…probably more salt than fresh water… AND THEN…IT SAT… The sitting afterward was the KILLER… I had to cut off my main ECU wire plug…and resolder a “new” one on…went fine just tedious with about 120+ wires to solder. Other than that I believe I drove that Honda Prelude for like 8 years in all…Honestly one of the best cars Ive ever owned so far…I miss her…sold it afterward as well AT A PROFIT Bought it for 400…drove it for 8 years and sold it for 2000 I think? LOL
If and when a car gets wet…REALLY wet… You need to obviously disconnect the battery (eventhough its too late to prevent the electrical damage) Just undo the batt connections to prevent the wayward fire after it dries out and possibly starts shorting out everywhere
MOST of the cars in Sandy’s path will be flooded with SALT WATER…WHICH IS BAD…REAL BAD.
If it were me… once the car was flooded…I would IMMEDIATELY disconnect the battery…and then REFLOOD the vehicle with FRESH WATER (easy right? lol…no its not…not possible most times so a hose will have to do) And lots of disassembly…like everything needs to come apart and or out and oiled rinsed etc…the water damage has been done so wetting it more wont hurt it… Now you need to prevent CORROSION…which may be impossible to stop or prevent in its entirety. Basically the idea here is to ACT FAST…and I mean every minute counts. I would reflood it with Fresh water… Discard the ECU’s and begin the ressurection. I am a mechanic so all the next steps are relatively easy…for me anyway. I would be pulling the spark plugs and pushing any water out of the engine…spray fogging oil into the cylinders etc… many vehicles will not have water INSIDE the engine…unless it went nearly UNDER water. Then basically letting the vehicle dry…dry …dry… Before reinstalling a used ECU and a new batt if your old batt fried… Then carefully try to start her up…OH CRAP…I forgot all the FUEL ISSUES you will need to address… LOL…God…there is a GOOD reason the insurance company will QUICKLY TOTAL these cars. It was only out of boredom and a challenge that made me ressurect my vehicles.
Keep in mind the last flood car I did was that 89 PRelude…so NOT a majorly computerized vehicle… The latest vehicles of today are rolling computers so the damage will be EXTENSIVE and may be irreversable…they will probably suffer MANY or TOTAL electronic failure…so much so that I dont even want to think about it.
In most cases the solution is to simply call your insurance company and see what happens. But if you are a mechanic…and I think ONLY IF YOU ARE A MECHANIC…You can try to ressurect the vehicle… Most people will just make a phone call to their insurer… If you are going to try to ressurect the car…Simply post your questions as you have them… There is no way to do a writeup of what needs doing…as it changes from vehicle to vehicle…
WOW this was a LONG response to say… “call your insurance company” LOL
It is possible to ressurect the vehicle if it was acted upon quickly…and if you are FAR more than just a tinkerer level mechanic… This is MAJOR MECHANIC level territory here so…Tinkerers need NOT apply… BE forewarned…and just call your insurance co… LOL
Blackbird