Flood damaged cars

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So what is the end of the story on the flood damaged cars from the flood in Houston? . We’re people able to use them or did they all go to the crushers? Any stories of folks cleaning them up enough to re-use? How about the numbers of cars that got crushed ? Very unfortunate. Sorry if this brings back bad memories. I understand there we many acts of heroism.
 
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There is a guy on youtube that bought a flooded Ford Focus RS and repaired it. He is now driving it. Most of the cars were sold at insurance salvage auto auctions. People buy them at the auction and either fix them or use them for parts. The insurance company isn't going to just crush a car. No money in that.
 
Beware of cars with "sparkly clean" carpets. That's when you need to crane your neck and look into footwells and up into the dashboard's back side.
 
No way would I buy a flood car.

When the electronics get soaked, a corrosion cycle begins to happen on every circuit board, and in every electric junction, inside the car that got wet.

It might run OK for a while, but eventually, you'll be chasing electric gremlins and the car will be unreliable.

You can change out the contaminated fluids, but you can't fix the interior corrosion and future headaches.
 
Yeah, but this is the USA and we do all sorts of shenanigans to make a $ ... I'm sure there are flood damaged cars that were sold to wreckers, that were resold to individuals or small lots with salvaged titles that were re-registered in another state to "clean" the title and re-sold again in high profit margin areas ...
 
I dunno. Depends upon how well the electronics was done. Weather pack connectors are pretty good, and ECU's can be water tight. And ECU's can use conformal coating if not water tight. And stuff can die without ever being dunked--think squirrels or random failure.

Not saying I'd want one, I'm just saying, one dunking isn't necessarily the end. But I'd sure want one heck of a discount, and I wouldn't expect it to last as long nor have any residual. Maybe buy for 2-3 years and give away.
 
I was looking at a LX470 that was priced decently but not amazing, anyhow the description said something along the lines of "This car is flood salvaged but we couldn't find any damage!" All the pictures where clean.

I google the VIN# and I found the auction it was sold at with pictures, it had mold all over the interior to the door windows. The best part was the interior used to be Grey and now the for sale ad Pics where Tan..

Got to do your due diligence
 
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Under hood electronic stuff doesn't worry me. It's weather protected on modern cars.

Interior stuff does. Corroded connectors and circuit boards that continue to degrade and fail randomly. Mold that grows in carpet and seats. Rust that starts in unprotected floors.

I know of guys that have had an air box drain fail on their Mercedes, leading to freshwater flooding inside the car, and eventual, extensive computer and systems failures.

The cars were totaled by insurance.

Cheaper than endless troubleshooting and parts replacement.
 
I know of people who buy a flood car and then buy the same type of car that has severe body damage. Like a roll over or hit in the front and rear. Then you can swap all the interior, computers, etc. into the flood car. And if a problem comes up later or something fails on the flood car you can take it off the parts car.
 
Originally Posted By: Astro14
Under hood electronic stuff doesn't worry me. It's weather protected on modern cars.

Interior stuff does. Corroded connectors and circuit boards that continue to degrade and fail randomly. Mold that grows in carpet and seats. Rust that starts in unprotected floors.

I know of guys that have had an air box drain fail on their Mercedes, leading to freshwater flooding inside the car, and eventual, extensive computer and systems failures.

The cars were totaled by insurance.

Cheaper than endless troubleshooting and parts replacement.




+1 Had a friend that bought an auction minivan, turned out it was a flood car. One thing after another. A/C compressor, switches etc. Window motors one at a time, wiper motors, sliding door motors. All electrical. He really did not work on cars, so it cost him a lot in service. Maybe if you have time on your hands and you work on cars, you could save some, not worth the headache.

You have to becareful of used parts on online now, as they can be flood parts as well. Better to go to a the local u-pullit lot outside of flood zones.
 
There's an outfit in Hollywood, FL that specializes in selling high end, low mileage flood cars on eBay. All cars are purported to have been flooded only to the bottoms of the doors. They have excellent feedback. I'm actually tempted to buy my next car from them.
 
Originally Posted By: supton
I dunno. Depends upon how well the electronics was done. Weather pack connectors are pretty good, and ECU's can be water tight. And ECU's can use conformal coating if not water tight. And stuff can die without ever being dunked--think squirrels or random failure.

Not saying I'd want one, I'm just saying, one dunking isn't necessarily the end. But I'd sure want one heck of a discount, and I wouldn't expect it to last as long nor have any residual. Maybe buy for 2-3 years and give away.


Nothing inside the car will have weather proof connectors. On modern cars, there can be 30-40 different computers inside the car, all with exposed connectors. Only takes a single drop of water to bring down an entire vehicle. I see it often.
 
Originally Posted By: spasm3
Originally Posted By: Astro14
Under hood electronic stuff doesn't worry me. It's weather protected on modern cars.

Interior stuff does. Corroded connectors and circuit boards that continue to degrade and fail randomly. Mold that grows in carpet and seats. Rust that starts in unprotected floors.

I know of guys that have had an air box drain fail on their Mercedes, leading to freshwater flooding inside the car, and eventual, extensive computer and systems failures.

The cars were totaled by insurance.

Cheaper than endless troubleshooting and parts replacement.




+1 Had a friend that bought an auction minivan, turned out it was a flood car. One thing after another. A/C compressor, switches etc. Window motors one at a time, wiper motors, sliding door motors. All electrical. He really did not work on cars, so it cost him a lot in service. Maybe if you have time on your hands and you work on cars, you could save some, not worth the headache.

You have to becareful of used parts on online now, as they can be flood parts as well. Better to go to a the local u-pullit lot outside of flood zones.



If you can't work on the car yourself you should definitely not buy a flood car, or any salvage car. The economics don't work out in your favor if you have to pay someone to fix it.
 
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I back in 96 I "unknowingly" bought a 1993 flood Lincoln MK Viii from a used car lot in Portsmouth. It was quite the setup. Clean car 20K miles only 18 grand, PS window was broken, radio was missing, carpets were musty. Salesman said that the car was broken into THERE and they would put in NEW carpets and pads and a new radio. Had the car on the lift it look pristine. Bought it drove good for about 2 days then the rear airbags went flat on the highway. Boght it to the local Lincoln dealer in Haverhill and the guy said - I'm not working on this, its a flood car. Then he showed me the rusted dash supports and the rusted body computer under the seats.

I flipped it a week later but learned a lesson.
 
My friend just got burned by one of the Houston flood cars. Bought a Ford diesel truck to pull his huge boat and was having all sorts of weird things, oil light, check engine light, etc but could never find an actual problem. Took it to a small shop locally and the guys said the problem is its a flood car and he didn't want to even try to diagnose the warning lights. Friend went home and crawled all over it himself and found corrosion under the carpet, under the dash, etc. Did a bunch of research and traced it back to just outside the Houston area, and a local dealer and another independent shop verified a lot of the interior had been replaced. He is now fighting with his dealer but it looks like they are going to dog a buyback. Truck looks, runs, and drives great but the electrical gremlins are all over the place.
 
I had a buddy who bought two 35th Anniversary SS Camaros(2002 cars) They were flooded. He changed fluids did brakes and cleaned up a bunch of stuff. It was a fresh water flood. Not salt water. Cars have been solid.

I see what salt water does to Submarines vs Fresh water in regards to electronics. I wouldn't hesitate to pick up a freshwater flood car for the right price and then go through it.

Salt water? No way!
 
My mechanic has worked on several Houston flood vehicles, out here in Phoenix. A local independent dealership sends him cars they buy at auction to work on. Computers, airbag sensors, wiring harnesses, etc.
 
Originally Posted By: mightymousetech
Originally Posted By: supton
I dunno. Depends upon how well the electronics was done. Weather pack connectors are pretty good, and ECU's can be water tight. And ECU's can use conformal coating if not water tight. And stuff can die without ever being dunked--think squirrels or random failure.

Not saying I'd want one, I'm just saying, one dunking isn't necessarily the end. But I'd sure want one heck of a discount, and I wouldn't expect it to last as long nor have any residual. Maybe buy for 2-3 years and give away.


Nothing inside the car will have weather proof connectors. On modern cars, there can be 30-40 different computers inside the car, all with exposed connectors. Only takes a single drop of water to bring down an entire vehicle. I see it often.


I stand corrected.
 
Originally Posted By: Kestas
There's an outfit in Hollywood, FL that specializes in selling high end, low mileage flood cars on eBay. All cars are purported to have been flooded only to the bottoms of the doors. They have excellent feedback. I'm actually tempted to buy my next car from them.


About 5-6 years ago my brother bought a Lexus ES from them. Late 90's black lexus with gold trim.

Bought the car with about 75k miles, and sold it with nearly 220k miles never really any flood related problems. Very reliable.

We flew down to Hollywood and picked it up, drove it back to NY almost non stop no issues.
 
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