Flood-Damaged Cars Can Be Put Right, but Require Work

Have you noticed any "great buys" lately at some of your local dealerships? You know, cars "with a little water damage," nothing much, the dealer notes, but "it's something we have to tell you about!" Have you then looked at the car and noticed an odor that could best be described as somewhere between a wet rag and soggy rubber (maybe dead rat), if you looked at the car? If you have, we have found a website that we highly recommend so that you can smell the rat before it really does start to become odorous on a hot summer day.

This article at carinsurancequotes-online.net gives you some great information from an authoritative source and while we have known much of the same information for a long time, we've only been one autowriter with one voice shouting in the autowriting wilderness about these things.

Let's face it, this hasn't been an easy early spring, anywhere from California to the Bahamas. Whether it has been too much rain, too little rain, unexpected snows, or an unexpected and deadly tornado, nature has been dealing us body blow after body blow.

In New England, for example, the more than 14-inches of rain that have fallen have not only blown the doors off the old record, but they have made March the second-wettest month in Boston weather history. Normally placid tiny streams have become roaring torrents as the water generated upstream has had no place to go, so those little rivulets and rills become raging rivers. There have been many automotive victims as sandy water, tainted water, swamp water and just about any other water has swept through many cars here.

Heavy-duty Flooding

Streets that are normally hundreds of yards away from waterways and rivers are suddenly parts of the rivers themselves. They carry not just the normal water that you find in every river but also tainted water from sewage and septic connections. The stew is not exactly healthy for people, so imagine what it does to a car.

This stew can contain heavy metals, sewage and other nasty stuff that can not only get into your car's body, but also its parts such as the transmission, brakes, exhaust system, carpeting and more. The result should be a total loss, but often isn't.

Indeed, there was a news report this evening from Boston's New England News Network (NECN) that showed at least two vehicles that were exposed not only to rushing flood water, but water which contained sewage. And, you know what will happen to those vehicles? The chances are good that some wholesaler somewhere with local connections will pick up one or more of these "flood cars;" give them a quick cleaning, and then offer you an incredible bargain.

The bargain becomes even more incredible if our sales friend picks up a lot's worth of flood-damaged new cars that can be made to look great quickly and since the wholesaler has paid rock-bottom (or bottom-feeding) pricing for the vehicles in the first place, he can give you a great deal on a "new" car.

Recommended Website

The website we recommend puts it well when it notes that when you "have your car captured by flood; you might be thinking once it gets dry it will simply be delivered to the salvage yard. Well, think again."

The chances are good that these vehicles will show up on some dealer's lot four or five states or six countries away with a "salvage" title, which shows that the vehicle is a flood car and that the original owner was given full value for the vehicle, and the original owner, then signed it over to the insurance company.

Most insurance companies will do the right thing and send these vehicles off to the boneyard right away -- there's very little you can do once a car has been exposed to rushing or tainted water -- where it will be sliced and diced so that it becomes parts of other cars. However, there are others out there who may not be so scrupulous -- some EBay dealers, perhaps, or maybe Craigslist sellers -- and who will give "great deals" to people, provided that they live a goodly distance away from the dealer's lot. Let's face it, a good photographer can make a vehicle look brand new with the right camera settings and the proper photo software, so those great-looking EBay "buys" may be nothing more than dogs whose flea and tick collars expired a long time ago.

Bad Cars Show Themselves

Or, as the article says: "You don't need some special education recognizing a car damaged by flood. If the car was staying out in the sun and its doors were closed, its interior will be having a strong mildewed smell. Bad aromas principally appear due to moisture-loaded carpet padding. Until the carpet is remove and thoroughly washed, you won't get rid of that mildewed odor."

Nor will you get rid of the almost-constantly steamed up windows, even if the vehicle is left running with its air conditioning on for several days, the chances are good that the carpet padding will still remain soggy and smelly to boot. So, if you're looking at that "great EBay" buy online and see strangely steamed windows in several photos, it's okay to call the dealer and ask him or her to send a new set of photos (source: author, who ran EBay dealership for major New England dealer and who had to take many extra photos as requested so customers could see this feature or that feature. In two years, we put more than 80,000 shots through our former Pentax ist digital SLR, as well as through "snapshooters" like our Sony DSC-52 and Olympus that were our foul weather cameras) to see if the steamed windows are still there. If the remain in the second set of photos are say thanks but no thanks when they call you back to pressure you as they inevitably will.

Aroma therapy, though, isn't the only way a dishonest online or wholesale dealer can make a buck off you and the flood car or as "www.carinsurancequotes-online.net" notes "...not all of the flood-damaged cars show their real nature by only aroma, Dishonest dealers will surely try to mask odors cause by water damage with the "fresh mountain air" scent and deodorants (also watch out for machines called ionizers that deodorize vehicles overnight)." The website continues that if you "notice something like that, warning bells must ring in your head -- therefore you should look for other indications of flood damage."

Shipped Hundreds of Miles Away

For example, sometimes flood cars are "totaled by car insurance companies, sold through auctions of auto-salvage, shipped hundreds of miles away and 'repaired' by dealers. Then they are ready for resale. Happily you can surely avoid cars damaged by flood and the innumerable problems that wait for you beneath those cars' hoods. And that is if you know what problems to look for."

Cars that are damaged in floods usually take several weeks to reveal their defects. They are not nice players in this game and damages may take weeks or months to be revealed. For example, as "www.carinsurancequotes-online.net" notes, "wheel and brake, engine and transmission" problems usually manifest themselves a long time after you've purchased the "brand new" vehicle" at the great price or online.

As, "www.carinsurancequotes-online.net" notes, if the "car was completely immersed, it's wise to not even look at it. It could have been in sandy water, comparatively debris-free water or sewer water. Long-term problems will crop out, if water has seeped either into the transmission or engine. For example, if the water brought sand inside the engine, blow and misfiring gaskets might simply be around the corner."

Besides these problems, cars that were flooded out usually develop electrical problems and, if you are sensitive and the car was immersed in sewage-filled water, you may suddenly find yourself getting sick for apparently no reason at all. You will usually find -- if you have the carpeting and lining checked -- high bacterial levels, unless your friendly neighborhood dealer has the sense the lord gave a duck and replaced the carpeting and padding.

Proper Repairs

Are all flood cars bad? No, but it will take a lot of work by an honest dealer to put this car back into shape. Here are some of the things that have to be done:

• Carpeting and padding must be replaced

• Door liner and inner liner must be replaced

• Seat upholstery or seats themselves should be replaced

• An entire diagnostic must be run of all circuits in the vehicle (and believe us when we tell you that some looms of wire in cars are 40 and 50-wires thick and range from .36 gauge to .6 gauge wires -- narrow to wide)

• The dashboard and instrument panel should be taken apart cleaned and full diagnostics should be run

• The steering wheel and its lock mechanism should be replaced

• The transmission gearshift and transmission housing should be inspected and replaced.

• The transmission should be replaced to be on the safe side

• The engine might also be a good candidate for replacement as should all of the subsystems including the brakes, coolant, air conditioning, heater and oiling system

• The engine should be taken apart, inspected and cleaned to ensure that all galleries are free of dirt (if the dealer doesn't opt for the new engine)

• The manifold should be taken off and cleaned and you should also replace not only the entire exhaust system, but also the catalyst, too as who knows what could be inside it that could cook off and cause a fire

• The interior of the vehicle, while the seats and carpeting are out, should be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected and a good antifungal should be painted on

You can see that the only way either the online (EBay or Craigslist) dealer with a great buy or the dealer with the "new car" for thousands off is by doing as little as possible. If that's the case -- and you will surely detect it or smell it -- pass by that vehicle and move on to a reputable dealer.

Ultimately, you should demand a Carfax to show you the history of the vehicle and if the dealer fails to produce it, say good night and leave.

The bottom line here is that flood cars are only worth it if they are properly restored and the chances of you finding one of them restored this way are about as likely as our hitting the Powerball tomorrow night, little or nil.

So, as they say about advertising. "If something seems too good to be true, chances are it isn't" and it's time to move on.