The guys from the snowplowing-contractors.com forum have seen this already, but we have a different set of members here, and I'm open to any good advice. Ivan hit the Pittsburgh area pretty hard. There was lots of flooding in low lying areas. This is a 96 Chevy with 70-some thousand miles. It was at a service station for it's State Inspection. It now has brand new stickers, a new gas tank and sending unit, some new brake lines, and a fresh starter. It was ready to go on Thursday evening. Friday, it rained.... What can be done with flood damaged vehicles? We don't know whether the insurance company is going to total it--this is a new experience. If not, what needs to be done? If it is totalled, is there anything to be gained by buying it back from the insurance company and getting it roadworthy again, or is it a lost cause? As the pics will show, the water was above the dashboard....
Under the hood...
Digger, Sorry to hear about your truck... If the insurance company will total it, I'd let it go. Lots of work to get it running again, and there's nothing to say that once you get it going it isn't going to give you constant problems. Good luck, and let us know how it turns out. Joe
To start with all the lubricants in the differentials and transmission/tranfer case along with the engine will have to be changed. Computers for the engine control as well. Wiring connections are another issue too. I agree with electra glide, if the insurance company totals it let them keep the headache.
flooded Flooded vehicles are not worth the trouble. Everything under the hood will soon die. We tried to salvage a car from the '93 "no-name" storm. It liked to break us 1 dollar at a time.
We had a local storm last year that flooded large portions of the town near here. A lot of people tried to 'resurrect' their cars.....and ended up scrapping them eventually. A lot of the newer cars/trucks have electronis tucked all over, and they never got them to work right, or kept having things go wrong afterwards. Airbag controls are often mounted under the seats, a lot of them were wrote off by insurance because they had no way of knowing if the airbag would still work in an accident. Friend of mine works at a wrecking yard.....they didn't even know what they were going to do with them, a lot of them sat for some time because the insurance companies were overloaded with claims....also there was some sewage in the water, not all of it was straight rainwater. Most of the wreckers were declining to wrench on them because they were worried about getting sick (some of them it was just the smell alone)
Aw, geez. I wish you hadn't reminded me of that thing. :crying (Looking at the pictures reminded me of the smell.) I apologize for never having posted the outcome of the event here. I found it listed in the Truck Trader sometime later. The salvage place had a website, and they had a good picture of it. No question that it was the same truck. They took the plow mount off. I couldn't tell what they did otherwise, but it looked real clean. S 9231- 96 CHEVROLET K3500 REG CAB Tk 71 K 4x4/5.7-V8/Auto/AC/G.Bags - 8' Bed - White- Deep Flood 5500.00 I just looked at the website, and it's no longer listed. I hope somebody is having good luck with it. I bet there are going to be *a lot* of flood damaged vehicles on the market real soon.
Have any of you guys stripped down any heavy equipment after a flood I would be interested to know if any mud got into the transmission case through the breather and if all the oil was displaced by water Also if the water head was high did the air intake filters collapse flooding the turbo and cylinders And what recovery proceedures worked or failed in the short term Also did you find water or mud inside the ECU and TCU case