NEED ADVISE: Vehicle/Engine submerged in flood water [MERGED]

[Islaw*Palitaw]

Kawawa naman yung mga binaha na sasakyan... I hope it can be revived

[noobskie]

My friend emailed this to me... his car is also a victim of the Typhoon Ondoy Manila Flood. "Dear friends, families, and colleagues, This is in response to the question of "what do I do now?" after your car was sunk and recovered from the freak flash floods in Metro Manila yesterday, brought about by Typhoon Ondoy. This advisory is applicable to diesel- or gasoline-engine cars, four- or front- or rear-wheel drive, with manual or automatic transmissions. This is a long e-mail intended mainly for my fellow IT, auditor, management, financial-service and law professionals who wants to be informed, so I'll get to the point. Hopefully, you were lucky to be at home and in a safe dry place before the floods came. That means your car was just parked and the engine was off. If you were caught in the city streets, I hope you had the sense to stop your car engine when you saw that the water was getting too high, and that you waited until the waters receded, and drove yourself home (albeit with problems). If your vehicle stalled, and was towed back home, this is still applicable, but the work to be done will be more than what I can talk about here. Before you begin your inspection and fundamental "first-aid" repairs, make sure that there are no loose electrical wires nearby. It goes without saying that water conducts electricity and you can really get the shock of your life You'll need basic hand tools to wrench on nuts and bolts. Japanese and (maybe) European cars use the metric system, while the Americans use the English system. (Don't force ill-fitting tools because you'll likely to damage the nuts & bolts.) You'll also need comfortable gloves so you don't cut your hand too much. You still have to go back to your real job in a couple of days y'know. A roll of electrical tape will prove useful too. You'll also need safety glasses to protect your eyes from splashing fluids, or from dripping mud and dirt when you go underneath the car. Wearing boots is a good idea because it helps protect from the effects of electrical shocks as well as it'll hurt a lot less when tools are dropped on your toes --compared to when just wearing slippers. Have a lot of clean and dry rags so you can wipe the water off many parts of your car. And wear a set of old clothes that your wife won't mind getting messed up (been there, done that!). One of the most important things to have on hand as well, is your car maintenance manual. You should have it when you bought the car. If that is missing or damaged from the floods, then you'll have to Google the Internet for information. What you need to know are the technical specifications of the types of oils needed for different mechanical parts of your car, the clutch (or alternatively, automatic transmission fluid) and brake fluid types, the engine coolant, and the corresponding amount of fluids required. Buying the right stuff is *important* and should be complied with. You may also want a print-out of this e-mail so that you can use it as a checklist when working on your car. You'll also want to have "loctite" to put on the threads of the nuts & bolts later when you put them back together again. (Loctite is a red- or blue-something metal glue, so that the nuts & bolts bond together tight enough that they don't get shaken loose from vibrations, but not too tight so they can still can be removed by hand tools.) Dielectric grease, a substance that you put on every electrical contact point in your engine, is good to have because it can prevent moisture and water from causing trouble in your electrical wiring system. (Unfortunately, dielectric grease is rather rare here in Metro Manila.) Shampoo, cleaners and disinfectants like Windex or Lysol respectively, are needed as well to clean stuff, and remove most evidence of water damage so that your car can retain its fair resale value. To get really started, go to your engine bay and open the hood. Disconnect the battery terminals to minimize risk of electrical shock. Check car battery for any signs of water intrusion. Maintenance-free batteries have much less chances of water contamination, but check it anyway to be sure. If you have a voltmeter, check if it is still fully charged. You may be pleasantly surprised that it's still well and good, considering all the damage your car went through. Then, you'll have to drain out all the obvious water that collected inside your car. They will stink, because Metro Manila flood waters are nasty, disease-infested, and acidic. Park / push it in a secure place, where rains (yup, up to now!) won't get in and where thieves can't get to your stuff. If you're parked out on the city streets, then you'll just have to watch your car interior dry up (about as fun as watching paint dry, but more compelling). You'll need a bottle of Lysol or similar disinfectant to generously spray the carpet and seats. If necessary, use your hand tools to remove the nuts & bolts so you can remove the seats, dry them out, and spray with disinfectant all the hard-to-reach areas. There are also electrical wires for the electric-powered (front) seats that you'll need to detach. If you want to wash them out with shampoo and water, just be careful to protect from water all electrical motors that power the seats. Those motors can typically survive the floods, but there's no need to abuse them. Now that you're getting to disassembling stuff, remember the original places of each bolt or nut that you took out! Better yet, mark each from where you got them. And do one stuff at a time... keep things simple. You don't want a ton of nuts & bolts all over the floor or street. There's nothing more frustrating than putting something back together then later realizing you have an "extra" bolt in hand! Also, be gentle when trying to disconnect those (typically white or grey) electrical connectors. Replacements can be surprisingly expensive when you break them. Back in the engine bay, figure out how to open the air filter box and check if it is dry or wet. If it's wet, then you'll have that as evidence that some water may have entered the engine. Water inside the combustion chambers is bad because water does *not* compress, unlike fuel. When the engine is started and there is water inside it, you will have a broken piston rod. You would have heard a loud "tink!" sound when that happens, and your engine will produce a lot of foul smelling smoke. When that happens, stop the engine immediately or else you'll have more broken piston rods. Repairing that damage will require an engine overhaul, as well as the purchase of new piston rods, cylinder rings, and engine gaskets at the least. To see more evidence if you have water in your engine, check the oil filter stick. You should see only pure engine oil in it. If it's murky with brownish stuff in it, that's bad. Change engine oil and oil filter immediately. Not only is water is a very a poor lubricant for your car's metal parts, it can also turn into acid that will corrode the internal stuff. (Later, when the engine is deemed to be ok, run the engine for about 15 minutes or less than 10km, and change the engine oil plus oil filter again.) Check the radiator coolant and see if it looks pure (healthy colors are red, pink, green or blue, depending on the coolant vendor). If it looks bad, replace immediately and according to the specs in your car maintenance manual. Other than the drain plugs on the radiator, don't forget to remove the water drain plugs in the engine itself, to really drain all the contaminated coolant." To be continued...

Please post long texts in several paragraphs next time, nakakalula basahin

[Excalibur]

How would we know if the car that is being sold has a history of being submerged in floods??

Is there a sign even though it has been remedied by the most efficient casas?

[dark_akatsuke24]

Bahay namin. Waist deep na yung sa may laundry area / dirty kitchen sa may likod, pataas siya so, nung umabot na sa loob ng bahay namin naging damp lang yung dining area, hindi umabot sa sala.

Car? Evacuated it early.

boyscout ata to si renz, laging handa....

[ghosthunter]

How would we know if the car that is being sold has a history of being submerged in floods??

Is there a sign even though it has been remedied by the most efficient casas?

You can check the residential address on the OR/CR.

[ghosthunter]

Please post long texts in several paragraphs next time, nakakalula basahin

Just ignore such posts if they are a pain to read.

[scharnhorst]

It should be assessed by a mechanic and/or electrician first. It depends on how long it has been in the water and how high the water got inside the cabin.

Safest answer: NO.

Advice forwarded. thanks!

[alen08]

mga experts, patulong naman po..kasi katulad ng karamihan, nalubog din sa baha yung auto ko (lancer GLXI 1994 model). nung pagbisita ko sa kanya sa parking space alloted for us (we have work on Sat kasi), di na gumagana yung keyless entry nya at tingin ko wala na talaga power. sinubukan ko i switch on kaso wala na talaga..sinilip ko dipstick, parang may dumadaloy na tubig na. kanina ko lang po natanggal yung battery terminal at pati yung tingin kong computer box nya (MD307043). kaso may nabasa ko sa ibang thread na di lang pala isa ang computer box ng lancer?

ngayon po, ito na po ang ihingi ko nang advice...ano po bang mga dapat kong gawin? i'm planning to consult a repair shop (CARSAVERS in particular) kasi may nabasa kong may flooded vehicle repair service sila.. sya nga po pala, ang tubig din ay umabot na sa may hood ko kagabi at malamang overnight syang nakalubog..please advise naman po anong shop ang okay magpacheck. ang importante po sana is marevive si lance (auto ko - lancer) kahit to follow na yung mawala amoy nya..please help me po..

maraming salamat in advance!

[washburn]

muntikan na kami pasukin ng tubig, buti mataas ang grahe namin inabot lang gulong, buti walang nalunod na sasakyan pero stranded kami

tsk tsk madami nanaman na for sale na sasakyan

[washburn]

mga experts, patulong naman po..kasi katulad ng karamihan, nalubog din sa baha yung auto ko (lancer GLXI 1994 model). nung pagbisita ko sa kanya sa parking space alloted for us (we have work on Sat kasi), di na gumagana yung keyless entry nya at tingin ko wala na talaga power. sinubukan ko i switch on kaso wala na talaga..sinilip ko dipstick, parang may dumadaloy na tubig na. kanina ko lang po natanggal yung battery terminal at pati yung tingin kong computer box nya (MD307043). kaso may nabasa ko sa ibang thread na di lang pala isa ang computer box ng lancer?

ngayon po, ito na po ang ihingi ko nang advice...ano po bang mga dapat kong gawin? i'm planning to consult a repair shop (CARSAVERS in particular) kasi may nabasa kong may flooded vehicle repair service sila.. sya nga po pala, ang tubig din ay umabot na sa may hood ko kagabi at malamang overnight syang nakalubog..please advise naman po anong shop ang okay magpacheck. ang importante po sana is marevive si lance (auto ko - lancer) kahit to follow na yung mawala amoy nya..please help me po..

maraming salamat in advance!

maganda sir pa tow mo na yang sasakyan mo at ipasok mo na agad sa napili mong repair shop