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

[4JGtootsie]

Agree, best is not start the vehicle once it stalls.
Better yet shut it off and let the tulak boys cross you.
After, check if your air filter,ecu is soaked/wet if not its possible that you can restart it and go straight home.

[ghosthunter]

maraming salamat po sa mga nagreply. i think wala insurance yung car. kasi binigay lang po sa akin ng sister ko yung car. above 50k po kaya abutin ng repair ?

Flooded interior? You'll probably end up replacing the carpet, headliner, sunvisors and maybe even re-upholster the car seats. That doesn't yet include the cost to replace the dashboard, stereo, speakers, A/C ducts ... and then there is the engine, engine ECU and tranny.

It might end up costing more than 50K.

[magister]

Unfortunately my car was one of those that got submerged in floodwaters which reached window level. Any suggestions aside from the casa where I can have it fixed? Car is an 03 Vios. How much am I looking at? Thanks!

[androodge]

I dont think acts of god will be considered sa car insurance. malaking gastos yan for sure.

[mikemazda]

mga sir yun car ko din po lubog sa baha hangang roof nya. mazda3 '08 yun car ko maibalik pa kaya sa dati nya condition. how much kaya abutin nya sa casa.


thanks.

[niky]

A friend had his done in Bulacan before for about 150k. If you go to the casa, expect to pay more.

It will all depend on how much needs to be done. The carpeting and seats, that's easy enough to do at home. Remove everything, wash out the mud and let it sun-dry. Unplug the intake, spark plugs and ignition coils and dry them and check for water inside the engine. I hope nobody drove the water in the flood or tried to start the engine.

The electronics are the big bugger. If you have no acts of god insurance... and before you do ANYTHING, check your insurance policy!... then go ahead and have the electronics disassembled and checked for problems.

Do not try to start the car. Even if the car is perfectly fine, trying to start it may short-circuit something and blow the ECU.

I'd suggest taking the car to a good shop like Speedlab, with people experienced working with electronics, but all the big shops will be full come Monday. Start collecting phone numbers and making your reservations now.

If you have to bite the bullet and buy a new ECU, it should cost anywhere between 40-60k pesos (might be higher for these new cars) per ECU. As I recall, the Mazda3 only has one (versus three for the Lancer GSR we had to fix from Millenyo.. 150k... ECUs only... WTF!), so it might not hurt so much, but again, there's lots of other stuff to fix, also.

[oj88]

Just for future reference, if you're certain that the electronics in your car will be submerged underwater, remove the battery terminals beforehand. Even when the ignition key is off, most ECM/PCM and MICU (in Hondas) still receive continuous battery power. There's a big chance that these expensive parts can be salvaged later by washing them with distilled water.

[niky]

+1. That's good advice!

I'd forgotten about that until I saw a Revo in four feet of water... and the lights suddenly went on. I was almost kicking myself in the butt when I saw that, but then I figured, my cars were already in a very high spot... there's nothing more I could do.

Worst damage was a slightly wet carpet on the CR-V. Smells, but that will go away.

[Gerbo]

Had the same traumatic experience back in 1998 when my red 93 Corolla Gli that I was driving got stuck in traffic at Quezon Avenue and the waters were rising flooded the car.

Pinasok ko sa Toyota Quezon Ave. and paid 27,000 for the damage.


-------
BTW the increase occurence of having these floods are one of the reasons that make my decision easier to move out of Metro Manila in 2002.

[hitomi]

maybe this thread should be a sticky since floods are always a problem? i heard you can take out the car's ECU before it get's submerged. is that right? my dad-in-law's focus got submerged in cainta yesterday