Thread: Risks in buying flood affected vehicles?

This just in:

Buyers warned about flood damaged cars | News.com.au

I know a guy who has a 70's 2 door RRC who was up to a bit of mischief years ago and the (then near new) Rangie rolled into a dam........... water up to the roof.

He and his mate found a farmer with a big 4WD tractor and got it pulled out, pulled the plugs etc, got it going and drove 250 k's home.

Over the next few days all oils got changed and the interior dried out. The motor went for another 800k k's, gearbox had some issue at about 500k k's and that was about it.

He doesn't drive it much anymore but AFAIK the motor still runs OK.

cheers, DL

Just to give the reason for my earlier post as it is quite topical.

During the 74 flood, my brother's Vauxhall Viva was stuck in the garage of my mother's house at 63 Ashfield St East Brisbane, as the garage was about 1M above the front yard and by the time we got there the water was 100MM deep in the garage so no go to get it up to the back yard which was much higher.
Some blokes came in in a speedboat, and we all lifted it up under the floor and stacked breeze bricks under it.
The water came up to about 50CM from the floor and went I went down after 3 days the water had come up to about 1/2 way up the windows of the car.
I had sealed the petrol cap with glad wrap and ditto the carb and taken the battery upstairs, so I then went about getting it going. After draining about 25 litres of water out of the engine, changing all the oils, and running WD40 through the generator and starter I got it going.

This was a bit difficult as I had entrusted my 12 year old nephew to dry and clean the dizzy, impressing upon him the need to do one wire at a time, and not to mix them up.Needless to say he didn't do that.
So after towing for a few Ks and numerous backfires , I figured it out.

Now my older brother took the car over when the owner brother died and had the car in his family for 20 years, and he commented to me many yeas later how the car always had electrical problems from then on, with the light sockets corroding and switches falling apart.

I find it hard to believe that a 70s RRC did not have electrical problems after being in a dam as they were crap even without dunking. Even the basic cars of those far gone days were crap after dunking. The engines and trannies were OK, it was and is the electrics that were and are the problem.
So believe me. been there done that.
Regards Philip A

I'll ask him about the electrics after the weekend. He should be home from sailing his yacht back from FNQ.

Cheers,DL

Ive worked on a 'submarine' 90 and the bloke i work with is the guy that recovered it.

Basicly it was parked at the top of a slipway, the owners got out and strolled down to their dingy and it followed them into the sea. This was a 200tdi....

Now it was recovered and from what I was told, it was completely soaked with freshwater as there wasnt a lake or river nearby to push it into, the chassis and other metal components (inside of doors and bulkhead) were coated in oil.

The engine was drained and flushed and all other fluids were changed.

And finally all the electrical connections had to be pulled apart and washed and oiled.

Now the vehicle probabily lasted shorter than if it hadnt been swimming in the sea, but it was better than scrapping it and leaving corrosion take hold of the components.

I would have thought that it would get a whole lot harder in a td5 disco onwards but easily done on a earlier one.

There were only a few problem connectors that were forgotten about or not properly connected.

H

Yes, Buyer Beware!.....Im the buyer, and I cant wait til these auctions really kick into gear!
Buy the way, if you are sellers, than everything is ruined....ruined I tell you! Scrap value only.

Shopping List:

Camper Trailer (d'uh....to camp in)
D90 (to start another project...I dont have enough at the moment!)
Series 1/2 RX7 (parts for project)
KTM 300 EXC (restore)
Subaru Forester XT (parts for project)