What to do with a water damaged Skoda?

[carlo]

Evening all,

 

Anyone have any suggestions as to what Fatha_Carlo could do following an unfortunate encounter with a very deep puddle last week.  Drove his two year old Fabia diesel into a puddle which turned out to be nearly a foot deep.  It got stranded and couldn't be moved overnight, having eventually got it lifted to a garage it turns out (perhaps unsurprisingly) that the thing is wrecked.  Water spewing out of it, probably up £2,000 worth of bits required, plus labour, plus then very possibly an unreliable car.  Prior to this is was an immaculate, low mileage car.

 

Do you think it's worth repairing?  Could it be totally fixed?  They're worth around £7,500 at the moment.  What would it be worth as it is; would it be of any interest to anyone?

 

Cheers all

 

 

[hairnet]

does it run? any elec issues?

 

less than a foot of water doesnt sound too bad....................

 

any of the control boxes under the carpet on these like mercs and large cars

[Anglevan]

If battery was left connected and I guess it was then I wouldn't bother. All the srs/ecu etc will be jiggered. Did the engine suck water in also?

They can be fixed but just depends on your knowledge and patience.

Golden rule is to disconnect battery straight away, then dry all units / seats and carpet and you stand half a chance.

If engine sucked water then depending on his revs will decide what's jiggered. At best remove air filter/drain bores and do a compression test.

[Mr Lobster]

Fix it. Or claim on insurance.

 

If you sell it on you'd be looking at getting significantly less than its current value minus cost of repair as anyone would factor in an amount for the hassle and because none running cars aren't hugely desirable. If it's fixed properly there's no reason why it should have any issues going forward.

[carlo]

Yes water in the air intake (strange as it's quite high up apparently).  Starts apparently but sounds horrendous.  Needs rods/con-rods apparently or something.

[twosmoke300]

Will have srs and convenience control units in the footwells

[cobblers]

I'd personally want rid if I was the type of person who was used to a mint 2 year old car. It'll never be quite the same. You'll need to take the carpets out at the very least, then sort the wiring.

 

If you want a crack at it yourself then get all the ECUS you can find out of it ASAP, get them open and douse the living daylights out of them with Isopropanyl alcohol then put them in the oven at 70-80c for 3 hours or so (most ovens don't regulate well at this low temp so keep an eye on it)

Once the water is gone you might see some corrosion around various areas - just a toothbrush and soapy water will sort this (followed by IPA and oven

Most of them won't need replacing. I fix stuff like this for a living and it's only usually toast if it's been wet for weeks and weeks. 

Douche the connectors all with WD40 or whatever and them blow them dry with compressed air.

[Tamworthbay]

Certainly sounds fooked, assuming the garage is honest of course.

[carlo]

Yes we certainly trust the garage

[Mr Lobster]

Is it just the engine of did water get in the passenger compartment? If it got inside then I'd want rid but if it's just* a case of lobbing an engine in then that should be doable

[fordperv]

Set fire to it to dry it out

[Kiltox]

I'll give him a grand for it....

 

But seriously as said above, get all of the control boxes out of it and into something to dry them out

[Pillock]

Is this sort of thing not covered by insurance then?

[carlo]

I think that's going to be a bit of a grey area

[michael1703]

I'd fit a £900 engine off eBay in it,dry it out and sell it.

[junkyarddog]

I'd get rid ASAP,

water damaged stuff is a nightmare.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Is this sort of thing not covered by insurance then?

Yes, if he drove it into a flood , it's accident damage . Same as if he'd driven into a tree or another car.

[garbaldy]

All this doom and gloom and the way i see it is the engine is the biggest issue the electrics will dry out.

this was over three years ago, it was stuck in the river for a good four hours and its still going strong, the only slight problem is the wiper motor is rather noisy now.

 

[Lankytim]

Claim on the insurance. Flood damaged cars normally die electrically when they get put back on the road. 

 

edit

 

Apart from that one, obv. ^^^

[Pillock]

Then I really can't see why he shouldn't just sack it off to the insurers then.

If it was a 18 year old in a £300 Punto then yeah, scrap it. But a car worth £7k repaired, and an established driver that presumably isn't paying a fortune for insurance....?

[MarvinsMom]

get rid if the engine sounds a shagged when running as you suggest.

 

even for diesel to be sounding like a bag of spanners in the washing machine on the spin cylce is not a good sign....

[Tamworthbay]

All this doom and gloom and the way i see it is the engine is the biggest issue the electrics will dry out.

this was over three years ago, it was stuck in the river for a good four hours and its still going strong, the only slight problem is the wiper motor is rather noisy now.

reivers boating 015.JPG

maybe the Seal has gone.............

[garbaldy]

My auld man used to be like that with insurance if he crashed it he parked it in the corner and bought another. I always used laugh at him.

[garbaldy]

maybe the Seal has gone.............

I thought otters where the animal of choice just now.

[Tamworthbay]

I thought otters where the animal of choice just now.

well it's always one or the otter

[UltraWomble]

Conversion for the next time he meets a puddle

[RoadworkUK]

Apparently, at a main dealer the test to ascertain whether the engine has ingested water is to remove the air filter.

 

I've seen BMW M3s being written off because the filter is sodden, all without even starting the engine.

[Asimo]

I killed* my five year old Avantime engine by driving it too deep. RAC got it going but it rattled like a bastard.

 

Insurance wrote it off and paid out almost all I had paid for it a few months earlier for just 20% off the no-claims.

 

*DVLA showed it as still in use last time I looked.

[sierraman]

The unscrupulous would dry it out then eBay it as a mystery non runner.