Dealing with water damage/insurance

it's not necessarily fouled sensors. The computer might have just noticed it was not running right and through a CEL. I did that with my ex-boss's escort wagon after driving it through about a foot of water.. the engine stumbled once but kept going.. and threw a CEL that went away about a hundred miles later

mad_machine wrote: it's not necessarily fouled sensors. The computer might have just noticed it was not running right and through a CEL. I did that with my ex-boss's escort wagon after driving it through about a foot of water.. the engine stumbled once but kept going.. and threw a CEL that went away about a hundred miles later

Yeah, I imagine that is what will happen, but I told him to go get it checked out anyway, either way, it's a non-issue or covered by insurance.

I know that when the hardtop was stolen off of one of my Miatas, and the softtop was only partially put up, and then it rained enough to fill the interior, it was an AUTOMATIC write-off with State Farm. They didn't even pull carpet or anything like that. I had to pop the drain plugs to get enough water out to even drive it up for the adjuster to look at it (they were willing to send someone, but it was less than 3 miles, and it would have been an extra week for them to come to me).

once water hits the fuse box.. the car is generally totalled

It's the opinion of my Dad who works in collision, and all of his friends in the business that the interior work, along with the possible exhaust leak, e-brake issues, and other issues that may have been exacerbated by the flood would make it a total loss. I plan to rework the issue with the insurance company, as I was extremely unsatisfied with the service I received. The guy showed up late, recommended a detail shop, not a full service shop, and then failed to detail the exact work needing done in the quote.

well.. do what you have to in order to keep it from being totalled.. but still get the money you need to repair it

Geez, this thread went from "I hope they pay to take the carpet out and clean it" to "I want my car totaled" in less than 2 pages. I also do insurance claims, plus have some experience with water in a Honda myself: I fixed the CRX myself. Yanked the seats and carpet out (after the car sat for a week until I could retrieve it) and let the carpet bake/dry on the roof of the car for several days until the padding was dry. Didn't touch the seats. Now, my water was reasonably clean as you can see. Had it been muddy, I'd just have tossed the carpet and installed new. Getting the padding clean is the problem. I did a claim on a Mazda not long ago similar to yours and we couldn't buy the padding separate from the carpet so replaced it there also. Just the carpet without the padding I'd try to clean first. Toss a couple dryer sheets under the carpet for good measure after a scrub/shop vac of the floor and you're usually good to go. The CRX had it's efi brain under the right seat so that got tossed for a good used one. Connectors were sprayed out with air followed by WD-40. While I did sell the car within the year after this happened (I was tired of it more than bothered by the water thing) it was local to me for years afterward and never developed any problems as far as I heard.

I did just junk a Audi S6 Avant that had water up to the seat bottoms because it's got umpteen brain boxes scattered throughout the car and the stealership tells me the terminals will corrode in the harness (?) so they wanted $12 grand to fix it. Goodbye, S6. So it matters on the car.

Salt water we don't mess with, you're always going to have long term nightmares from that stuff and I junk 'em all. Low fresh water isn't that bad unless it gets into the seats or up to the console, then I think it's too risky.

Had those same rims on several of my hondas. Something about them looked better than most of the 90's 5-stars.

ddavidv wrote: Salt water we don't mess with, you're always going to have long term nightmares from that stuff and I junk 'em all. Low fresh water isn't that bad unless it gets into the seats or up to the console, then I think it's too risky.

salt water ruins everything.. there is no way about it

In reply to ddavidv:

you left that car for a week in a river? and it was still in the same place when you came back?

this also demands the story of how the hell it got in the river in the first place

I once drove my Hyundai Excel THROUGH a shallow stream... but I could not imagine it being there a week.

Around here an car left abanonded in a river would probably get it used for target practice by the local hunters