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Date Posted: 13:06:39 11/19/01 Mon
Author: j
Author Host/IP: 216.129.134.234
Subject: flood damage = wallet & sanity check
In reply to: Rod 's message, "Followup question (flood damage?)" on 17:39:46 11/16/01 Fri

Rod,

I've been buying and repairing recovered insurance vehicles for more than 10 years (hobby & for my own use). I've done many collision damaged and recovered theft cars but usually avoided flood damage. Within the last 2 years I broke down and tried one because of exactly what your going through (hating to see such a great example pass me by). MISTAKE!!!
With collision damaged cars, the car "looks" worst that it actaully is but the damage is readily identifyable and fixeable. Flood damaged cars "look" MUCH better than they actaully are and this makes a huge difference.

I found a sweet 1 year old loaded Grand Voyager (wife loves em, go figure). Anyway, this is a 34K plus vehicle for 9k, and it runs, drives new, looks showroom new but some of the accesories aren't working. First time dealing with this particular outfit, they tell me nothings been tried and it could just be fuses. BULL CR** and I ate it. It had been made presentable and tampered with to run & exhibit fuse like failures (fuses, relays and accesories diconnected). By the way, when you buy these types of vehicles, you have to sign away most if not all rights of recourse and accept the vehicle "as is". Once you do that, and take delivery, you'de be hard pressed to go back at the seller even if they batantly swapped out the engine for that of a lawn mower.

The good news is we still own the vehicle but the real story is what it took to fix it. Usually I can estimate what it will take to get something right and I'm usually pretty close (10-20%). On this van I was 300% wrong! You need to worry about lots more than electronics! Water gets into everything and effects everything differently! Yes, every computer(4 of them), fuse and relay had to be replaced, but that was just the begining. Transmission - Replaced after 1 month (delaminated friction material). Engine lower end rebuild 2 weeks(rod bearings trashed - lubrication failure, oil had been changed). AC Compressor, alternator, Water pump, idler bearings, repack all wheel beaings, rebuild all seat, power.. hell every electric motors needed service). And rust?? Metal structures inside such as seat rails, speaker cradles and dash peices aren't desinged for exposure to water.. are all full of surface rust! Connectors, cable harnesses all trap water and begin to fail intermittently. The van is almost new now but occasionally, gremlins still pop up. And the addage that a car is worth 3 times as much in parts as it is whole is very true. I do all the work myself so labor isn't an issue but parts alone on a 928 similarly effected???.. By the time your done you could potenially spend much more than a perfect 928 would fetch today and the kicker is that yours will still carry the flood damaded label. Don't think, RUN!

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