Damage to car due to flooding in Michigan

[JMP]

Tough week in Detroit suburbs.
My car was in a flood (not while driving) and will likely be a total loss. [img].
I'm with a reputable classic car insurance and my question is:
has anyone ever bought their car back from their insurance company (salvage title)?
I know it will be a lot of work but I hate the idea that the car will be scraped.

[cgarr]

I saw that on the news, how deep did it get? All you can do is ask, problem is if it sat long afterwords it will be pretty bad, did you do anything to the engine/trans axel right after it happened?

[stormcrow]

JP

You may be able to buy back the car as salvage - talk with your insurance company about it to see what they have to say.

[Bob Kontak]

Insurance companies don't care if a car is cool. At least I don't think they do?

My daughter just totaled a 2000 Corolla and I coulda sorta fixed it for about what they gave us for value. $1,600.

To buy it back it would have cost us an extra $450. Net $1,150.

So I bet you may be surprised. Suggest not letting it go.

However, insurance companies are not in the business of giving money away. Keep us posted.

[porsche930dude]

buy it back for sure. usually its very cheap to do that. you can always part it out if you decide its unfixable. but drain the oil and pull the plugs and turn it over asap to get the water out of it. you dont want water sitting in the engine

[SCOTITUDE]

get the water out of the engine ASAP, the DME and harness are garbage if they were under water. It all depends on how much work you want to put into rebuilding her. We saved a Hurricane Sandy 993C4S for her owner. FYI, here is what the inside of the DME looked like after sitting for a week.

[Dan J]

Since you're im Mi I;m guessing it was fresh water if so I wouldn't be afraid of it at all
I would quickly dry it out,open the dme and relays unplug them and spray them with contact cleaner, change the fluids, etc don't wait for the ins co just do it now
I'd bet the DME shown above was in salt water

[Driven97]

Oh no. We got lucky, just had to Shop Vac out a little water from our basement. The rest of our street has pretty much the entire contents of their basements at the curb.

Many years ago I bought back a totaled car, fixed it, and still had almost enough money from the payoff to buy my first Porsche (a 944.) Buy it back.

[JMP]

The flood was very deep, up to the floor joists in basement.

Yes, it is fresh/grey water. All the water was vacuumed out. I removed seats and sprayed components with WD40 then wiped off.
I wanted to bring car to a shop right away but insurance co requested I wait. That was a week ago Tuesday. I should have just brought it to the shop.

[JMP]

Matt, was the insurance co reasonable with the price?

[cabmandone]

I wouldn't be scared of a freshwater flood car. I have two friends that own them and have no problems. I'd drain and refill the engine and trans oils, replace the DME, relay and altitude switch and fire it up. I don't think I'd worry about the harness other than making sure the connectors don't have mineral buildup. I'd spray the terminals with a good electrical connection cleaner, hit them with dielectric grease and see what happens.

Sorry to hear you lost your car. Hopefully you can buy it back and get it back on the road.

[Lyle O]

Hey man, so sorry to hear about this. I live a little west of you (Bloomfield Hills) and we were spared from that. As others have said, key is the engine (did water come above the inlet?) and interior stuff. If you do end up keeping it let me know and I would be happy to help you with any restoration work. No expert, but very willing!
All the best...Lyle.

[andybullen]

hoping for the best....

[CCM911]

I once ran my Targa through a deep puddle in the pits at Pocono. Something got wet and the car ran sporadically, and then died. So I let it sit for about a week. It fired right up, and has run fine for the past ten years. I wonder if you could just dry out your car, and forego the hassle of a Salvage title?

[Robey5]

Aww, mannnnn....

I am sorry to hear about this - I guess that I didn't think about those of us in the area who lost cool cars in the flood - only the friends who lost their finished basements, and are now having to replace things such as furnaces and hot water tanks....

I've never done the buy back program from an insurance company but can tell you that water damage is horrible to have to trace down and repair. My wife's car had a clogged sunroof drain channel that caused the whole interior to get soaked, but that is pretty minor considering the 250 year rain we got last week. When making this decision make sure that you keep your head in check: insurance companies are in business to make money, regardless what the commercial says. Even the coolest cars have a "black and white" value to insurance companies, and the adjuster's job is to keep as much money for the insurance company as possible.

[Driven97]

Originally Posted by JMP

Matt, was the insurance co reasonable with the price?

Yeah, I think I caught the right agent on the right day. It was a tired old Nissan and he adjusted it way too high. I just said thank you very much.

Bought it back for $450, put $400 in parts on it, drove it for three more years then sold it for $1500.

[911-detroit]

Let every one know how it all turns out with the car and insurance , really sorry about your car/s. I'm pretty surprised that my area didn't flood . I'm near the shoreline and geology over here is all clay, go figure ! Historical 500 year flood in Michigan first crazy insane snow fall's now monsoons maybe sharknados next ! Good-luck sounds like car will be fine.

[fiminod]

Yes I bought my 911 back from the Insurance company. They totaled it after I was rear ended by a texter.... They figured it was worth $500 for the steel. Where I had the car towed to my house, they deducted the $$ from the settlement and never issued a salvage title. The fuchs were worth $1500 alone... I swapped the parts I wanted with ones from the '84 I bought and sold it for $6500...

[47silver]

Mold is the main problem. My building was flooded in 04. The detritus from the human race upstream of us flowed into the building, I had to gut the first floor replaced everything and had to have it sprayed 3 times before the mold (which looked like an alien life form) was eliminated. Plus we had to let the building dry out before we refinished. I would not want that car in my garage unless you dip it in acid

[porsche930dude]

yeah they the 500 year flood of 06 happend again in 11 but worse. every time the river fills up more and more with silt its not going to get any better