ottery st mary

as some of you will of seen on tv and press, check out front page of todays daily express, Ottery st mary in devon was the subject of mother natures wrath, unfortunatley that range rover pictured on the cover of the daily express belonged to me ok it was only a 97 dse but it was mine and it was my pride and joy the pictures that many of you will of seen were taken several hours after the deluge and at its height the water level was some couple of feet higher, i dont have to tell you what sort of damage that causes even to a rangey ! to cap it all i was only insured tpft so there you go the rangey is probably a write off although i have a mechanic taking a look at it while i speak. if it is repairable any guidance on things to check would be appreciated obviously i shall change all the oils, engine, gearbox and diffs but any advice is good advice. thanks guys

twincam said:

as some of you will of seen on tv and press, check out front page of todays daily express, Ottery st mary in devon was the subject of mother natures wrath, unfortunatley that range rover pictured on the cover of the daily express belonged to me ok it was only a 97 dse but it was mine and it was my pride and joy the pictures that many of you will of seen were taken several hours after the deluge and at its height the water level was some couple of feet higher, i dont have to tell you what sort of damage that causes even to a rangey ! to cap it all i was only insured tpft so there you go the rangey is probably a write off although i have a mechanic taking a look at it while i speak. if it is repairable any guidance on things to check would be appreciated obviously i shall change all the oils, engine, gearbox and diffs but any advice is good advice. thanks guys

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Electronics must surely be the major problem. As the battery was connected when everything went underwater, presumably that will have blown every ECU that got wet.

Sounds potentially bl**dy expensive, it may be worth buying a write-off with a blown engine and whatever and building one good one out of two by lifting all the electrics out of the write-off.

Sorry to hear of your bad news.

If your car is anything like mine it's not worth only the resale value to you it's all the time and effort spent on these beautiful older cars.

I hope you can repair it.

Fred

As said above any car which has been submerged in water to the extent that yours has will be a write off as well as electronics (Although I doubt the "every ECU will have blown" statement is very accurate) will be damaged mainly because you're just not going to be able to dry them out or clean out any pollutants that were carried in there by the flood water. the interior would need to be completely stripped out and cleaned and dried. this isn't going to happen with things like seat foams etc etc. there will also be water trapped inside the body panels and chassis rails. You can simply dry everything and hope it doesn't smell afterwards I suppose it depends what your expectations are. In my experience flood water usually has a high sewerage content as well as various chemicals and oils etc. So I'd say that unless you either intend to do a complete stripdown and deep clean. or don't really mind what state it's in /how smelly it is. Then it's a complete write off.

I do know that caravans when affected by floods will be scrapped by the insurance companies because of infection, fungal growth and bio hazard from sewerage etc. Almost impossible to remove from carpets and upholstery etc even when dry.
Sadly you may have to scrap your car, but as already said possibly look for another with duff engine and use yours for spares.
Electronics would need careful drying and then cleaning in solvent as used in the manufacture of the boards and possibly re-varnish after repair. To remove any deposits that would collect under or around components.
This is what we did when marine equipment had been soaked, our advice would have been not to try the equipment until the boards had been properly cleaned and dried or you cause more damage.