Wet dreams...

Well, after years of dreaming about owning a Supra, and after getting one just five short weeks ago - my dream has, it seems, come to an abrupt and rather wet end.

Here in the east of Ireland over the last week, large parts of the country have got flooded - including the estate I live in. Not as bad as the west and south, but still bad enough.

And one of the things to get wet was the Supra. And it got very wet!

Tried to move the car out of the reach of the water by putting it on higher ground, but no joy. It was parked at an angle with the front end slightly higher than the back.

Water came up as far as the bottom of the lower glove box so interior is soaked. Water went down enough today to open the car up and, for now, it seems the car does not want to die - all electrics (except drivers seat), including alarm are working and the engine started up right away, this is after being half underwater for two days.

So, the car is now out of water but it will be another day or two before the water around it is gone down enough to get it out of the estate it is in. The question is, where do I go from here?

I would imagine the car is a write off as far as the insurance company are concerned but if I decided not to go down that route and try to nurse the car back to health - what kind of task would face me and what would be needed?

Or is it just better off to let it to the insurance company and go get myself a nice cheap and cheerful car to run now that I am facing the loss of my no claims discount. With that gone, I can forget insuring a Supra in Ireland.

jeez that must have been a sad sight to see, hopefully you could buy it back from the insurance

Bad luck mate...weather has been really bad recently!

Insurance co. will defo write it off. But like you say it all depends if you want to claim or not.

The flood damage could just make things not work over time though too tbh. it might not show straight away...

Personally i would ring the ins co. As if things start to fail later on...it might cost you more in the long run maybe?

If it still runs, what are you claiming for?

seats and carpet can be cleaned, wash all solid parts with clean water......

I see no reason to give up... Hell, most of us spend our years spending money on doing up and replacing scruffy parts, why should you be any different and you have a genuine reason.

From what I have been told, the electrics might work now, but the wires will have already started to rust and things will most likely stop working over time so that is why I have to decide do I try to fix it now or cut my losses.

Bugger, bugger, bugger......

Not good mate. Like it's been said before buy it back from the insurers if you claim.

Water damaged cars get written off for good reason, as you say though it works now, it's going to have all sorts of issues further down the line. There are a LOT of important electrics (ECU!), wiring and fuse bozes below the lower glove box level and they will not have liked getting soaked.

Painful as it is, I think the insurance route is going to be the most sensible option.

Is the car an NA or TT? If it's got some nice bits on it, you might be able to get a buy-back offer to get the nice parts back or salvage the engine

Is it salt or fresh water ingress? If it's fresh I'd remove all the ecus and dry them out slowly with covers open indoors, in say an airing cupboard. I'd drain engine, box and diff oils, looking for water contamination, and renew them. Water in an auto box is usually a death sentence. If all seems OK get the car in someone's spray booth over for 48 hours and dry it out properly, although the heating bill will be hefty.

Water in the various ecus and relays, and the auto box would be my main concerns. Unless you absolutely love it and aren't afraid of future potential hassle I'd get shut of it. If it was salt water I'd definitely get shut of it.

Keep it, and run it until it blows up.

Better than driving a rubbish runaround

how much is it worth?

how much will you get back?

how many years NCD will you lose?

how much of an increase will your premiums get smashed by if you claim?

or in short... if you go through the insurance will you actually end up better off in the long run when you've factored in the amount your premiums will increase by in the next 3 / 4 years and till you've built up your NCD...

If you're going to end up losing out in the long run, do what Spike says and run it till it blows up - if it blows up. Then sell what you can.

Bad luck mate! i'd change all the fluids and see how it goes but i'd imagine you'd start having problems further down the line!

If you really wnat to keep it- do as Chris says, get it into a spray booth oven with every cover/lid/seats carpet taken off/out of it with doors and hood open leave all plugs joined/lugged together (if there are two metal surfaces touching together that water hasnt penetrated like in a plug it will keep the water out while the surrounding area dries). leave it for one day like this then go in and unplg everything and let it go another day..

Once its dried you can get some sort of silicon spray for electronics (or something cant remember the name of it -something like this HERE).

Use that on the ecu and dash clusters - you will have to take these apart and also spray it into every plug end (with the plugs undone)- then pray very hard. once its all dry take the spark plugs out and turn the motor over a few times to make sure you have no water in the cylinders.

Put it all back together and if it runs (and it is a big IF at this stage) and you decide to keep her change all your fluids etc before you let it run for more than a minute or two.

As I said I have been here before and it was an old toyota 4wd with about as much electronics in the whole car as you would find in a clock radio but that car ran for another 6 or seven years.... good luck, hope I helped and I am sure there are some things I missed but its basically common sense and quick thinking that will save it- and has been said before if its salt water forget it..

Tried to move the car out of the reach of the water by putting it on higher ground, but no joy. It was parked at an angle with the front end slightly higher than the back.

 

Water came up as far as the bottom of the lower glove box so interior is soaked.

Blimey! The rear interior must have been completely submerged! Sorry to hear about that .

It's a really difficult call. I would call the insurance company, find out how much they'll give you for writing the car off (assuming they would write it off), and get some quotes for how much it would cost you to insure it with the write-off on your insurance record. Until you get those quotes, it's mere speculation what effect it will have.

My preferred route would be to get it written off, buy it back from them, and dry it out and use it. You'll need some spare time to get it properly dried though.

Edit: if you do buy it back and run it, don't expect to get anything back when you eventually decide to sell it (it may not even be running). Just something to budget in.

A lot depends on how much the insurance will pay you and how much to buy it back also to lose the no claims discount must be factored in.

Weve had a few water logged cars that have been dried out and its pot luck if you dont get any problems in the future.

Personally i wouldnt want the car but as said a lot depends on the costs of claiming or not claiming which you need to work out 1st before you do anything.

All the best

Post some piccys up.

Sorry for your troubles lad, this country is going down the drain, literally.

IF you decide to chance it and use the car I have nice (dry;)) interior parts you may find useful, colth seats, grey carpet, etc. and all in great condition.

I'm in Laois/Offaly so wouldn't be a million miles away either.

PM me if you are interested and I'll look after you.

Post some piccys up.

So none of us buy it off the insurance company as a perfect, non-water damaged car

Once the interior etc has been changed are there any signs that a car has been water damaged before?

once its all dry take the spark plugs out and turn the motor over a few times to make sure you have no water in the cylinders.

Put it all back together and if it runs (and it is a big IF at this stage) and you decide to keep her change all your fluids etc before you let it run for more than a minute or two.

I'd drain engine, box and diff oils, looking for water contamination, and renew them. Water in an auto box is usually a death sentence. If all seems OK get the car in someone's spray booth over for 48 hours and dry it out properly, although the heating bill will be hefty.

It's already been started remember:

Water went down enough today to open the car up and, for now, it seems the car does not want to die - all electrics (except drivers seat), including alarm are working and the engine started up right away, this is after being half underwater for two days.

It's already been started remember:

Oops mybad...

Obviously the cylinders weren't full'o'water...

Sorry to hear this news fella, though you have more than enough sound advice above.

An update on this - can't believe it has been so many weeks since this happened!

Anyway, the insurance company's engineer finally rang me today and tells me he is looking at writing the car off as being fit for parts only as the car was in water that was contaminated by sewerage.

He has not done any test on the water that it was in but says he is playing it safe rather than sorry.

Now, I was leaning towards keeping my car so was a bit annoyed to hear this. But what is causing me slightly more annoyance is that my other half's Mazda 3 was in the same water as mine, taken to her insurance company who cleaned it, checked it and gave it back to her as being completley fine.

Now, either my insurance company are too careful or her one has just taken a huge risk with our health - any one any idea as to how I should progress this issue to see which one of the two are right?

I am working that on the basis that aside from the contamination issue the car is repariable. I put it to the engineer that I have been informed that as it was not salt water, the car should be fixable using a combination of new and second hand parts, which he did not deny.

A mechanic in the garage the car is in at the moment also rang me looking to buy the car from me when the insurance company were done with it so he obviously thinks so too.

So I guess, apart from giving fellow Supra owners an update on the state of one of these fine cars, I am just looking for any thoughts people might have on where to go from here.

If I get it back I was planning on striping out the interior and dumping it - take off door panels, centre console and dash and giving a good clean using bleach and anti-bacterial detergents, maybe do the same to the rubber door seals. Pulling each individual electronic part I can get my hands on, strip it, clean it and see if it works, and get a mechanic to give the breaks, gears and diff a once over to make sure all that works good too. Engine pretty much stayed out of the water so that should all be fine.

Was going to take a month or two to get it all done myself, but I would have thought that should have been enough to get her back on the road, no?

Jeez, it's been in some muddy water, not taken part in some experiments at Porton Down. These people..... As I said, put it in a spray booth for 24 hours, change all the fluids a couple of times and it should be fine.

Jeez, it's been in some muddy water, not taken part in some experiments at Porton Down. These people..... As I said, put it in a spray booth for 24 hours, change all the fluids a couple of times and it should be fine.

The insurance companies hold all the cards though, once they've written it off as 'for parts only' surely that means nobody will ever be able to drive it ever again.

The insurance companies hold all the cards though, once they've written it off as 'for parts only' surely that means nobody will ever be able to drive it ever again.

Well, thats not going to be a cat d or c then.

No one wants a poo supra anyway mate.

It'll be a cat b and wont be allowed back on the rd so not much point trying to fix it !!