[fujitsubo]

hey guys and girls.

new to the forum, just purchased a 92 sierra hardtop cheap at auctions in Townsville. it was listed as a no WOVR record car and PPSR search also shows it as not a write off,
i should be able to pick the car up Monday but im just worried about my chances of it being completely rooted. the pics of it dont look to bad. how well do these cars respond to flood damage or water, unsure if its salt or fresh water damage
or even how much or if any was chugged by the motor or what kind of height the water came up to.

worse case i will part it out and try make some money back. or swap and engine into it if the electrics or everywhere else doesn't look rusted and stuff.

here is some pics of the car
https://imgur.com/a/77N7oRT

[Gwagensteve]

It won't be completely rooted. I'd change all fluids other than coolant, strip the interior right out and wash the whole car down in fresh water, clean out all electrical plugs and hit them with some CRC or similar to prevent oxidisation.

How do you know it was running when it was flooded? the car will be written off even if it was just parked. It might not have been very deep at all. Taking the door cards off might show you - they're masonite and will show a tide mark pretty readily, as would any dust inside the door skin.

Drop the fuel out of the tank. as it's a WT, you'll need to drop the tank to do this properly.
Change the fuel filter and blow out all fuel lines.
Check the oil level in the sump before you change it, but change it anyway.
Pull the plugs, drop a little oil in each cylinder (just a few ml) and turn it over. If it turns over freely, commence having a go at starting it.

It's most likely fine. it's the electronic complexity of cars now that forces them to be written off if they're waterlogged.

[Slug]

Hopefully not salt, anything that was in salt water, we drain, put new oil, get running ect would clean, wet vac, cover with wd40 and send to the auctions as fast as possible before the the electrics fail and the alloy turn white some of these were near new cars
Fresh ok, still issues with wiring ect in the long run, salt more problems than it’s worth

Same reason we would send cars interstate to auction, flood, hail. The buyers don’t realise. Accedent cars from NSW always went to Vic as we could repair the cars down there the auction them without totally righting them off
Most dealers demos can be accident damaged easer to put rego on the car and repair with out getting the manufacture involved as all repairs Ned to be inspected as you cannot put filler ect in an new un rego car
One more benefit of self rego at the dealer no one knows, I’ve seen $20,000 damage to a demo car with 15k on it

[Gwagensteve]

Has that really helped the OP?

Plenty of Sierras have been in salt water. It’s all about how deep it was and whether it was running when it went under.

[fujitsubo]

From the pictures it's really hard to see if any water went inside the cabin or up inside the engine bay, if you look at this other Zook that's currently at auction as we speak you can see all kinds of mud and shit caked on the Front and in the engine bay.

What surprised me is it wasn't a stat write-off, 90% of the flood damaged cars up here are write offs. Odd that mine wasn't.

Link below to the other one currently at auction

https://www.pickles.com.au/damaged-salv ... /602177873

[303zuke]

Being Townsville, I'd suspect a high likelihood of freshwater flooding from Cyclone Oma, but who knows.

Besides all oils and fuel, keep in mind the battery could have been diluted, and will need replacement.

You wouldn't want to drive in a damp-smelling vehicle, but ensure the interior is completely dry before you fire it up. You might need to change the carpets and the blanket-like sound deadener if the vehicle has been left wet for too long (the smell never goes away). Water in the stereo, cig lighter or heater motor will short them out and potentially start a fire. They're supposed to be sealed, but open up all lamp fittings (brake, indicators, parkers, etc) and dry out the sockets and spray with WD40. These will corrode later and start to be faulty if you don't get the water out now.

[fujitsubo]

Thank you all I appreciate the help, you have given me pretty good direction to work with the car to try save it.

[Slug]

Just pointing out that sometimes what you see is not what what realy happend to the car at auctions
Even to the point we used to pull the damage to make the impact look a lot less than it had been to get more return on the wreck
There are a lot of people get caught out that way and pay to much for a worthless car, mostly first time buyers
A new wreck in Sydney gets $13,000 and in Melbourne gets $40,000 at auction
And that was what I was pointing out, look hard at it in person ie under the dash and behind trims where a detailer wouldn’t go, and yes we used to remove trims on expensive flood damaged cars
The old buyer beware come to mind and more so at a public car auctions as the trade have already been tho there auction and thes are the left overs

[atari4x4]

fully extend the seatbelts & look for a high tide mark.

[fujitsubo]

good news is, i went over every inch of the car and found no water inside the cabin and no water lines, i ended up stripping the inside and washing it all down. engine also had no water in it and runs ok. the shifter was tuck in 1st so i undid the 3 bolts holding the shifter in and reseated it correctly, im going to do the shifter bushing repair on it. but so far so good with the car.

[shep]

Pull the rocker cover off and make sure no dirt/mud is inside the motor.
Sierras can drown with pretty much no issues however flood water is dirty and leaves plenty of crap in a motor even if the oil is flushed a few times.