What happens when you mix a mini van, and 4ft of water? This

[FoBoT]

what an idiot

she was too late and should have stayed inside the hospital

 

[Ryan]

Dude - who is "she"? You're writing from the 3rd person - it's too confusing!

 

[Colt45]

your pics suck. i dont want to see the stupi airbags over and over

 

[Muadib]

Originally posted by: Colt45
your pics suck. i dont want to see the stupi airbags over and over

That's the only real damage that's visible, the rest of the car is perfect. I thought there would be mold all over the carpet, but there wasn't. It didn't even have a musky smell to it. If the carpet wasn't still damp, You couldn't tell it was in water.

Dude - who is "she"? You're writing from the 3rd person - it's too confusing!

It's my gf's mom who's almost 70. Why was it confusing? I'd like to know for my next thread!

it looks fixable...seriously

It would cost more than it's worth to fix. It's totaled, I just took the ride to see it one last time, and to get her plates & crap.

and, according to picture 8, one of the seats grew a set of purple patterned boobs.

LOL, that's some headrest crap she added on. She told me to make sure I get them.

Did the water short out the aiirbag sensor or something?

Yeah, I put the key in to see if anything would turn on, but nothing did. The alarm still worked though.

I'm guessing the force of hitting 4 feet of water triggered the airbags and knocked out the lights

I was just guessing at the water height. I figured it had to be at least that high to cover the hood.

 

[Shawn]

WhyTF did the airbags go off?

 

[Shawn]

I don't see how it's totaled. I'll take it off your hands for ya. Should only take a couple grand to get it back to new.

 

[Ryan]

Originally posted by: Shawn
I don't see how it's totaled. I'll take it off your hands for ya. Should only take a couple grand to get it back to new.

If it was flooded - it will be declared a loss.

 

[Muadib]

Originally posted by: Shawn
WhyTF did the airbags go off?

The water shorted something. The car was flooded.

I don't see how it's totaled. I'll take it off your hands for ya. Should only take a couple grand to get it back to new.

It was never mine to begin with, and now it belongs to some insurance company. The damage is more extensive than you realize. Just about everything in the cabin would have to be replaced because of possible mold growth. It seemed like most of the electrical systems were fried, and the engine was under water. It's just not worth it to fix it.

I'm really going to miss it though. I put more miles on it than she did, more than double the amount. I enjoyed taking it on trips. It had a very comfortable ride, even better than my TL.

 

[allisolm]

Cliffs:
1. Minivan not owned by me or anyone in my family floods.
2. No one was driving van - it was parked.
3. Link to article about flash flood.
4. Many pics of deployed airbags.


Of course that does eliminate the need for the mental picture of a 70yr old woman rushing outside the hospital while partially dressed, and that's a good thing. :shocked:

 

[mryellow2]

Originally posted by: suse920

Originally posted by: deathkoba
I know what happened. Firefighters blasted water into your vehicle for 2 hours when they saw cigarette smoke and overreacted as usual.

You are more of a dumbass than i would have ever thought.

A few years ago something like that happened to me. I was working late (as usual) when the fire alarm went off. Unusual but the few people left in the building follow sop and walk down the stairs. As I'm walking down I can smell something burning, a bit alarming but no big deal, I'm almost out. Hrm, as I exit from the stairwell into the parking garage the smell is much stronger and I can actually see a very white smoke from the area where I parked my car earlier in the day.

I'm starting to get more worried now as my car is one of the last few left on this level of the garage. Lo and behold as I turn the corner there are 4-5 firemen with a hose in the engine compartment of my '96 maxima. OH SH!T!!!!11!1!!!!! The windshield and back window both have a fist sized hole and are cracked to hell. WTF is going on here?!?! My CAR!!! oh noes oh noes alsdjfa;lksjfda;lksdl;aksj

Turns out a power transformer that my car just happened to be parked under blew out spraying molten steel all over my car and probably arcing a high voltage spark somewhere through my maxima. Apparently there was smoke coming out from under the hood so the firemen popped it and soaked it down. They also cleared out the back window (aka took an axe handle and broke the rest of it out).

The next day when I was able to get a better look the damage was pretty bad. There were divots and bubbles all over the car from where the steel droplets hit and stuck or hardened and rolled off. The windows that weren't broken looked like badly made handblown glass...you know when there are thousands of tiny bubbles throughout the glass...that was my car.

Anyway, that was a weird memory triggered by the thought of firemen pumping water into a car.

 

[Armitage]

Holy crap you suck at telling stories - that's incomprehensible.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: Muadib

Originally posted by: Shawn
WhyTF did the airbags go off?

The water shorted something. The car was flooded.

I don't see how it's totaled. I'll take it off your hands for ya. Should only take a couple grand to get it back to new.

It was never mine to begin with, and now it belongs to some insurance company. The damage is more extensive than you realize. Just about everything in the cabin would have to be replaced because of possible mold growth. It seemed like most of the electrical systems were fried, and the engine was under water. It's just not worth it to fix it.

I'm really going to miss it though. I put more miles on it than she did, more than double the amount. I enjoyed taking it on trips. It had a very comfortable ride, even better than my TL.

Water won't really damage an engine, especially if it's only been underwater for a short period of time. The only things that might become damaged are various sensors. Most likely you can get the engine running again by simply replacing the engine computer(ECU). Even if it doesn't start the new ECU should throw codes telling which sensor(s) need to be replaced.

Basically the engine should be easy to get running again. It's replacing the interior that may be a bit of a pain. However if you take everything out right away and leave them to dry in the sun you could probably prevent the seats and carpeting from molding.

My car has sustained extensive water damage because the asshat that owned my car last left it out in the rain with the top down I'm sure on a number of occasions. It's pretty nasty under the carpet but I've just left it. It's been like that for over 3 years now. Basically I don't know why insurances companies automatically total a car that's had a little bit of water damage. I'm waiting for those cars from New Orleans to show up on ebay for real cheap. I'd definitely consider buying one.

edit: I forgot about the airbags. You don't really need to replace them though. My car doesn't have working airbags either. However they might make you replace them in order to get it retitled. That would suck because that would probably be the only thing that would cost a lot of money.