Not at 2am there isn't my good sir!

 

User 24: what the heck caused all the rain? I live in NC and wasn't aware of any issues out there..I'm sorry to say that it may be totaled too..wish insurance could give you a brand new one...this one will never be the same..just like in a wreck..

JasonRXeight: I was scared at first to drive my car through the rain (kinda unavoidable)..I understood the dealer to say that water could be sucked into my engine...then someone assholish said: Oh, are you too good to drive your car in the rain, afraid it's gonna get wet?...I wanted to kick him in his teeth..should have...whatever-

I am extra careful in the rain..one slick spot the other day about caused me to lose control however I regained it quickly. I was just turning at a stop light..maybe the 'opt out' trac control is the issue

Definately better to drift in that's for sure..

 

I guess snow & ice is out of the question too?

 

Yes you have to be extra careful without tcs/dsc but it really isn't that hard to do as long as your drive sensibly. Those systems are only there to save you from yourself IMO, I have no problems in the rain as long as I am being careful not to give it too much gas in a corner or when starting from a stop.

I know with my car all you need to do is gas it a little bit when the ground is a bit moist and you can start going sideways. You don't even need standing water.

 

The engine block / core was cracked badly. They replaced transmission and differential oil as a preventative measure, I'll have to get around to re-replacing them with RL and RP later.

Electrically, two o2 sensors had to be replaced as they were damaged and throwing cel, bad exhaust smell, after new engine was installed.

Dropped the car off at the bodyshop to buff some scratches on the front bumper.

There is a loud whine at idle now coming from the intake accordian, or underneath the driver's side of the car. I think I need to uncap the vfad nipple, run the car up to 7000 rpm, and recap it. Not sure what it is at this point till I get to drive it more.

After 39k+ miles on a 2005, the clutch is worn to about 25%, but all brake pads are still in the green. In the next few years, that means SR motorsports clutch+flywheel.

 

What do you think that is going to do???

 

Let it pull vacuum the first time, so it stays open for good.

 

LOL...good luck with that Just remove the VFAD if it is still there

 

Yep it is already removed. The cap is already on there, forgot I still need to remove it for that initial pull. Which would explain how quiet it was on the ride to the body shop.

Really don't know why there is that loud noise yet. Maybe something is rusted up, who knows.

 

If the cap is on the manifold that is all you have to plug off when you remove the VFAD system. There is no reason to do anything with the rest of the plumbing..except remove it. You can unplug the electrical connector to the solenoid if you wish..but it won't make any noises..or cause vac leaks like it is

 

After the body shop repair, dropped the car off again. The noise is probably coming from the pulleys, suspect the water damaged them. The sound quiets down once I turn the AC on though, but comes back when AC is off. This is how the pulley noise sounds like:

AC cycle on/off, driver side:
mp3 file

Engine compartment noise:
mp3 file

 

The clip from under the hood sounds like metal on metal. If the water got up that high it could have infiltrated a bearing bringing dirt/debris with. Bearings generally start to eat themselves when that happens.

 

what a frustrating situation. Hope things will work out at the end for you.

In regards to some people saying never exposing their cars to the rain, I don't fully understand why.

Is it because not wanting to get the car dirty or because of the extra caution needed when driving in the rain?

 

The noise was due to the ac clutch pulley, and idler pulley. They were replaced and things seem back to normal for now.

Cost to insurance approx. $10,900 all said and done.

 

Drove to work today. Leaving work, took 100 cranks to start up. I thought maybe it was flooded, even pulled the fuel fuse, accelerator to the floor, etc. Started up finally with a CEL.

I previously thought the body shop had flooded it, as it took 12 cranks just to leave the shop. And 60 cranks once I stalled it out at home to pull in. Since then it has taken 6 cranks to start, which was abnormal. With the new spark plugs and BHR ignition, usually it didn't take more than 2 or 3 cranks.

Clearly there is more going on.

 

wow they spent over 11K to repair it?!? Thats what id consider abnormal not the cranking time. I wonder what they are using for book values to justify that sort of expenditure. If you have any more repairs that they will cover i'd start arguing for a write off.

That being said, DUDE WTF are you doing driving into water. Traffic or not, aholes blaring horns or not the 8 is low and those F'ers can get pissed off and ruin thier cars if they want. Nothing would have forced me through the water. Pull over as far as you can next time, take a hit to the wheels and jump the curb..something...anything other than going into water like that. It's not good for any passenger car of any sort.

 

The CEL was P0336, something about the performance of a crank shaft sensor.

Part should be replaced soon. If that doesn't fix it, hopefully there is just a loose battery ground somewhere? I would think they would have checked it already though.

The vehicle drives normal or even smoother/faster than what it was before. However as you can see, with water damage there are electrical components hanging on by a thread, liable to fail at any time.

 

whats the deadline insurance gave you for getting repairs done under the water claim? I would think eventually they will start balking at repairs which was probably their intent to start with. The write off value was probably just abit more than the repair value and they probably figured they could guilt cap you or bs you into keeping even that number down.

Maybe you could find a lawyer willing to give you advice because even though it was a noob move you are still getting a very large shaft from behind. Insurance is there to take care of mishaps like this not to steal your money.

 

There is no time limit.

Still checking out the electrical systems at this point.

 

The starter was replaced. It was drawing too much current. From what I read on the internet, it could be caused by an internal short.

Seems ok for now.