My Cobra was underwater!!!!

NastE50 · Aug 25, 2007

2 days ago, I get a call at work right around 5:00 when i was about to leave. My street was turning into a pond! I drove there as fast as possible. I had to swim once i got into my neighborhood. Here is a picture of what I saw when I came around my neighbors house....
View attachment 367732

I almost started crying. My neighbors and I pushed my car to their house. We got 3 shop vacs and sucked out as much water as we could. It was almost up to my exhaust ports. I was in the process of taking my turbo kit off earlier 2 weeks earlier and I had the battery unplugged. (The weather has been so ****ty, I haven't had a chance to work on it since)I am praying to god that this will help salvage the electronics in the car. My anderson ford PMS box and controller (and probably stock computer) were completely submerged in water. This is sooooo bad. There is someone I want to blame for my car being in the street but thats a whole different story. I know what I have to do about the gas and oil and all that stuff but its the computer and PMS I am so worried about. I had barely any mileage on the PMS too. I recently picked it up! Am I screwed or does anyone know a good way to dry out this electronic stuff? Like I said, the car's battery was unplugged the entire time and still is. It was under water for probably about 20 minutes. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

Mustang78 · Aug 25, 2007

DAMN! that sucks man, i have nothing useful to offer, but i'm curious to know if it dumped 3ft of water in 20 minutes or was there a flood?? either way i hope it all works out in the end. When i ran R/C cars years ago and the electronics got wet, i would take them apart and use a hair dryer carefully on the circuit boards, some pure alcohol (not the 10% water 90% alcohol stuff) in a spray bottle would help too..good luck i hope the interior cleans up

~Mark~

NastE50 · Aug 25, 2007

Mustang78 said:
DAMN! that sucks man, i have nothing useful to offer, but i'm curious to know if it dumped 3ft of water in 20 minutes or was there a flood?? either way i hope it all works out in the end. When i ran R/C cars years ago and the electronics got wet, i would take them apart and use a hair dryer carefully on the circuit boards, some pure alcohol (not the 10% water 90% alcohol stuff) in a spray bottle would help too..good luck i hope the interior cleans up

~Mark~

Thanks Mark. I'll keep that info in mind. The storm drains got backed up and it happened really fast my mom told me. (its at her house). Some kids were clearing the drain at the corner of her street and the water went down within a half hour after I pushed it to safety.

go-stang5.0 · Aug 25, 2007

I'm a northsider so I'm not sure but theres gotta be a river going by you. I havent seen that much water anywhere except for at peoples houses that live by rivers.

poboys 94 · Aug 25, 2007

NastE50 said:
2 days ago, I get a call at work right around 5:00 when i was about to leave. My street was turning into a pond! I drove there as fast as possible. I had to swim once i got into my neighborhood. Here is a picture of what I saw when I came around my neighbors house....

I almost started crying. My neighbors and I pushed my car to their house. We got 3 shop vacs and sucked out as much water as we could. It was almost up to my exhaust ports. I was in the process of taking my turbo kit off earlier 2 weeks earlier and I had the battery unplugged. (The weather has been so ****ty, I haven't had a chance to work on it since)I am praying to god that this will help salvage the electronics in the car. My anderson ford PMS box and controller (and probably stock computer) were completely submerged in water. This is sooooo bad. There is someone I want to blame for my car being in the street but thats a whole different story. I know what I have to do about the gas and oil and all that stuff but its the computer and PMS I am so worried about. I had barely any mileage on the PMS too. I recently picked it up! Am I screwed or does anyone know a good way to dry out this electronic stuff? Like I said, the car's battery was unplugged the entire time and still is. It was under water for probably about 20 minutes. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

Dude I feel for you as I was a resident of the area in the 80s that was affected also near River Grove, Grand and River road, my oldest son,daughter, and Mom, live there now and are closely watching the Des Plaines river creeeep up,(You guys got the Fox river right ?) and I was wondering how your car was in the street hey I would see if they declare Disaster Area, and get your paper work together, and hello FEMA ? Id try,whatever. Back in the 80s there was a club callad the Thirsty Whale at that intersection and WGN news filmed it underwater. Got flood insurance ? Good luck Bro hope youll be cool and things will be too

reddy351 · Aug 25, 2007

You can run a basement style de-humifier in the car. Even if you have to take one of the seats out for a place to put it.
Of course, open the windows and stuff and put it outside, if it's a sunny warm day. That'd be best. Good luck!

GTA_V6_Mustang · Aug 25, 2007

they sell this stuff at advance called wire dry or dry wire, something like that. That comes in an aerosal can for this specific thing that you spray on it absorbs the water and dries itself like brake cleaner i imagine that could help save you

SuperStang83 · Aug 25, 2007

Wow man I don't even know what to say. I would jsut let it dry as much as possible before I tried using any of it.

HISSIN50 · Aug 25, 2007

Maybe some of the hurricane folks (Danny, Shaun, Wes, et al) can be of assistance with proper drying techniques. I'd certainly (safely) get humidifiers and/or space heaters going inside the car (with the latter, only use one while you're with the car since they're a relative fire hazard).

Spin the motor over by hand just in case any water got in there. Some WD down the spark plug holes helps.

I'm sorry to see that - we get flooding like that here and it makes me sad to see such a thing.

Good luck.

MysteryMachine · Aug 25, 2007

sue the town for not cleaning out the drains and make them pay for the damages

87_GT · Aug 25, 2007

sorry to hear about that man. i work for a water restoration company and i have been working about 19hrs a day since wed. the string of storms that came through was pretty intense. as for drying out the car, i encounter wet/submerged electronics all the time wether it is tvs, stereos or game systems and they also seem to work fine after they get dried out. we use dehu's fans and heat to dry stuff out. you really need to get some dry air in there as well as at least a fan to get the air moving, if you can somehow heat the air it really helps a lot. good luck

edit: i suggest renting a commercial size dehu from a rental place. that way you can set it up outside the car and then just duct the air where you need it (there is a port on the side of them where the dry air comes out). it is also better to duct the air to a fan and then have that fan blowing where you need it. it is much more effective.

cbarr300 · Aug 25, 2007

I think that as long as you get it dried out properly you should be good. It didn't have any power when it was submerged so nothing could really get crossed or anything.

my .02

urban96 · Aug 26, 2007

cbarr300 said:
I think that as long as you get it dried out properly you should be good. It didn't have any power when it was submerged so nothing could really get crossed or anything.

my .02

+1

i think having the battery disconnected saved all your electronics, everything should be fine as long as u dont supply any power untill everything is 110% dry

first thing i would do is pull the interior and get one of those carped shampooers and clean the carpet

shop vac out any water left inside the car, use de-humidifier and everything should be fine

as far as engine goes just some oil down the plug holes and spin it over a few times, swap out fluids

go-stang5.0 · Aug 26, 2007

Theoretically if the water was below your intake and also below the exhaust ports on the heads the motor should be relatively dry and rust in there shouldent be an issue. But as mentioned drain and replace all fluids. WD or PB in the spark plug holes also as mentioned. If you have a small shop vac or steam vac use it to extract water from the fabrics asap to prevent mold issues...and yes put a dehumidifier in there. It's humid here so if you have a dry garage put it there and close the windows and doors and and stuff on the car as this will prevent outside humid air from coming into the car. If you crank that sucker for a day or 2 nonstop and keep the dehumidifier tank drained...you could prolly have the interior pretty dry. Also as far as electrical...dont worry so much about the 12 volt systems (the water wont conduct in them anyways)..spend your time on the higher voltage stuff like the ignition system, sterio, and anything else I may be forgetting that may be high voltage. You may also want to drain your fuel tank. Sorry...I kinda know how you feel. I just spent my entire saturday chopping up and removing a tree that fell in my back yard. I still have a fence to fix, gutters to repair, etc ,but I would say I and my parents got out pretty lucky. I hope your house is ok. Good luck with everything and keep us posted on progress.

spacemonkey · Aug 26, 2007

Man that sucks!Sorry to hear about that.We got it like that here twice this summer .My house sit highest on the block and we had water up to my door.We got 24" of rain in in a few hours.There were cars on my street covered up to the cowl.

+1 on the de-humidifier. I would pull your seats and carpet and let them dry outside the car.Just to make sure there will be no mold. You can get it dry on the outside but the insulation will still be wet if you don't.Also the door panels just to make sure nothing is blocking the drains in the bottom of the doors.

94-302-vert · Aug 27, 2007

spacemonkey said:
Man that sucks!Sorry to hear about that.We got it like that here twice this summer .My house sit highest on the block and we had water up to my door.We got 24" of rain in in a few hours.There were cars on my street covered up to the cowl.

+1 on the de-humidifier. I would pull your seats and carpet and let them dry outside the car.Just to make sure there will be no mold. You can get it dry on the outside but the insulation will still be wet if you don't.Also the door panels just to make sure nothing is blocking the drains in the bottom of the doors.

The electronics are probably fine. But pull the seat and carpet top make sure they can dry 100% and put a dehumidifier in the car then in the garage or room with the seats and carpet. Gotta dry those electonics first.

now if the water in the car was really dirty you may want to try cleaning out the electronics, but I bet jsut drying them is OK.

quickstang_1994 · Aug 27, 2007

This happened to me in 2002 and I had just finished driving and it locked up the motor.. but drain all your fluids and refill. The electronics will be fine if you let them completely dry before putting any power to them.

gcomfx.com · Aug 27, 2007

ARGH.... that would make me puke when I seen it.

SQUEEZE&STROKE · Aug 27, 2007

IMHO, the best way to dry the inside of the car is going to be to remove all of the interior. The seats have so much foam in them and the carpet and sound deadening material are all like sponges. The seats and carpet are pretty easy to pull out.

I once dropped my cell phone in a pool. I took it apart, doused everything in Isopropyl alcohol, let it dry and it worked fine. That may be your best bet.

juiced_94gt · Aug 27, 2007

To be honest ith you...your motor is probably fine but ME i would swap out the main harness and a computer just yo be safe, try to dry out the pms maybe but you dont wantto have any issues latter on with the car because of corroded wires.

My Cobra was underwater!!!!

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