Saturday, November 23, 2013

How to Repair a Water Damaged Vehicle

How to Repair a Water-Damaged Vehicle

Floods, hurricanes and other disasters can result in cars partially or totally covered with water. In some cases, the price of restoring a drowned car to serviceable condition would eclipse the value of the car, so you or your insurance company should just scrap it. In other cases, it is possible to dry out a flooded vehicle, enabling it to provide many additional miles of safe, comfortable driving. Though drying out the interior upholstery and seats is a challenge, its more important to remove all the water-contaminated fuel, oil and fluids to ensure the systems they control or lubricate operate correctly and safely once the rest of the vehicle is rehabilitated.

Instructions

    1

    Drain the engine oil by removing the drain plug in the oil pan and allowing the oil to run into a drain pan. Change the engine oil filter, then replace the engine oil with fresh oil.

    2

    Drain the engines cooling system by loosening the hose clamp on the lower radiator hose and disconnecting the hose allowing the coolant to drain into bucket. Reconnect the hose then refill with fresh antifreeze/water mixture.

    3

    Drain the transmission oil by removing the bottom pan on the transmission by unbolting the bolts around the perimeter of the pan. Drain the fluid into an oil drain pan. Replace the transmission filter located under the transmission pan, reattach the pan then refill the transmission with the specified amount of transmission fluid.

    4

    Drain the brake fluid from the brakes, master cylinder and brake lines. Use a wrench to open the bleeder valves located on each wheel the pump the brakes until all the fluid is expelled. Add new brake fluid to the master cylinder, then bleed each brake individually to remove all the air from the brake system. Capture as much used and purged brake fluid in plastic containers, then clean up the fluid that dripped onto the tire, wheel supports or floor.

    5

    Remove all the gasoline from the fuel tank either using a siphon hose or by removing the gas tank and dumping out the gasoline into a bucket. Refill the gasoline tank and add gas-line antifreeze to absorb any residual moisture in the system.

    6

    Drain the power-steering reservoir by removing one of the hydraulic hoses, then rotating the steering wheel back and forth until all the fluid is pumped out. Capture the used oil in an oil drain pan. Refill the power steering reservoir with power steering fluid.


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