Flooded Wrangler on Matt's Offroad recovery.. Was it you?

[summer4x]

it might be alright, the only concern i would have is the canbus connector in the glove box and the ECU under the hood. the owner said he shut it off. which means there is a good chance its gonna end up fine after drying out for a few days and doing some basic checks so to speak

Nope, water over the floorboards is an AUTOMATIC TOTAL LOSS in the eyes of insurance. This is a totaled vehicle.

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[Ratbert]

Nope, water over the floorboards is an AUTOMATIC TOTAL LOSS in the eyes of insurance. This is a totaled vehicle.

You're joking, right? There are lots of people here that have used their drain plugs to completely recover from that scenario.

 

[Chris2183]

You're joking, right? There are lots of people here that have used their drain plugs to completely recover from that scenario.

It comes down to each insurance company's guidelines when it comes to flood damage. When my wife was in claims, her company's policy was if water reached the bottom of the dash it would be deemed a total loss.

With my own personal experiences with the electrical system in mine, I would be hoping for insurance to total mine if it was submerged as deep as this one.

 

[summer4x]

You're joking, right? There are lots of people here that have used their drain plugs to completely recover from that scenario.

No, I'm not joking at all. As somebody who had a vehicle flooded from a failed sunroof gasket, which was also a total loss, I speak from experience.

 

[Ratbert]

No, I'm not joking at all. As somebody who had a vehicle flooded from a failed sunroof gasket, which was also a total loss, I speak from experience.

Hopefully you realize the the official fording numbers are significantly higher than the height of the floorboard. It seems pretty obvious that getting close to those official fording numbers doesn't magically result in a totaled Wrangler, that was, of course, designed for it.

 

[Ratbert]

It comes down to each insurance company's guidelines when it comes to flood damage. When my wife was in claims, her company's policy was if water reached the bottom of the dash it would be deemed a total loss.

With my own personal experiences with the electrical system in mine, I would be hoping for insurance to total mine if it was submerged as deep as this one.

Yeah, the bottom of the dash is a hell of a lot higher than the floorboard. You can easily food the floorboard in these beasts without damaging anything, much less it being an automatic total loss like @summer4x said.

 

[summer4x]

Hopefully you realize the the official fording numbers are significantly higher than the height of the floorboard. It seems pretty obvious that getting close to those official fording numbers doesn't magically result in a totaled Wrangler, that was, of course, designed for it.

Hopefully you realize that the insurance company is the one who determines if a vehicle is a total loss, not somebody trying to explain "hey man, this thing was just fordin' - it was built for it man!" I wouldn't buy a used vehicle which was "forded," EVER.

 

[Ratbert]

Hopefully you realize that the insurance company is the one who determines if a vehicle is a total loss, not somebody trying to explain "hey man, this thing was just fordin' - it was built for it man!" I wouldn't buy a used vehicle which was "forded," EVER.

Why would it be, as you said, an automatic total loss if there's no damage from simply getting water over the floorboards?

I probably would share your views if we were talking about one of my previous sports cars, but we're talking about Wranglers that are designed for this type of thing.

You'd have no way of knowing that mine had been through two feet deep water unless you sent it to a lab. Think about that the next time you buy one.

 

[OminousSkitter]

So it might be some insurance company's policy, but I think the question is, "Why are you filing with insurance if water touched the floorboards of your Jeep?" Insurance shouldn't even know about it to total the vehicle.

 

[OSCAR II]

How else will we get 10 or more pages out of this thread unless we repost? Plus not everyone has the memory of Rainman : )

If it had fingernail switches this wouldn't have happened.

 

[Kyanche]

For all those talks about insurance totalling a car due to flood damage, remember there's a difference between damage incurred by driving a car into a river of fast flowing and clean water... and damage from flood water (which usually includes sewage and other disgusting stuff).

In this case, they need to thoroughly dry it out and replace some wiring harnesses. In the other case everything inside (seats, carpets, dashboard panels, etc) would need to be replaced because of the poop water.

 

[pablo_max3045]

Hopefully you realize that the insurance company is the one who determines if a vehicle is a total loss, not somebody trying to explain "hey man, this thing was just fordin' - it was built for it man!" I wouldn't buy a used vehicle which was "forded," EVER.

Personally, I would never even consider buying a used Jeep that was lifted or fitted with a lot of after market parts, given that means it was likely beat to shit off road, regardless of how many times they insist it was Grandma's daily driver.

There are way too many Jeep on the market to ever buy something which was abused just enough that the bill lands in your hands.

 

[Dyolfknip74]

I agree. Totaled might by hyperbolic but it's definitely going to take a lot of maintenance to get this going again. The engine air intake was certainly submerged along with the front diff breather tube. Probably trans and t-case breather as well. So a bunch of decontamination is in order.

But the first step of the recovery was to disconnect the battery so the upper rear of the engine compartment was spared from being submerged. I'm just concerned that the owner didn't disconnect it immediately and the battery was likely left connected for a period of time.

The breathers on the JL are one way valves. Regardless, still worth checking but they don't contaminate like previous generations of axles.

 

[wibornz]

The breathers on the JL are one way valves. Regardless, still worth checking but they don't contaminate like previous generations of axles.

I was just getting ready to type this. I have been in water many times. I have had water over the hood many times. The dude turned the Jeep off so most likely, they can drain the air box, check the oil for water contamination and change it. I would turn the motor over by hand to ensure that it does not hydro lock. With the push button ignition, it is not like you can just interrupt the starting process.......

The rest of the Jeep will just dry out and be fine. All of the electrical connections are marine grade type connections.


Jeeps get the wet inside all the time. Heck I power wash the inside of my Jeep and just let it air dry. At times I will use the shop vac to pull excess water out of the seats to speed up the drying time.

 

[Anthonylewis208]

Pretty sure he is a forum member. He made some mistakes that resulted in a costly life lesson. Pretty sure this was a self correcting problem that won’t be repeated. Thankfully most of the poor choices we have all made don’t end up on YouTube for others to critique.

Amen

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