Diy post-flood car cleaning & recovery

**theveed** · October 1st, 2009 02:33 AM

Made a write-up for the unfortunate flooded car owners... Hope you find it useful.

DIY POST-FLOOD CAR CLEANING & RECOVERY/

**madkatz** · October 1st, 2009 03:03 AM

here are some advises from my friends in the auto and racing industry

1. remove the battery terminals, although chances are you won't get grounded anymore since your battery is already shorted, still try to wear a glove or use a dry rag to keep your hands insulated when removing the battery, when removing the battery remove the ground cable first, usually the black one

2. Remove any part of the car's interior that can easily be removed and put back, separate the seat covers if you have them, and let them dry out in the sun, the suns UV rays should do the trick in killing molds and most fungal problems, this will also help a lot in removing the awful smell. but if its really flooded all the way to the roof, better get big berts to do it for you.

Also some people suggested rubbing baking soda in your carpet and seats scrubbing it with a soft bristle brush and then spray a little white vinegar with equal parts of water and let it kill whatever fungi, mold or bacteria there is, another one suggested using plain car shampoo diluted with water and for one pail add 2 cap fulls of zonrox (preferably the one thats more gentle on fabrics) I honestly have never tried these stuffs and there are concerns with my friends as to whether these procedures can change the color or remove the color of upholstery and carpets, but since we're left with no choice we're gonna try it tomorrow morning and let you guys know what happens, also it would be nice if someone can confirm if this is a good practice, these are just suggestions from other friends and some car detailing shops we went to a while ago that unfortunately was unable to accomodate us

3. With the battery safely removed, as stated above, clean and hose down the car with running water and dry it with a blower or a clean dry cloth, and then spray the electrical componenets with contact cleaner, and this is just an added tip i got, you could also try to wipe the rusted dirty and greasy parts ( not painted surfaces! ) with kerosene, this is supposed to be a good cleaning agent at the same time it can provide the car with a small layer of oil to prevent further rusting. You could also use some vacum cleaners with a reverse function where it can be turned to a blower to dry your engine bay.

4. For those flooded to the roof, its always better to have the professional check your car either at home or have it towed, but if your car wasn't flooded all the way to the top or flooded over the engine and air filter and if you are feeling a bit confident that your car can start and is planning to give it a shot, try these things, check your engine oil dipstick, pull it out to see if it has bubbles of water, if it has water, better have it towed to the nearest gas station and chances are you're in at least for a change oil, check your air filter, check if the filters are clogged with dirt and mud especially if you see the lower part of your air filter thats discolored, chances are water has got inside, again have it checked, next find a make shift dipstick to check your fuel, same style with checking your engine oil, if you see water upon checking, have it towed to the nearest gas station and have it professionally changed. if everything looks ok and if you still wanna give it a try, go ahead its your car, although i strongly suggest you have a professional check it, a friends neighbor in talayan tried to start his car and it went from bad to worse, what we did was hire a mechanic and drove him around my friends houses to check each one if we can start it.

5. In the recent surge of customers towards kasa's car shops, and detailing shops, i would strongly recommend that you go to those places that are known for their services, i would personally prefer to spend a little more and wait a little longer and have reputed people to do the services for me rather than some shop which i don't know, chances are there are some opportunistic shops out there that just rush jobs to get a faster customer turn over in short you end up with a "Minadali na trabaho" which could in the worse of scenario's leave you unhappy and worse just waste your money. So its sometimes better to leave it to the really good professionals like Big Berts haha ( do i get a discount? Just kidding ) not just those that get paid for mediocre services

**theveed** · October 1st, 2009 10:27 AM

Bumping this.

**jonjon_u** · October 2nd, 2009 06:19 PM

Thanks guys.

Very relevant info.

**marklv45** · November 20th, 2009 03:39 AM

help boss sakin po toyota innova E ayaw umakyat ng diesel sa nozzle tip baka may service manual po kayo...tnx po

**madkatz** · November 22nd, 2009 06:46 AM

Hi Mark: if im not mistaken there's a pump near the fuel line, just try to push on the pump, this might get the fuel up and running if not im very sorry thats all i can think of for now, you might want to try and call toyota and ask for some suggestions, i've also check the manual since i also have a manual innova and thats pretty much what is says about the problem just pump fuel into the fuel lines, was you car flooded?

**spyghost** · November 24th, 2009 03:30 PM

how do you deal with seats that have been totally submerged? kasi sumipsip na to ng maruming tubig. malilinis nga yung labas, pero yung loob na di nakikita feeling ko marumi parin.

**madkatz** · November 25th, 2009 03:32 AM

*spyghost: i think the only solution to that would be to change the foam and upholstery, but what some shops do is soak the foam again with a soap and bleach solution just to kill germs, molds and bacteria, use a blower to dry the seat and leave it out in the sun and let the suns UV kill what ever living thing remains. This is only applicable to certain upholstery BTW not all are safe to be used with bleaches