| With the hurricanes and flooding that has hit in the | | | | damage. If you can't do this youself hire a good |
| south recently there are hundreds of thousands | | | | mechanic to check it for you, or use a vehicle |
| of vehicles that have moderate to severe flood | | | | inspection service and Carfax to determine if it |
| damage. | | | | has been in a flood or any type of accident or |
| Some of these vehicles that have not been | | | | had major repairs. |
| completely submerged will be cleaned up, freshner | | | | Check title for previous owners and if it trails |
| sprayed into carpets and vents and shipped | | | | back to recent sales in the Hurricane/flood states |
| North, East and West. | | | | pass up the sale even it seems to be a good deal |
| The people who deal in these vehicles get them | | | | as you may have some high repair bills later or |
| dirt cheap and do some clean up and then ship | | | | worse, not even be able to salvage vehicle. |
| them out to the unsuspecting public. These | | | | Check out my web site for other tips and |
| vehicles will look normal but after buying one of | | | | Automotive information at |
| them you will most likely develope serious | | | | Jack Cooper |
| problems down the road. | | | | This article is free for republishing |
| These vehicles will have mold started that you | | | | Source: |
| won't be able to detect for some time and the | | | | Occupation: Auto Appraiser/Inspector |
| odor will be covered up with some strong sprays | | | | I have over 40 years experience in the |
| that will hide the problem for several weeks | | | | Automotive field, from ASE Master Tech to |
| months. But then one warm day sfter being | | | | owner of my own repair shop and have been |
| closed up in the sun you will open the door to a | | | | doing Automotive Appraisals and extended |
| musty odor that will start to become worse each | | | | warranty/pre-purchase inspections for the past 12 |
| day until after a while it will be unbearable. | | | | years. |
| The odor may be the least of your problems for | | | | I have been working on building and just about |
| after a vehicle is submerged in water for any | | | | anything connected with cars all my life. I have |
| length of time the water and grit is in the engine, | | | | been a Drag Racer (early years) drove stock |
| transmission, differential all the wheel bearings and | | | | cars (asphalt and dirt) built Hot Rods and restored |
| working parts. So after driving the vehicle a few | | | | classic cars, so have been around just about any |
| hundred miles you will start to develope major | | | | type of vehicle you can imagine. |
| failures to these components. | | | | My hobby is NASCAR and building web-sites. My |
| Also the water will get into the electrical system | | | | current web-site is a site I started several years |
| of the vehicle and cause shorts in the wiring that | | | | ago as an information site for Cars and expanded |
| may cause fires or serious damage to the | | | | into trucks, 4X4's, ATV's, Motorcycles and |
| computer system of the vehicle that will result in | | | | NASCAR. The site started out to be a business |
| very high repair bills. | | | | site, hence the jtcbiz name, but turned into a site |
| To avoid buying any of these vehicles you will | | | | on vehicles so don't be alarmed with site name as |
| need to do a complete inspection of the vehicle | | | | it had a lot of exposure so I left the name. |
| to check it out for any tell tale signs of water | | | | |