Subaru under water story.

[Scooner]

http://www.topspeed.com/cars/car-news/1986-subaru-legacy-starts-after-being-submerged-in-lake-for-three-months-ar130602/picture458976.html They say this is an 86' Subaru Legacy, something tells me they meant to say 96'? I think its BS, the owner sprayed the ECU with brake cleaner and it started right up. Yeah sure. Check it out for yourself.

[nickb21]

http://hooniverse.com/2012/06/05/meanwhile-in-finland-scubaru/

 

More details.

Edited March 25, 2014 by nickb21

[Scooner]

Thanks Nick, i figured the real story was covered out there somewhere!

[tirod]

Cold fresh water isn't very corrosive. Once the car was out, tho, then things start to oxidize. Note it was said that most of the electrics were working. Mechanically, sure, change the fluids and it should start up. Jeeps do it all the time. 

 

What cars in contact with water don't do is tolerate water being drawn into the harness by capillary action. It can travel inches per hour under the insulation, and cars rank dead last for having decent wiring in the transportation industry. The average bass boat has better wiring because it can and will get wet constantly. You can't have the boat quit on you in the middle of the lake. 

 

It may be running now, the track record of Katrina and Hurricane Sandy is that in six months the wiring will make it a pariah. Since it's prohibitively expensive to rewire a car, it will likely be at the salvage yard in a year getting the mechanicals sold off. 

[Gloyale]

It may be running now, the track record of Katrina and Hurricane Sandy is that in six months the wiring will make it a pariah. Since it's prohibitively expensive to rewire a car, it will likely be at the salvage yard in a year getting the mechanicals sold off. 

 

Those were salt water flooding events.

 

This is a fresh water lake.....I'll bet it keeps working fine

[Scooner]

It'd be really cool if the guy who owned it was a member on here, then we could keep track of that thing and see how far it goes. I bet it smells awful on the inside though! I'd imagine the wheel bearings would be one of the first things to go.

[Ratpick]

That was a pretty incredible, yet believable story. Love it. I've seen other cars revived after underwater drives. But like they mentioned, there's gonna be problems later. I was surprised enough by a 89 Grand Prix I acquired pretty much for free. It sat in impound lot for about 3 years. Threw in a battery and showed it the key and it fired right up. But improper dry storage started to show little bugs after a while (the thing also looked like it had sat in the sun for 20 years. Good job gm)

Somebody has gotta find out if this sub-Subie is still alive.

[tirod]

If fresh water was a guarantee, then boats wouldn't need a water resistant harness. And Jeepers who mud their rigs wouldn't have a rat's nest of rewiring under the dash, hood, lights, etc. 

 

Wet wire harnesses in cars make them toast, and some states ban them from resale. If the harness develops voltage drop, then sensors sending .1VDC signals to the ECU have to overcome losses of .5VDC or more to get the signal there. It's why cars will slowly lose the ability to operate the door locks, window motors, or even drive. I had a '90 Cherokee and it was a constant battle to keep the electrics running - and I never drove it more than hub deep. 

 

Drive a vehicle that the owners notoriously submerge for fun, visit their forums, and you discover things like military grade waterproof wiring, which is required on all wheeled tactical offroad vehicles. Or simply using hairspray on the ignition to keep it running and not conking out in fender deep water. 

 

I seriously doubt it will be "fine," the owner has already noted that "most" of the systems are still working. Not all. It's already started, and those who have dealt with flood damaged cars here in the Midwest are well versed in it. 

 

It's a total already, it's a dead car running. 

[Gloyale]

It's why cars will slowly lose the ability to operate the door locks, window motors, or even drive. I had a '90 Cherokee and it was a constant battle to keep the electrics running - and I never drove it more than hub deep. 

 

Drive a vehicle that the owners notoriously submerge for fun, visit their forums, and you discover things like military grade waterproof wiring, which is required on all wheeled tactical offroad vehicles. Or simply using hairspray on the ignition to keep it running and not conking out in fender deep water. 

 

Your comparison to jeeps is funny.  They wrap their wiring in duct tape.....seriously.....duct tape.

 

Subarus are VASTLY better wired.

 

And my wheeler has been submerged above the window line on the doors.......MANY TIMES..........Starting in 2008......5 years of mudholes and river crossings and literally hosing out the inside when done.

 

I didn't say that the car would never have any problems.......I said it'd be "fine"  which means driveable and useable for another 10years or whatever the regular lifespan of a car in finland is...(lots of de icer)  Yeah.....maybe the wipers will quit and need fixed, or maybe the vents will get funky......but it will keep running.....It's a Subaru.

[Rooster2]

Sounds like a flood damaged Subie could be a good deal if priced cheaply.

[tirod]

Flood damaged cars are cheap - after the owner finds out what his problems are and can't hide the grim facts. You can recycle the hard parts, which is what salvage yards do. 

 

Most 25+ year old cars getting restored, tho, the first thing stripping the car down to the frame is junking the harness. Auto wiring is unplated, and will wick condensation between the strands every time it forms. That will eventually cause corrosion, and after a decade of it, the public notices. Things like door locks stop working, headlights burn out sooner, turnsignals get dim and nearly can't be seen. The sensors trying to send .1 volt signals fight .5 volt resistance and the computer can't compensate. 

 

While one person may not be having much difficulty in the off road rig, someone with the full power and air luxury car on the road gets pretty miffed when a significant number of accessories go belly up. It's flat rate work at the shop to discover it - and shops are charging in excess of $120 an hour. Which is why used cars over ten years old with a lot of electrical faults get junked, and much sooner if they have been submerged in a toxic soup of flood waters. 

 

They put waterproof harnesses on military ground vehicles for a reason - if standard wiring would do the job, why bother going overboard? No, it fails, and having a fleet of 5 ton trucks in the motor pool needing electrical faults sorted out tends to keep an army from sending troops where they need to in a pinch. Since military wheeled vehicles are built to ford water up to the drivers eyes, they are required to have waterproof harnesses. 

 

And since Jeeps don't, there are plenty of pics and stories of them going dead in the water, snorkels and all, to soak until the owners pull them out days later. In every post I've read of it, the fluid change was the easy part. The difficulty was getting them to finally start and run, then run correctly. If it was an unmodified Jeep, the owner began learning why the military uses a $150 set of waterproof plug wires, and has all those bulky screwed together O-ring connectors in the harness and on the back of switches. They HAVE to cross water obstacles no matter what, and having vehicles fail doing it is unacceptable. 

 

"Most of it works" isn't a real good sales pitch when you get tired of the funky upholstery smell and lack of amenties in what was once a nice car. "Flood damaged junker" is the more accurate description.