Flooded car: what to do in the first 48 hours

Do not start it. Photograph how high the water came, disconnect the battery if you safely can, call your insurer and have the car towed to whoever will check the engine. Then get the inside drying, because the cabin is on a clock of its own.

We clean cars, so the engine and the electrics are not ours to judge. The interior is. Once a mechanic has cleared the car, drying and cleaning the cabin is part of our interior and exterior detailing service, done where the car is parked.

Before you touch the key

1. Do not start the engine

Not to check it, not to move it a few metres. If water has reached the engine, turning it over is how a repairable car ends up needing an engine, and the dealer and marketplace guides we read all put it first.
2. Photograph it before anything moves

The waterline on the doors, the inside of the cabin, the floor, the engine bay. Your insurer will want to see how high the water came, and that line is gone once the car has been opened up and dried.
3. Disconnect the battery

If you can reach it safely, take the negative cable off. Wet wiring with power still running through it is how a car that might have survived gets an electrical fault that it did not have yet.
4. Call your insurer early

After a storm the claims arrive all at once. Ask whether your policy covers flood damage before you assume it does, and where they want the car taken.
5. Have it towed

Towed to the dealer or the mechanic who will assess it, rather than driven. They can tell your insurer what they found inside.

How high the water came

Below the door sills: The water reached the tyres and the underside but not the cabin floor. The engine and brakes still need checking before you drive, and the inside may be dry. Lift a mat and press the carpet to be sure.
Into the cabin, below the seats: Carpet and the padding under it are soaked and full of silt. This is the level where the interior has to come up and dry out, and where mold starts if it does not.
At the dashboard or above: This is the line a Philippine marketplace guide gives for a car an insurer is likely to treat as a total loss. The electronics behind the dashboard have been under water. That is a conversation with the insurer before it is anything else.

Whether a flooded car can be fixed depends mostly on this line and on whether anybody started it while it was wet. A car that took water to the sills and was left alone is a very different job from one that was driven out of the flood.

The interior has its own deadline

The US Environmental Protection Agency advises drying water-damaged materials within 24 to 48 hours to prevent mold growth. A closed car parked in the heat is close to the worst place for that to happen on its own.

Open the doors and the trunk. Take the floor mats out. Floodwater carries mud and rubbish, so the silt that settles into the carpet and the padding beneath it is what keeps the smell coming back after the surface feels dry. Where you can, the carpet comes up so the padding can dry too.

Some materials do not come back. The EPA notes that porous things like carpet may have to be thrown away once they have gone moldy, and padding that sat in dirty water for days is often in that group. Better to know that before paying for a clean.

If mold has already started, see mold in a car interior for where it hides and what a deep clean removes. If it is the smell that is left, see what that smell is.

If you are on the other side of this

Flooded cars get cleaned up and sold. If you are buying a second hand car after the wet season, the checks are on how to spot a flood damaged car, written from what we see when we clean them.

Book the interior clean at your address

When the mechanic has looked at it, read what our interior and exterior detailing service covers: vacuuming, shampooing and stain removal, and a deodorizing treatment. Say in the form that the car was in a flood and how high the water came. It changes what the job is.

Book the interior clean Or text the crew

Sources

Automart.ph, how to deal with a flooded car: photographs for the insurer, water at the bottom of the dashboard and total loss, never start it, disconnect the battery, air out the interior, tow it to the dealer. automart.ph
US Environmental Protection Agency, a brief guide to mold, moisture and your home: dry within 24 to 48 hours, porous materials such as carpet may have to be thrown away. epa.gov