BlownV8

OK, I have a problem that I know someone will be able to help. We recently had some very strong storms roll through and I accidentally left my front passenger window down. Needless to say, the passenger side totally filled up with water. Thought it was isolated to the carpet so I just dried it out the best I could.

Fast forward to today. After driving for 15 minutes or so the car started running very rough like it was on 4 cylinders. Did not think the problem was related but I do now. This evening my son told me I had lights on in the front of the car. Both city lights and the right side turn signal was illuminated but not blinking. I tried to pull the headlight fuse but to no avail.

Make a long story short, I pulled the carpet and discovered there was around 6 to 8 inches of water below the carpeting. Got the wet dry vac out and sucked up the water and pulled the battery since water was in that compartment too.

Does this sound like I fried the front SAM or is it worse than that? I get the lights from the SAM but not sure why it would start running rough. I have not reinstalled the battery yet. Any recommendations beside making sure my window is up in a storm?

alx

Get a dehumidifier. Put it inside vehicle. Close all doors and windows and let it run for 24 hours. Check often to make sure it is not overheating. Empty as needed.

If that doesn't make a difference your car needs to be read. A dead sam will be easy to troubleshoot. Pray it is a sam. It could be many things. Water damage is the nastiest to troubleshoot.

NVDevPartners

Have insurance? Make a claim.

alx

He makes a claim goes as flood damage in car fax. Whatever is his truck worth now- it will be worth half that. Insurance claim for flooding is last resort when all other options are unsuitable.

BlownV8

Not really worried about value since the truck has over 200k miles. However, I am taking your advice and purchased a dehumidifier. It is running as I type this. If it does not work, I will call insurance.

NVDevPartners

Flood damage usually results in a total loss. Gets full retail value for the truck plus sales tax in the form of a check (at least that is what happens in Nevada), goes and buys different truck.

Trust me, the check an insurance company will have to cut you is going to be bigger than what a private party will give you if you go to sell it with 200k+ on the odometer. But props to you for keeping her going with over 200k!

smiledr996s

I went through this.

Take it to to the dealership and let them mitigate the damage. Will pull interior and replace the computers. I am sure the repair bill will be less then then they would pay to total it by a long shot.


Ins company wanted to take it to copartt. But I demanded that it go to Mercedes. Sooner you get them to dry it out the better. You don't want corrosion on the terminals.

I drove through about three feet of water and the pressure pushed a plug from under the passenger seat. It flooded the compartment and the computers got wet. If your deduductable is 1000 or less I would get it to dealership soon.

probably can also get them to spring for new battery and aux one. Mine did. 😀

Love my vehicle. I have 135k on it. I have it mechanically sound. and was not about to let them total it.

eric_in_sd

Resale on these things is zero point zero. I saw one with fire damage sell on Ebay for $5. Here's one that's dealership maintained and sold for $7800:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2007-Mercedes-Benz-GL-Class-4-MATIC-/282288591564?forcerrptr=true&hash=item41b9b612cc%3Ag%3AFpoAAOSwImRYRLqj&item=282288591564&nma=true&si=WivVYix5huwT%252BxDlMEnisJtTKIU%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
They're a great bargain used, if you have intestinal fortitude and don't service at the dealer. I'd seriously consider upgrading if I could find one with the enhanced off road package.

a2j

I'm actually entertaining this idea. GL450 (X164) as a secondary, low miles, local driving vehicle. I feel comfortable servicing and repairing GL at in my garage. Or maybe R350

eric_in_sd

Found a 2011 550 on Ebay with offroad. More bells n whistles than I'm interested in - I actively do not want the taller wheels, running boards, etc. But I'm obsessing over having diff locks. Dang.

R350? Mm. I drove one and didn't like the softness. But to each his own.

BlownV8 - What's the update?
Sometimes ins companies will let you buy the salvage vehicle. Might be interesting if there are good parts you want to keep. Then get a 140k mile one owner GL for $7800.

a2j

We need 6-7 seats.

alx

do not touch the r-class... just a friendly advice.

those things despite being very similar to the gl/ml platform never got fully baked for some reason and are very problematic... mostly stupid things, but _a_lot_ of it...

BlownV8

No update. Dehumidifier is still running. Haven't had the time to reinstall everything I removed but here is a pic I took before sucking the water out.

eric_in_sd

Nasty!!!

Have you kept track of how much water you've dumped from the dehumidifier?

Make sure you close the windows when you're using it, btw.

I think if I lived in storm country I'd keep a dehumidifier ready to go, just in case.

BlownV8

It probably pulled a few quarts out in 4 days. I got most of it out before buying the dehumidifier. I was hoping the dehumidifier would pull the water out of the electronics.

eric_in_sd

Curiously, you can rinse electronics with clean (deionized, distilled, aka rain) water all you want. It's the dissolved stuff - which makes that water you see brown - that makes it conduct electricity.

You might still be okay. Totally crazy, but you might try rinsing the SAM or whatever it's called with distilled water and then drying with compressed air.

I spilled 7-Up on a laptop. Rinsed it, left it to dry, and good as new. More or less.

Also, I know it's been several days now, but a fan inside the vehicle will stir up the air and make the dehumidifier more effective.

BlownV8

The dehumidifier has a built in fan that moves the air pretty good. It's a 35 quart dehumidifier so it's meant for large spaces. Should be more than enough to do the job.

eric_in_sd

Holy mackerel, you don't mess around! Undoubtedly wise, though.

The dehumidifier will warm the interior; this is fine - better, actually - as long as it doesn't go to excess. Like melt the dash or something like that.

BlownV8

The lights are no.longer illuminated but it's still running bad. Had it scanned. See attached screen shots.

BlownV8

The check engine light stays illuminated for a bit and then flashes 18 times. Is this a bad coil pack or is related to the ECU?

ItalianJoe1

Misfire on 1 cyl could just be a coil pack. The intake manifold runner failure is the broken flaps that always happen, it should still drive ok though.

eric_in_sd

I paid $1600 to have the intake manifold replaced because of that stupid flap. Wish I'd held off, and just stuck the flap in the open position.

BlownV8

Ordered all new coil packs so hope that fixes the misfire. They are dirt cheap compared to the V12 coil packs on my SL.

alx

unlikely. if the front sam got water it would affect the plug controller which might be the misfire culprit... i have seen that chain reaction in a another flooded x164...

i think at this point the car needs to be read with star/ das. if you can get to the dealership pay them for 1 hour of diag ($145-150) and then replace what they say went wrong.

ItalianJoe1

Agreed, if it's wet, it's not gonna be pretty. I would always scan the car before throwing any parts at it.