This past week, while Hurricane Sally was pounding Pensacola with category 2 winds, we here 100 miles to the east in Panama City got about 15 inches of rain. I'm living in a camping trailer set up behind my office because my house is still undergoing repairs from Hurricane Michael in 2018. The street behind our office regularly has drainage problems in heavy rain and becomes impassible, so I wasn't worried when I saw the flooded street on Tuesday. By Tuesday night, though, the water was higher than it's ever been, and even though I'd moved my vehicles to the highest part of the lot, they were in the water. My '99 Miata, my '03 S55, and my '03 FJR1300, at 10PM and again at 11:22:




The next morning about 11AM, and it's still raining hard!


And the high water level, just as the rain finally started to let up. We had a couple of short downpours after this, but not constant heavy rain, and the water finally started to recede. The house across the street, with the wooden fence, got over a foot of water into the house. His garage door is a four-panel roll-up door, and the entire lower panel is in the water here.


When I could get to the cars without wading, I found water standing in the Miata, but it fired right up and pumped water out of the exhaust pipe. I've since run the shop-vac in it and removed the seats, center console, and carpet to get that cleaned up. The bike was also fine, I started it up and rode it back to its normal spot by my trailer, while I let the Miata sit and run for about a half hour to clear the exhaust. I also jumped the S55, which had a low battery. It would only click when turned to Start. With jumpers, it cranked but never fired. A few other weirdnesses became apparent as well: the doors locked and unlocked from the remote, but the trunk release wouldn't work, either from the remote or from the switch on the driver's door or the button at the trunk; I had to use the emergency key. The mirrors wouldn't unfold when you open the doors, even after confirming the setting for auto-fold in COMAND. They would unfold with the button on the door, and they would fold automatically on locking the car, but they never unfolded automatically. And while cranking, the front struts sagged and the front end is nearly on the ground. (The front bumper damage you see in the pictures is the main reason the car was as cheap as it was when I bought it.)



There's no water in the car that I've found, fuse boxes are all dry, but in addition to the stuff I listed before, I discovered that the brake lights are stuck on, which is probably why the battery got so drained. Still, I opened the car up, disconnected the battery and put it on a charger, and repeated attempts to start it have failed; it cranks, but absolutely no fire. I don't know if it's missing fuel or if it's missing spark, but even if it starts, what's the next element in the daisy chain of electrical failures? Is the transmission going to shift properly? Is the ABC going to recover? Are the brake lights going to go out and work properly? So today, after four days of trying, I've submitted a claim to Progressive.

 

A friend buys and then sells flood cars all the time, especially MB. Water at that level should not be a problem. Up to the transmission pan, the insurance company will total, but I’ve seen MUCH worse at his yard (water line half way up the inside footwell). BMW smell water and they’re toast, but not MB and definitely not SClass. Charge the battery fully and I suspect all those issues will fade into the night. GL and please keep us posted.

maw

 

Did the picture show the absolute highest level of water? If the water never made it over the hubs of the wheels, and you don’t have pooling water under the passenger seat floor carpet, you are going to be OK.

Disconnect battery.

Pull back the carpet on the passenger footwell and check for water in the electronic modules under there. dry out any wetness.

Charge a new battery. Hook it up and try starting again.

 

Progressive had it towed to the dealership in Tallahassee, my closest Mercedes dealer. They'll evaluate it and quote Progressive for the work it needs. No clue if it'll get fixed or totaled.

I did find water under and behind the front passenger seat. Before, I was entering the car from the left side, never saw the wet carpet on the right side. It was getting pretty rank yesterday, too.

 

It’ll be totaled... you should start thinking about if you want to buy it back and part it out... or what to do with the $5k-$7500 they’re about to offer you... for that latter number you may be able to find another one, in better shape even...and eBay seller Autohubshop might actually buy the car from you for parts... either way, you can probably buy it back, replace any offensive modules and still pocket some cash... just ideas.

GL, and please keep us posted.

maw

 

There are two concerns with water under the passenger seat:

1) There are power cables and modules under the front passenger’s feet. You would pull back the carpet and bracket starting with the front edge under the glove box to get at that area. Also pop off the passenger’s door/floor trim plate in the door opening.

2) There is a fuse block hidden at the base of the right rear passenger seat. Look behind the ambient light cover between the passenger’s ankles, below the edge of the bottom cushion. Water could have wicked up into there. Fuel pump fuse? I don’t remember which circuits go through there.

 

All of that is the dealer's problem, now. I never had any intention of troubleshooting these issues myself. I've got the coverage, I'm using it. If Progressive takes the car, I'll find something else to drive.


I have gotten rather attached to that S-Class comfort and space, though...

 

I'm pretty convinced that your rear sam got moisture in it. It happens all the time in these scenarios. Just let it dry out and the car will be fine. All of the circuits you are mentioning issues on go to the rear sam so that makes sense. It happenned to me before. Good luck and hope you end up keeping it.

 

It’s addictive, actually. I’m most at home behind the wheel of the S. The 500E isn’t far behind and feels S-Adjacent. But I think the stat was something like 7 of 11 SClass owners buy another SClass. I’m quietly shopping another one now, but I don’t see this one going anywhere anytime soon.

GL

maw

 

Finally got word from the insurance company that it will be totaled. The delay was because the tow operator delivered the car with NO paperwork or information. The dealership knew I was the owner but had no contact info other than my name address from the registration. I was in Tallahassee for something else and went by to find out what was up, and right there in the guy's office, sent his card through the app on my phone and attached it to the claim.

Now nearly two weeks after that, I know they're going to total it, I know what they giving me for it, but the final instructions for getting the title to them so I can get paid hasn't happened. The settlement and a couple grand will put me into a W211 E63, and I've found a couple of those "nearby," meaning within 6 hours. The S55s or S63s I'm finding are not quite what I can buy, although there are plenty of S500s out there if I want to give up AMG-ness and just have a big, really nice, really comfortable car. I've also seen some Audis online I could consider, like an A8L. Still a nice, comfortable, big sedan, but I know nothing about Audis. I can get a newer one for the money than an S-class, though, and they appear to be comparably featured. Again, do I go for size and give up the AMG, or do I "settle" for an E-class AMG?

 

What year E63? If the twin turbo AWD version, take it every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Even the other is great, and coming from a RWD 55, you're not really missing anything. Unless you regularly have rear seat passengers, you won't care. The only Audi I'd look at to replace either car is an S7 (or RS7), but I doubt you're getting those kinds of numbers out of the insco for your S55.

GL

maw

 

Well, both of the e63s I was looking at are no longer online. Found an '03 S600 but it's quite a ways off, in North Carolina. Too far for a 2-day trip just to see... Pics look good, but they always do, don't they?

 

I never reported about what happened here, and it's been SIX MONTHS since I replaced the S55!!!

The total-the-car decision didn't come from electrics, it came from the cost at the body shop for cleaning the rear of the passenger compartment with carpeting, trim, whatnot. They never even looked at anything electrical! The money I got for the car was plenty. Actually a good bit more than I paid for it, because when I bought the S55, it was a car that had stuff not working, like the supercharger and the ABC, and it had incredibly stupidly overwide wheels on it with tires that rubbed the fenders, even before the ABC sagged while driving! I threw a stupid number at the seller and he took it!

Supercharger was fixed with a new pulley. Turned out the pulley was sheared and not even connected to the SC, just happily riding its big ol' bearing! There was the obvious thought of "What's wrong with the SC to break that pulley?" but since the car ran smoothly, I knew no hard bits had dumped into the intakes, and aside form now having The Chirp, it became an actual AMG with an eBay supercharger pulley! No issues with the SC.

Sagging rear end was fixed with accumulators. ABC was never properly sorted, but the car quit sagging, and if for some reason it did, like parked on an uneven surface, it always leveled up on startup. Basically was deciding on either spend more money on ABC, or get coilovers. Fortunately, I hadn't done either before the flood.

Wheels were replaced with an eBay set I found in California, and of course a new set of tires, back to stock sizes.

So after getting the check, I spent a few weeks on cargurus looking at large sedans. I wanted a large sedan, because it took me three trips to evacuate myself and my three animals from my house for Hurricane Michael, and I'm not going to be in that position again. I hate SUVs, and nobody really makes large sedans any more except the Germans! And as it turns out, the English!

I found a showroom-looking Jaguar XJ8 L locally, for less money than I got for the S55. No slouch, but no 493 HP, either, so I do miss the supercharger, but the Jag is just as comfortable as the Merc, and pretty much just as well equipped. I did toss the air suspension, as it ended up being a hopeless cause, just too much water in the system for too damn long. My first effort at recovering the air suspension was a compressor rebuild, and when I pulled the air line off the dryer output, I got a lot of water. That's the desiccant chamber, full of water. And rust. Bit of a clue there to the system's overall health. A set of Arnott coilovers and it was transformed into a supremely comfortable and usable car.

The coilovers used up what insurance money I had left after buying the car, so it was pretty much a straight-up trade, sickly S55 for a nearly-perfect XJ8 L!









The engine is a twin-cam, 4-valve, 4.2-liter V8. There are supercharged version of this car, but not for the money I had available. It's around 300 HP, and being almost 700 pounds lighter than the Mercedes helps, so it's no slouch. Still 300 is not up there close to 500, is it?

 

nice update. I like those Jags. The real question is.... when will it be the end of the road and time for you to get into another Mercedes. As they say.... The Best or Nothing

 

I got mine out for about 5 hours of drive time on an 80degree day yesterday for my son’s away soccer game... one of those traditional springtime runs that makes me really remember why I love this car... 300hp is definitely not 550hp, as these get to really quickly with a pulley and tune... and a TCU tune makes it much more fun to downshift and go. It was a great day!

Cheers,

maw