Devastated - car going to the scrap yard in the sky!!!

[RichieRS]

Well it made the headlines in some of the tabloids by if you didn't hear about then on Tuesday night, Manchester experienced 1/2 it's September rainfall in 1 hour. Combine this with seriously hard ground from prolonged dryness and it resulted in some serious flooding of which my car was victim of!!!.

So as I write this, I am awaiting the salvage company to come and collect my pride and joy with the knowledge that the insurance company say it will be written off regardless of damage!!.

To say I am devastated is an understatement. All this happened while it was locked away in my garage unbeknown to me that it was filling up with water at a serious rate of knots.

So the last 2 days have been dealing with home insurance and car insurance in amongst tidying up the aftermath of the flood.

The car itself looks fine. The water filled the footwells but no higher. But obviously there are a lot of electrical bits and bobs in the footwells!!

The engine starts and runs fine. There is a tiny bit of water in the oil that probably made its way in through a breather somewhere but the whole top end of the engine stayed dry.

Faults I have found so far are:
Electric Windows won't operate
Central locking won't operate
Water in oil (not much judging by the level on the dipstick)
Noisey bearing from the aux belt tensioner (or something in that region)
Carpets are damp but only because the foam is holding water
A whole plethora of warning lights on start up from various sensors, namely a big red brake sign!!
Stereo works fine but won't turn off on the ignition. Will turn off manually though.
Electrics for bucket seats none operable
Sport button not working

Everything else seems to work ok and as things are drying more is starting to work.

It was submerged for about 30 minutes and it was fresh rain water, not sewage or flowing water so not dirt or sediment got in.

Feels like a few thousand could possibly sort it but it's the unknowns of what will happen in the future I guess.

Needless to say I will be out of an RS for quite some time and with the huge insurance hike I'm likely to see, I'm not sure I will be back in one at all again!!.

Spent a bloody fortune on it over the few years ownership too!!

Now for the dreaded haggling with the insurance to begin I guess

[daytonamart]

Bloody hell Rich, this is terrible news. I know how much you loved your car.

So the car just sat there and drowned? maybe it would be worth taking the insurance pay out and buying it back from them?

Again, really sorry to hear this.

[rspj]

Gutted mate for you nice car what will you do for next car as you put lot of time and money ?

[mikep99]

Gutted for you.
I'm not far from Manc so experienced the storms myself.
Hope you get it sorted by the insurance as best you can.
Mike

[TomRS]

Thats devastating... i have no words.

Personally i'd want it fixing, most are valued at around 15-18k on the insurance and if its more than 70% of the value then it'll be writen off, they wont want to write it off if its say £5k of damage vs paying you £15k value.

Dont lose hope yet, it could be saved, i'd change the oil (so when its collected they dont do any more damage running it with water in the sump. then i'd just leave it be until its looked at.
I reckon it'll need a few ECU's, dont take it to Audi as they'll replace things rather than repair, REP or MRC/ Unit 20 would be better or a good well known garage.

[MikeFish]

Oh man what a shitter! Gutted for you, your car looked amazing in the flesh!
My garage flooded a few weeks ago mainly due to a burst water main and blocked drains on the road but luckily I was home and saw the water on the driveway so quickly waded through the garage and opened the back doors to let the water out before it got into the car.

[RichieRS]

Cheers guys. I certainly have ploughed some money into that thing. Only did the JHM lines 2 months ago not to mention 4 freshly refurbed wheels with 6mm super sports on them a few months before lol.

It's about to be collected so I haven't had a chanc me to change oils or do much else to be honest. In my eyes it would require ME to strip it down. Clean the interior up and then send it to unit 20 to sort the electrics!!.

I am hoping it will be a Cat C or D and i get a good offer of money. I'm happy to have it as a project to repair over the winter.

They have already stated they only really repair brand new cars as the unknown issues that can happen further down the line aren't worth the risk. So it's just matter of whether it's a C or D in which I may be able to get it back if the offer is good, or a B in which I will not get it back.

We will see what happens!!!.

Now to sort out the house lol

[hector8]

The ECU that controls the things you say are not working is below the pass seat / carpet. Lift it out asap. Put in a bag of rice and leave in the hot press for a week or so.
Lift the carpets and get a dehumidifier going. You can squeeze most water from the foam under the carpets.

Once everything is dry , connect back up an reset the errors via a plugin.

I wouldnt give up.

[rs user]

better to get assesor to come out to asses car-its when they go to storage bits get pinched,broken,swapped
plus you can usually talk to assesor gauge the cat of car damage-then deal with insurance over the phone[haggle]
they will want it dealt with and off the books asap in most cases

good luck

[RichieRS]

To late now guys. Car is gone!!

I suggested that they come and see it but they weren't prepared to do that.

Who knows what else might have been affected?. Guess it's just the waiting game now.

The driver for the company thinks because of the condition and mileage it would be a Cat C so see what happens. The carpets are pretty much dry now and there's just a few electrical niggles. I've made it very clear that I would like to have it back if it works out benificial to me. I was considering trying to fix it myself rather than through insurance but it could run in to thousands and even then things may not be right again. Not to mention finding the money for it all. Guess that's what I pay my insurance money for!!

[hector8]

I hope everything works out for the best.

We can all sympathise as these are our pride and joys

[RichieRS]

I hope everything works out for the best.

We can all sympathise as these are our pride and joys

Cheers buddy. Yeah it's a total shock to be honest. Especially when it's at home and there is nothing you could have done about it!!.

Oh well, let the fun with the insurance company begin

[Surrey Sam]

I hate opening up these threads and was half expecting to see a mangled RS4. But at least this is the better of two evils. Really sorry to read it's happened to you though and I hope the insurance company play nicely.

[FaisalJ]

Mate, that's awful news.

I hope you do get the chance to buy it back and get the issues sorted out.

Hope the damage to the house isn't too bad

[Starry]

Gutted for you mate, just watch the insurance company as they will pull your pants down without blinking an eye. I imagine you've got loads of picture to help with the valuation with regards to condition.
A friend of mine had his evo 6 stolen and they offered next to nothing for it so he emailed them about 10 similar cars for sell and asked how he was going to replace it with the money offered. After a bit of wrangling his offer was upped a fair bit.
Fingers crossed its a cat D and and an easy fix and with the change you can fit a supercharger