Water damage ? what to watch out for?

I found out a car I�m interested in buying had some water damage 6 months ago. Assuming they just left the roof open, any ideas what could go wrong / what hidden problems there might be that I should watch out for? And my guess is that it was indeed just an open roof, and not flood damage, because there was still some visible damage to a trim piece at the top of the dashboard. Which is either good news, or very bad news. Any ideas how to tell if it was the later � if the car went for a swim? Thanks for any advice about this!

If he left it outside in the rain with the roof open then maybe he wasn't so good with less important things like maintenance.

Considering how many other good buying options are out there I'd move on... Why settle?!? Not worth your time, money and effort to get pregnant with a water damaged car (regardless it was flooded or not)...

Sunroof left open in a downpour may not necessarily deadly if properly dealt with. That said, you absolutely do not want a vehicle that has been submerged in any way. Doesn't matter if it's fresh or salt water, how deep or for how long. It will be a complete waste of time and money and a source of endless frustration for a buyer.

There's a targa on ebay, the seller says he doesn't know how it happened...has the rain and the open roof story. But the title says Flood Damage. Seems there is a ten thousand dollar invoice proving repair but the owner didn't keep the car and sold it to the insurance company that then auctioned it off to this dealer. Everything may be 100% honest and the car might be great, but is this the kind of tension you want to go through. Water damage can include mold, electrical corrosion, rust, corruption of seals and gaskets, etc.

Yup, exactly what the others have said.....pass, pass and pass as the list of potential issues is endless and timeless!

Pass.

I thought you already bought a 996 last year. Will this be your 2nd? P.S. Personally, I will go for a car WITHOUT any stories/mysteries (the IMS paranoia/drama/hysteria is more than enough for me already). Best of luck.

I have a business connection with a repair shop & we bought such a car on a whim. The mechanics are very,very sharp on electronics. Certified for working on Aston Martin,Jaguar ,Range Rover. The flood 'damaged' car was cosmetically perfect. The saga of repairing one thing after another has gone on for over a year.We lost our collective shirts on this car and it still is not right. It goes to the dealer auction next week with a full declaration. Because it is shiny and a good color, some fool will buy it ! You only need one fool - make sure it isn't you !

Water Damage, pass. It is always " just a sunroof open in the rain" and never "a car was parked by the beach on low tide and tide came in filling the car with salt water". Since you can't really tell which one is true , pass. I have a BMW 530xi Wagon, notorious for water getting into the truck (bad sunroof guters), mine got filled with water, there are many eletronic controllers ther, replaced them all, and I still get crazy thinks such as the backdoor working only when it wants. Dealer thinks the contacts on the harness should be replaced. I feel car should be replaced soon. I would easily buy a 1970 911 with flood damage, very few eletronics, would not buy any modern car with flood damage.

I looked at two flood damaged / salvage - 996 and a 997, both from a salvage specialist car lot in CT, I spent some time with the owner... I didn't have a problem with the salvage title as they don't buy 911's that had water hit the fuse panel.. looks like they sold the 996... Here is the link for 997 - they don't accept offers.. so at $27,900 I went another route, I believe the resale would have been tough - http://www.luxurycars.com/2006-Porsc...7/Details.aspx

OK, pretty clear message about flood damage! I wouldn't buy it if I knew it was flood damaged, and now I won't buy it unless I know it wasn't. In the best case, by the way, it's not open sunroof, it's open roof. The water damage was repaired by a Porsche dealer. Unless they tell me they are sure it was not flood damaged, there was no water in the frunk, engine area, fuse box, etc., and I believe them, I will walk away.

Read post 9 above.Our guys are just as good as the Porsche dealer.We fix their mistakes ! "The water damage was repaired by a Porsche dealer" Oh, really ?That is very unusual work for a Porsche Dealer to do. Indie, maybe. Foolish one ,sure ! We have repaired that same flooded car quite a few times because new faults keep occurring. Several times we almost sold it to a regular customer because it seemed to be 'finally' fixed. Nope. A few weeks later,sometimes without even starting it, a new fault would occur. Corrosion chemistry is like gravity - it never sleeps ! Finding the new fault may take a few minutes or a few days -you have no idea. If you must have a salvage bargain, get a vandalized one or a lemon-buy-back?

Look for any dead fish or crabs under the seats.

Back in high school I had a 1969 bmw 2002, floor was always wet from various leeks . I used to smoke a fair bit of weed and roll joints in the car and I guess the seeds fell to the ground, I was down by the gas peddle one day and there were 3 or 4 little pot plants sprouting . So that's one thing to look out for, pot plants growing in your floor boards

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It is unusual, but I've seen the receipt and another Porsche dealer confirmed it. Only interior work. A flooded car would require work on the engine, no?

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It's not about the price. It's unique. After a long, long, long search, even after significantly lowering my criteria, it took me forever to find anything that met my new, lower criteria. This one meets my original criteria, and more. So much so that I wondered if they didn't dress the car up with some parts from eBay, but it all matches Porsche's records. It has an impecable service history which I've verified, and I saw no issues during a test drive other than what I hope a PPI will tell me are worn rear suspension bushings. There is just this one, tiny issue ...

Thanks by the way for all the helpful, and yes, clear advice! I may seem to be ignoring it, but I figure it can't hurt to at least see what the Porsche dealer says about the repair. However, I'm unlikely to get any info from them until next week. In the meantime, some clues: They needed to replace the alarm control unit. Is that someplace where it could get wet from rain? They needed to replace the key heads (the black parts) of two keys. Is there any reason water damage would require replacing keys other than the keys being underwater? If so, what else would have to have gotten wet? The car has wood trim (which does not meet my criteria, but it happens I already had most of the parts needed to replace it), and the wood was badly damaged by the water. One one side, the long, curved strip that follows the base of the windshield (probably called "defroster trim") is warped and has partly pulled away from the surface undernieth. On the other, it's missing. To a lesser extent, the wood on the lid of one door storage compartment is peeling up at one edge. (Everything else inside is perfect.) I presume this was caused by water, though it's said sun might do it too. One theory is that it doesn't take much water to mess up what some say is low quality, fragile wood trim. The other is obviously that there was a LOT of water. Would so much damage require so much water that, even if it was caused by rain, the car must be ruined?

RS10, there are a lot of electronics under the seats and back behind the back seat. But what we are trying to say is that corrosion travels, and it does. Ask anyone that has a boat. Wires keep corroding from inside. Since all sensors in modern cars work with impedance or voltage differentials, if the wire is corroding away the values read by the DME will be off causing errors. The only way to fix that is to not only change the affected controller but also change the whole wire loom. Trust me I have that problem on the BMW I mentioned, lucky the car has 82K miles and we will probably distract it next year. Porsche parts are not cheap and you do not want to buy a car that you will be fixing the rest of your life. If you really like the car, ask for a warranty on the electronics for at least a year, that is the only way you can be sure they are confident the repair was well done, if they do not give you some type of warranty in writing, walk away.

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So my car ('99 cab) lived outside for a short while thanks to the previous owner. There is a know problem with the drains under the front hood, they can easily clog and when they do, water collects and can come into the interior of the car which is exactly what happened. The Alarm control unit sits under the driver seat at the lowest point in the cabin so when water gets inside, its the box that usually gets fried. Mine had to be replaced. Unfortunately, this is the unit that holds the information about each of your Keys. I believe there is a unique identifier for each Key head that has to be programmed into the Alarm box by the dealer so that each particular Key head will work with your particular Alarm box. I think these Key codes may even be registered with Porsche. Anyway, the short of it is, the dealer replaced my Key heads when the Alarm box was replaced. They go hand in hand. This is all, of course, fairly expensive. I think that when the water comes into the cabin as I described, it comes in from pretty high up under the dash. When I was doing some work under the dash I noticed some surface rust on interior parts towards the top of the dash on the drivers side. You may want to crawl onto the drivers side floor (where you put your feet) with a flashlight and look around. I suspect your car may have been "flooded" as mine was. I dont think that much water came in but what did come in came from up high under the dash and made its way down low. Which may be why the car you are looking at has issues with the wood trim on the dash at the windshield. You can also ask the dealer if the below TSB was performed on the car: 911 (996) 5 5/01 5093 Water Drains in Front Cowel Area 911 Carrera (996) / 911 Carrera 4 (996) 1998 (W) and 1999 (X) Water leakage in passenger compartment caused by blocked water drains. The above is the TSB that deals with this issue (cab only) and can be found on the RennTech site. Hope this is helpful. Here are some related links. https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...o-cabin-2.html http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/9...cowl-info.html http://www.renntech.org/forums/topic...drain-grommet/

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Yes, super helpful! If I may ask three follow up questions: First, was there a happy ending? After the initial repair, no further problems? Second, to help me understand the likelihood the same thing happened here, what else did they do to repair the car? For the car I'm looking at, the dealer took out the seats, the center console (not sure whether the one with navigation or the one where the shift lever sits, but I can check), the main carpet (I think), and the door cards, let them dry, and put them back in. Did they do something similar with yours? Also, when inspecting the VIN plate, the one next to the battery under the front truck hood, I noticed it was rather dirty, and I had to wipe some dirt away to see the final digit. It also felt like it might have a tiny bit of rust. And now I'm wondering if blocked drains in the front trunk could cause this. How is the VIN plate on your car. Thanks!

And a question for everyone. The dealer didn't have to replace any leather or carpet, and it all seems to be in good shape. Would this be possible if the car was flooded? Thanks!

really? Four million people told you to run, yet you keep asking questions that indicate you want to buy this thing. What will it take to get through your skull?

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If I were you I would really beat them up on the price over this. It seems you are set on buying the car, hopefully the issue was caused by the drain issue I brought up but it could also have been a flooding of the car. With that said: 1) Yes there was a happy ending. My car is just fine. Once the repair was done there were no further issues. Actually, there was one issue. When they put in the new Alarm box, they also need to do a new "vehicle handover" procedure at the dealer with their computer. Most dealers dont even know about this so press them on it. If they dont do it, some strange stuff will happen in your car because it wont be in the right mode - it will still be in new car transport mode. 2) Did the door cards get wet? I dont think mine did. look closely at the leather on the door cards and see if you can detect water marks. the leather may lift from the door card where it got wet. 3) I did not notice any rust on the vin plate. 4) regarding the carpets - mine are original. i dont know if they took them out to dry it or not. I actually agree with the others here - there are many 996s available, you should probably purchase another one. Also I would recommend not buying one from a Dealer, better to buy one from a Rennlist member. If you are going to buy this particular car, beat the hell of them on price, use the fact that the car was "flooded" to get it down as far as possible. If you gave us a link to the car you are looking at that would also be very useful. Good Luck!

Please post every item on the receipt for the work done by the Porsche dealership. The water damage you are describing didn't just come from rain drops...as the title says...it is flood damage. Floods are the kind of mold damage that makes people tear down houses, not buy them. If you can't run from this car, try swimming for it.

If you post up the VIN or send it to me via private message I may be able to help you regarding its reported history as not everything appears on Carfax!

Thanks everyone for continued helpful responses, and sorry to have been a bit out of the loop. No chances to get online for a while. To quickly follow up (I'll try to find time for more detail this evening), I could post the receipt from the dealer, but it's in German. I might write up and post a condensed, English version. And no, not everything is in carfax - in this case, presumably nothing. Sarki, you can't help with non US cars, can you?

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Unfortunately I can only provide assistance on cars originally sold in U.S. With US history.....sorry.

I should ideally try to post the details from the repair receipt, including not just the big items, but also tiny little ones, whatever they are. But it's far too late tonight to deal with German technical terms and part numbers, so in the meantime, something easier ... The seller just repaired something else and sent me the receipt. Seems he replaced the horn, though I haven't worked out if this means the thing that actually makes noise, or the part of the steering whele that tells it to do so. I think the latter. Either way, sounds like an electronic problem, which would be consistent with major water damage, no?

Here are more details of the original water damage repair: Work (numbers 3, 8, and 9 added since I first posted this message) 1. removed & reinstalled (a) front sests, (b) both(?*) consoles, (c) front seat belts, (d) rear "lateral trim panels", (e) "flooring" 2. carpet dried 3. alarm trouble shooting 4. replaced "control unit f alarm system" 5. "control unit f. sunroof" removed and reinstalled 6. front lid microswitch removed and reinstalled 7. "On board diagnostic" [this is work code 03350050] 8. "Additional maintenance Drains cleaned" [code 51000299] 9. Repaired water drains [code 50933099] (*Removing the middle console is listed twice with different units of work, so I suppose this means both the vertical console and the horizontal console.) Parts (numbers 6, 7 and 8 updated since I first posted this message) 1. battery 2. expansion rivets (6) (99950749740 - this is a little black plastic thing) 3. "fuse brown" (3) [not a good sign, I suppose] 4. "control unit immobiliser central locking system" 5. two key heads 6. "water drain hose behind" (99656220701) [this is part of the rear hatch mechanism (it's a Targa), all the way at the back of the car] 7. "catch electric rear lid" (99756233502) [this is the locking mechanism for the rear hatch, again, all the way at the back of the car] 8. "saeure" (6 pieces/units) (I think this is battery acid - part number seems to be PZ 110)

I know how to look up part numbers. Anyone know if there is a way to look up work codes?

RS10, mind telling us where you're located at? Are there not abundance of 996 's there? Just wondering why your willing to risk getting a flooded car.

There are indeed an abundance of 996s. But not of Targa's. Across all of Europe, Targa's meeting my requirements are extremely rare.

Finally got to talk to the guy at the Porsche dealer who repaired the car. What did I learn? It was because of water damage that the battery needed to be replaced. Likewise the rear latch for the hatchback (yes, hatchback - it's a Targa). Seems there was water in both the frunk and the passenger compartment. He claims the car was not flooded, but does not know how the water got inside. Seems to agree a drain was clogged, but doesn't recall which one. Says damage was definitely less than flood damage, and if he liked the car, he'd buy it because they fixed all the water damage. But it even if it were younger, it would not be eligible for a Porsche used car warranty due to the water damage. Not sure I learned a lot. I was hoping for "it was definitely just rain that got stuck in the car due to a clogged drain, and the battery and latch needed to be replaced due to something else." I can easily imagine some issue with the drains in the Targa mechanicsm could have done for the latch, but the battery? And the opposite is the case for drains in the frunk. Alternately, "we pulled it out of a river" would have simplified my decision making ...

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Nope. I believe that there is nothing unique about the front of the car because it is a targa. Way too great a chance that the battery went bad because the car went for a dunk. Keep shopping.

The rear latch for the hatchback is pretty high. Rain wouldn't be very likely to impact that. Unless I'm mistaken, it wouldn't be impacted by a plugged drain tube either. Given all the questions you are asking you know what you should do. You just don't like what that little voice in your head is telling you.

The drains built into the Targa mechanism send water down a tube in the C pillars, no? Anyway, that's why I thought clogged roof mechanism could account for the latch.

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True :-(