Flood damage write off

[Geordielad007]

My Skoda Superb greenline TDI had been sat on the road for quite someyime unused. Found that there was dampness in driver front footwell and a 2 inch in depth a pool of water in drivers side backseat footwell.

 

Car was recovered to the garage and informed their diagnostics equipment could not communicate with any of the electronic modules and has advised that the car is most likely a write off. Value of the car was/is 5K.

Do any of the boards have fuses mounted within them.

 

Anybody know is it correct that the car is most likely a write off.

[Ootohere]

Welcome.

Very likely an Uneconomic Repair as far as the insurers are concerned so yes a write off. 

 

Loom, components, labour etc.

 

But then attempts at having it dried out before carrying out diagnostics again would be sensible, but where you have the car is not interested in that.

?

So do you think the Insurance company will pay you out anything near to £5,000?

 

What age and miles has it done. 

?

Was it never a leaker before this incident or incidents? 

?

Was there a flood and did you not check the car when the flood happened?

[Trapdoor]

My friend in the motor trade says they almost always write off flood damaged cars even fairly new because it's so tricky to know it's totally fixed, more issues can keep appearing months later as the water damage continues to eat into electronic boards etc so the insurance company prefer to draw a line under it and pay out. That said it may well be possible to fix more cheaply if you have some knowledge, time, and can find a breaker for cheaper parts.

[Geordielad007]

Thanks for the replies guys.

 

The insurance set the value at £5110, that must have been them as I would have rounded it off.

 

2013 and approximately 75,000 miles. As a working car it was perfect condition.

 

Upto middle last year I drove the car up and down to Aberdeen 520 miles each way, every month without any problems. First noticed the water back in February and thought I might have left a window open. Dried it out and put in silcon bags. Went back to the vehicle in March, battery dead, jumped the car got it started and moved it opposite our house. In April found a lot of water, in back footwell and this time front driver footwell. Middle may replaced the battery and then experienced the problem with car erroneous starting and dash board alarms. Connected diagnostics and found no communication with any of the modules. Checked all fuses and found no problems. Eventually recovered it to a garage and they diagnosed the same problem, except this time the car would not do anything.

 

Garage informed me they think the water was getting in around front windscreen.

 

Insurance field engineer is coming Monday to check it out

[Ootohere]

Not flood damage then just water ingress to the passenger cabin, which is not unusual with a Skoda. 

[Geordielad007]

Yes absolutely, and has made me realise a fopar in my description of the damage.

 

Many thanks I'll emphasise this to the field engineer or insurance when they phone.

 

I'm guessing your Scottish given your forum username.

 

Do the elctronic boards have input fuses or some electronic protection against short circuits.

 

Also, wondering if any body know roughly how many electroc modules there are.

[Geordielad007]

Update.

 

Spoke with the manager of the garage today, who said the insurance company field engineer, phoned him, and manager stated that engineer was quite a aggressive and was trying to get the manager to answer questions about what he reckoned had caused the problem. Needless to say the manager refused to answer his questions on assumptions and honestly told the engineer that he could not answer a lot of his negative questions and could only advise him what he found. I hadveused this garage for the past 10 years and have a full service history.

 

So daresay the engineer will be questioning me to minimise the payout for the insurance. I'm just worried that I might say something inadvertently, which will give them an argument for a reduced payout or refusal to payout at all.

 

Totally new ground from me as in 40 years of insurance I have never had to claim and I have only been with Aviva for 3 months.

 

Any words of advice would be appreciated.

[Warrior193]

Hello, welcome to the forum. Very good of your garage to let you know.

Clearly the loss adjuster is looking for a reason to refuse your claim.

My advice would be to just relay what your garage has told you. Don't offer an opinion on anything other than that. 

Edited Saturday at 16:38 by Warrior193
correction

[softscoop]

I would be very surprised if they pay anything out at all if the damage is caused by a fault resulting in leak rather than a flood. 

 

Insurance and warranty against faults are two entirely different things.

 

[Geordielad007]

1 hour ago, softscoop said:

I would be very surprised if they pay anything out at all if the damage is caused by a fault resulting in leak rather than a flood. 

 

Insurance and warranty against faults are two entirely different things.

 

Oh dear, thats not good news. I think I need to read my comprehensive policy gain. Many thanks.