Do you fix car water damage?
Quick answer: Yes. We fix water damage by decontaminating the interior, drying the car out properly, and dealing with minor electrical faults through a trusted auto electrician. For severe flooding we work with insurance companies. We do not take on salt-water damage, and we will not restore public Category D/N write-offs. Some cars simply aren't economical to put right, and hidden faults can surface weeks later, so the sensible first step is an assessment.
Flood damage ranges from a wet carpet and a musty smell after a deep ford, to a car that needs re-wiring and new bodywork after sitting in a river. We handle the first end of that scale directly and co-ordinate the more serious work through insurers.
This Ford Focus came to us with a water leak. The customer decided to turn the visit into something more -- the car left with a full Modern Car Restoration alongside the leak repair, looking like new.
What we can do in-house
If your car has taken on fresh water -- a flooded car park, a blocked drain in the scuttle, a deep ford -- most of the early work is decontamination and drying. That means lifting carpets, pulling sound-deadening where needed, drying the metal underneath, and treating anything that has started to go sour before mould or mildew takes hold.
The trim side of the job is straightforward for us: drying and cleaning carpets, removing and replacing door cards, and restoring leather that has been soaked. Provided the safety structure of the car hasn't been compromised, the interior can usually be brought back to a good standard.
Electrical faults after a flood
Water and modern electronics are a bad combination. We handle minor electrical problems ourselves and call in an experienced auto electrician for anything more involved. ECUs, CPUs and airbag control units can often be repaired or replaced rather than written off with the car -- the real question is whether enough of the loom and connectors have survived to make that economic.
If seawater has been through the car, the answer is usually no. Salt keeps attacking corrosion-sensitive connectors and wiring long after everything looks dry, and problems keep reappearing. For that reason we do not take on salt-water cars.
When insurance is involved
For serious flooding we work directly with insurance companies, who can authorise the scope of repair and cover hidden follow-up work. What we will not do is restore a car that has been publicly categorised as a Cat D or Cat N write-off for resale. Those cars come with known structural or systemic issues, and we are not in a position to guarantee our work on top of someone else's damage assessment.
Why flood estimates are hard
Even on cars that are economically viable to repair, a firm up-front price is difficult. Water hides in box sections, under carpets, inside wiring looms and behind door panels, and problems appear in stages: a module that behaves for a week and then fails, a connector that corrodes green a month later, a smell that only returns when the weather warms up. We prefer to quote a staged assessment rather than a fixed figure we can't honour.
On a minor job -- a footwell that took on a few inches of water, caught early -- decontaminating and drying the car may be all that is needed. On a bigger job, expect re-wiring, trim replacement and bodywork to come into it.
For the full picture of how we trace and confirm a leak source before any repair work starts, see what does car water leak detection involve?