Resurecting a W210 flood car
 

I picked up a 99 E320 with only 80k miles that is in VERY nice shape for $300. Car is a flood car. In the engine compartment looks like the water was up to about the alternator. Inside the car I can see a light layer of silt in the seat bottoms, front and back, and some in the ash try. No silt in the compartment above the ash try or in the center console compartment. So, it appears the water covered the center console but not much higher. I pulled the back seat and there was a brand new MB battery installed which was nice, but it was completely dead. There was about an inch of water still standing in the battery well under the seat. I popped the drain plug and drained it. Today I dropped a battery in it and this is what I found. At first the fog lights, parking lights, and tail lights were on even though key was off and switch was off. Later on they turned off. Headlights turn off and on with switch. Key turns on and cluster works, but turning key to start does nothing. When the key is turned on, the radiator fan comes on high. IIRC I believe the fan is running on low when the key is turned off. At first I was able to get drivers front and passenger rear windows to work, but later did not work. I did not try passenger seat but drivers seat tried to move in some directions. The steering wheel moved. Radio does not power on. ACC powers on but blower does not work.



I hooked up SDS to see what I could see. It could not access the engine electronics module at all. It did access traction control and BAS from what I recall but had error code about that module could not access engine electronics. I accessed the gear selector and looking at actual values it appears that is working just fine as near as I can tell, which surprised me. At least it registered what gear it was in etc.



Engine oil is clean as is transmission fluid.



Car is so nice I would like to try and see if I can get it going with a little bit of effort. I would assume any computer boxes that were below the water line are fried. It sounds like the engine electronics box is toast. Where is it located? The relay box under the hood where the trans computer is was dry and did not look like it got wet. Is the fuse box next to the battery just a fuse box or is it actually a computer module?


So the reason I am even thinking about attempting this is because I have a completely intact but wrecked 01 E320 that I could swap any water damaged computer modules from. I figure I would swap the fuse box under the seat for sure. I might have to swap seat modules also. Aside from that, are there any others that live under the floor boards or below the level the water was? I will probably dig into the WIS and see what I can figure out.



If I can't get it going with a mild amount of efforts, I will just part the car out but that seems a shame given the low miles, nice paint, zero rust etc.

Resurecting a W210 flood car
 

It could be a worthwhile attempt. It will have unpredictable reliability without opening and surveying every electrical circuit, motor and controller. Doors, console and seats at least. Flood waters could have carried hazardous unknowns inside so the whole interior would come out if I were attemptinga repair like this.

Check with mr boca on BW about swapping facelift modules into a pre-facelift car.

Sixto
98 E320s sedan and wagon
02 C320 wagon

The door pump is also a SAM, it would be fried. Its a coded part too, and it will severely mess up the can bus data. So will the shifter, its on the databus.

The key not starting and fan running high means the ecu is offline and most probably the can bus is garbled or shorted, get the carpets out and clean all wiring connectors, specially the harmonica connector.

Then put a nice oscope on the can hi and low lines to see the data transfer. Isolate each unit to see which is creating noise.

This is after you replace/test isolate the lock pump and also the shifter. Then its pretty much oldschool tracing and detection but fixing the databus without an oscope will be challenging as you literally need to see the data, u can try the thicker ways of using a multimeter to check voltage average and also resistance of the end terminators but it doesnt help as much as a scope.

All Ecus are in the control box in the engine room. Its the big black cover near the passenger side shock top.

You must remove all interior panels and disinfect everything and buy a couple gallons of mold cleaner and stain remover too along with a few gallons of cleaning vinegar. Dont leave it as is. Fungus is not nice in a car.

There is a yaw sensor under the seat will be destroyed by water. Its also on the canbus.

Something about the zero rust. In a flood, water will get into places where is can't drain out so once you remove all of the interior ( including head liner and dash ) let it bake in the sun for a week.

Be sure to cross reference module part numbers between the cars, sometimes number are updated but will still interchange.

"Yea, I forgot about the pump, will swap that too. I guess I will start with swapping the pump and the rear fuse module. Shifter seems fine, at least it registers and shows what gear is selected in SDS. Goal is to at least see if I can get it to start and run. Then seats and door panels will get pulled as well as carpeting etc.

The big big black box is dry, water was not anywhere near that high.


From the looks of it I would guess the PO drove the car into a flooded street or something along those lines.

If it was flooded with fresh water, lake, river etc, then I would say you have a good chance. If salt water then not so much...

While you are fixing the car, remove and clean all of the ground points.( under hood and under dash to name a few ) Others have reported loss of ECM operation and other odd issues.

It was fresh water for sure. No oceans around here.

The main grounding point of the engine is near the bellhousing - it will surely be corroded, it will cause issues.