Model Y flooded. (Maybe)

[Slapshot]

2 days ago we had a flood issue. Our brand new baby model Y was in the garage when our house got flooded. the water level might have got equal to the center cap on the wheels. No dampness inside. I’ve only backed it out of the garage and it seems fine.
My poor GTI which was outside and down slope has 3” of water in it. It runs but it’s starting to smell and has an airbag warning code.

Questions I have for the model Y. Should I worry? Have it inpected? I’m dealing with a flooded house and have enough to do but I’ll take to Tesla if I think it’s needed. Thanks

 

[Velcade]

No reason not to have it inspected.

 

[240vPlug]

That's awful I'm sorry your going through this. If that's all the higher it got them your probably fine. With that said you should definitely have it inspected just to be safe.

 

[thesmokingman]

That is nothing. You know its a Tesla right?

 

[thesmokingman]

Fyi, Tesla 101:

https://twitter.com/x/status/744551674082136066

 

[Watts_Up]

2 days ago we had a flood issue.

It seems that your cars were only slightly flooded, and not submerged, so it might not too bad.
The first thing to go is to remove all the carpet floor and try to dry out any electrical connections.

I wonder if you experienced previously such flooding?

I noticed that some areas outside of my home stay wet after heavy rains.
So I inspected all my drains and noticed that they were obstructed by fibrous roots.
Also a taproot broke one of the corrugated pipes, and one of the drains
was about 4 inches below street level, and was quickly saturated.
So I installed a small sum pump to solve this issue.

I never did this type of work before and learned a lot
by watching the videos from the Apple Drains YouTube channel.
Maybe this could be of some help.

 

[Madsen203]

I would not have that inspected. There’s virtually nothing electronic at that level that would be a risk to submersion. You’re throwing good money away to do that. Unless you have error codes or weird noises, all is probably fine. It’s barely touching the bottom of the car based on the photos attached.

 

[Slapshot]

Thanks all for your thoughtful replies. So much to deal with right now with our house getting flooded.
I’m fighting to save my 2017 GTI W/46K miles. I really love that car, I’ve been it’s owner since day 1 and I work really hard to keep all my vehicle looking and running like new. I called maybe 10 body shops and either they are to busy or they don’t want to deal with flood damage. I called my German auto repair shop and they are willing to work on it even though that’s not really their thing. But they can’t get it in til next week. In the mean time I started ripping out the carpet and drying the floor.
The M/Y is primarily my wife’s car, although she lets me drive it on occasion. My primarily concern is silt left behind when the water went down. Until the mud gets cleaned off our street we aren’t driving it anywhere. But maybe next week we’ll take it in and have it inspected just for peace of mind. I mean how much could Tesla charge for putting it up in the air and taking a look?
Now does anyone no a good drywall and flooring contractor?

 

[Watts_Up]

Felling bad for you, I have also a white GTI and a white M3.
I whish you could have been able to prevent the flooding using sand bags,
and lifted the cars on top of concrete ciment blocks.

I wonder if there would be a way to prevent any flooding in the future.

 

[Tonedog77]

sold my MK7R for my MYP sad to see for the Gti but the tesla will be fine!

 

[Slapshot]

Felling bad for you, I have also a white GTI and a white M3.
I whish you could have been able to prevent the flooding using sand bags,
and lifted the cars on top of concrete ciment blocks.

I wonder if there would be a way to prevent any flooding in the future.

The storm drains on my street stopped draining due to flooded creeks where they drain to. It’s not supposed to happen. But we don’t see 5-7” of rain often in the East Bay. The only thing I had time to do was to move the GTI higher up on the driveway.

 

[israndy]

I whish you could have been able to prevent the flooding using sand bags,
and lifted the cars on top of concrete cement[sic] blocks.

That's clever, if it gets bad here I would get out my car ramps, but my driveway is the same height as the seawall so hopefully if it gets bad here it'll drain

 

[thesmokingman]

The storm drains on my street stopped draining due to flooded creeks where they drain to. It’s not supposed to happen. But we don’t see 5-7” of rain often in the East Bay. The only thing I had time to do was to move the GTI higher up on the driveway.

Have the flood waters receded yet?

Something you can do is jack the car up from the rear jack point lifting both wheels then hose it down to displace the swamp water. The electrics are sealed so ya don't have to worry about causing damage. That will improve the smell and reduce bio growth on your car till you can have it checked out. Also, I imagine the cabin is water free? The body seals are pretty good on a Tesla so you hopefully don't have interior damage?

 

[Slapshot]

Have the flood waters receded yet?

Something you can do is jack the car up from the rear jack point lifting both wheels then hose it down to displace the swamp water. The electrics are sealed so ya don't have to worry about causing damage. That will improve the smell and reduce bio growth on your car till you can have it checked out. Also, I imagine the cabin is water free? The body seals are pretty good on a Tesla so you hopefully don't have interior damage?

The water receded on the day of the flood. It was at its peak for about an hour. The interior is bone dry. I will rinse off the bottom if the car. Thanks for the idea.

 

[Watts_Up]

The interior is bone dry.

But check the inside of the doors. There is a drain for water, that could be coming from the window seal, or just from condensation.

 

[TomB985]

I’ve always been told that flood damage wasn’t something insurance companies will repair. They would sooner declare a vehicle to be a total loss than deal with all of the hassles that come with flood damage repair.

But if the carpet of your Y didn’t get wet, I think it’s fine. I believe that’s the point where they consider it a flood loss in most states.

 

[Olle]

2 days ago we had a flood issue. Our brand new baby model Y was in the garage when our house got flooded. the water level might have got equal to the center cap on the wheels.

Sorry that this happened. Water level at center of wheel means that drive units were partly submerged and battery pack was 100% submerged.

Then it's only a question if duration of submersion. A friend of mine who had his garage flooded for 12 hours got his Tesla totalled due to water intrusion in battery and DUs. As we have also seen, Teslas are perfectly fine with swimming through water for short periods. So somewhere between a short swim and 12 hours is the limit. Flooded Teslas happen a lot here in FL, I have heard of many. Anecdotally I have heard 2 hours is the limit. Look it up.

If this was my car and it was submerged more than a few minutes, I would immediately tilt it once in each direction to get any water out of any of the battery smoke vents should they be loose and then take the it to the SC ASAP to see if they can check all battery seals and check inside the pack for humidity.

If water got in, errors may show up later, due to slow corrosion from trapped water.

 

[Slapshot]

Sorry that this happened. Water level at center of wheel means that drive units were partly submerged and battery pack was 100% submerged.

View attachment 892720
Then it's only a question if duration of submersion. A friend of mine who had his garage flooded for 12 hours got his Tesla totalled due to water intrusion in battery and DUs. As we have also seen, Teslas are perfectly fine with swimming through water for short periods. So somewhere between a short swim and 12 hours is the limit. Flooded Teslas happen a lot here in FL, I have heard of many. Anecdotally I have heard 2 hours is the limit. Look it up.

If this was my car and it was submerged more than a few minutes, I would immediately tilt it once in each direction to get any water out of any of the battery smoke vents should they be loose and then take the it to the SC ASAP to see if they can check all battery seals and check inside the pack for humidity.

If water got in, errors may show up later, due to slow corrosion from trapped water.

Thanks for that description. Looking back at some pictures, I think the highest level the water reached was to the black line on the body. I don’t know if that makes a difference to the drive units or batteries. The water was at its highest for about 20 minutes to an hour. I did back it out that day and nothing unusual happened. We’ve since have driven it around and it seems normal. I do want to have it looked at but I’m super busy dealing with the flood damage in the house.

 

[Olle]

Here is some more specific insight, drawn from an individual with substantial experience in Tesla batteries:

 

[TomB985]

Here is some more specific insight, drawn from an individual with substantial experience in Tesla batteries:
View attachment 936990

Yup, I remember that from Twitter last month.

These batteries are very different from the ones in the Models 3 or Y, though. I haven’t yet heard of one that’s succumbed to water intrusion, so I’d be curious to see if they’re vented in the same manner as the S.