Recently, Henan and other places have experienced several rounds of heavy rainfall, causing a large number of private cars to be soaked in rainwater and damaged. water-soaking truck itself has obvious safety hazards . Therefore, when the car is soaked, many car owners will choose to change the car or seek insurance claims, which will lead to a large number of water-soaking trucks entering the used car market.
As ordinary consumers, how should we identify and avoid buying a water truck? Today, Lungu specially summarized some identification methods for soaking water trucks, hoping that they will be helpful to everyone.
How to identify whether the car is a water truck?
Although the method of repairing water wheels is very clever now, it is still difficult to identify water wheels, but clues can still be found in some details. Let’s talk about them in detail below.
View insurance record
The easiest way to identify a water truck is to check the insurance record of this car.
Generally speaking, water truck will have an insurance company's claim record. As long as the car is not injured but has been completely damaged, it can be understood as a water truck.
Comparison of the price of similar models
In addition, compared with the selling price of similar models, is generally about 20% cheaper than that of similar models.
If you find that a certain model is cheaper than the normal market price, you should think about why it is cheaper. At this time, you should be vigilant and never suffer a big loss by greed for cheapness.
Check engine compartment
1, check engine compartment
Open the front hood of the car to see if the engine compartment is dirty, and has sediment-like stains attached to the water tank and air-conditioning radiator.
At the same time, you should also pay attention to Check the small parts next to the engine, generator, starting motor, power socket, and the joints of left and right wheel rails to see if there is mud and sand inside. Even if these small places such as
will leave clues, so details, details, and details are still details.
2. Check the engine body
Check whether the nuts on the body of the car engine have been screwed. Because engines that have been soaked in water need to be overhauled, if the overhaul is definitely screwed, the screws must be screwed.
Check for any mud attachment marks in the gaps above the engine, and whether there are any signs of rust in various screws and springs.
Here we should pay attention to check the wires behind the generator. If there is residual dirt, it is very likely that it is a water truck.
3. Check the engine oil
pull out the car engine oil ruler, pay attention to to see if the engine oil is spoiled, especially if the engine oil has turned white.
If the engine has been soaked in water, water and gas will definitely be mixed into the oil, which will cause the oil to deteriorate and turn white.
4, check the fuse box
Check the fixing screws outside the fuse box in the engine compartment, whether there are any traces of rotation, disassembly, or rust, and whether the internal insurance specifications and color are the same as the original manufacturer.
If there are traces of mud or rust in the fuse box, the wiring harness inside also has traces of being replaced, This is very likely a water truck.
5. Check the air flowmeter
Check whether there is mud attached to the wire gap of the air flowmeter.
In addition, check whether oxidation and copper rust are generated in the connector of the air flowmeter. This is very likely to occur when the interface of comes into contact with water.
6. Check the sound insulation cotton
Check whether the sound insulation cotton has expanded or deformed, whether there is more mud and sand between the sound insulation cotton and the hatch cover, and the engine hatch cover screws have traces of removal, but the sound insulation cotton has no traces of removal, which means that it may be a water truck.
Check whether the softness and hardness of the original waterproof silicone strips match the age of the car. Generally, the waterproof silicone strips will be replaced during maintenance of water trucks.
7, check the bumper
Check the bumper shock absorbing material and the anti-collision steel beam. If there is a lot of mud or rust spots, it means it may be a water truck.
Check
1 in the cockpit. Open the left front door, smell if there is any strange smell, moldy or very exaggerated fragrance. Even if the car that has been soaked in water is cleaned up in time, there will be a musty smell in the car. In order to cover up the original musty smell in the car, some sellers will spray a large amount of air freshener.
2. Look from the foot space in the front row to the center console, and check whether the lines and other parts inside have silt precipitated stains attached to the surface.
even after being soaked in a car, it was washed with ulterior motives. The place is also a dead end. After all, the sludge when soaking in water is pervasive, and may not be completely washed.
3. Check the front and rear seats, generally turn over to see if there is residual sludge in the seat spring and inner sleeve. In addition, check whether there are traces of rust on the seat tracks.
In addition, generally, the leather seats of that are soaked in water are either hard to use or cannot be used anymore. plus leather seats are more expensive. In order to save money, the original car owner also chose the cheap ordinary seats if he wanted to change them.
4, Check the car door. First, remove the interior panel of the car door, use a small mirror to look from bottom to top to see if there is any sludge after soaking in water. Even if the car inside has been washed, it is generally impossible to wash it into the car door.
Check whether the door glue strips are deteriorated, damaged or fall off , and you can see if they have been soaked in water, because generally the color of the place where they have been soaked in water will be darker than other places.
5. Pull the seat belt to the end and check whether there are any residues of sludge.
Even if the water truck has been cleaned with ulterior motives, it cannot be washed at the bottom, and there will be more or less water stains or sludge. Lungu emphasizes it again, looking at the details, details, or details.
6, Check the corners of the ground glue to see if there is obvious softness, humidity, and smell a strange smell.
Generally, there is a layer of cotton felt for sound insulation on the bottom plate of the car. If the car is soaked in water, mud and sand will definitely be left on the cotton felt.
Even if it has been cleaned before, this layer of mud and sand cannot be completely removed, so you must carefully check this part when buying a used car.
Check the trunk
Open the trunk door, open the trunk base plate, and check if there is any residual sludge at the hidden joints of the rear wheels on both sides of the spare tire.
This place is generally a blind spot for car washing, , so it is recommended that you check this place.
test drive check
test drive, start the engine first, listen to whether the engine sounds louder and whether there is any unstable situation.
Even if the engine has been overhauled, the water truck will still enter a small amount of water, which may affect the normal operation of the engine, and the cost of replacing the engine is too high.
When driving normally, feel whether the transmission box is smooth and whether it feels awkward when changing gears.
In addition, you can also open some electronic devices in , such as car audio, air conditioning, power windows, and power seats, and check whether they can work normally.
View the chassis
And there is also the lift to lift the car, directly observe the rust of the chassis, But this method must at least be when the lift lifts the car.
The chassis of some models will have aluminum parts, which will not rust in these areas, but you can check whether there is a "mold".
Wheel Valley Summary:
In short, the identification of of the water wheel is mainly concentrated in some details. If you carefully check the subtle points, you can find some clues of the water wheel.
The most suitable method is to find a professional institution to help you detect
If you are not very familiar with the car and cannot accurately judge the soaked water truck, the most suitable way to avoid it is to find a professional institution to help you detect.
In addition, for the sake of insurance, Lungu put forward the following two suggestions to everyone:
1. You can sign a contract with the seller. Once it is found that it is a water truck, you will be required to refund the entire car price;
2. You can first deliver the deposit and then take the car to a third party, such as a repair shop or 4S store to appraise, and then pay after it is identified as a non-water truck.
