I shipped my car from the US to the UK and somehow it got completely waterlogged, the electrical system is shot, the seatbacks are warped, the carpets are soaking, and in the process of trying to get some grease monkey to jump my car (I'm presuming) to get it on and off the roll on/roll off ferry, the interior is a complete mess (and it's the terracotta color...).

Anyway, I have a key decision to face and some parameters I'm unclear about.

The insurance claims surveyor has already approved getting the main wiring harness replaced, however I'm told wiring harnesses are VIN specific and that it can take up to 6 weeks. The mechanics in the Porsche garage my car is currently in believe that they can splice the wires and re-attach the wires into the plastic connector housing and into a new ECU without having to wait for a new wiring harness. However, I'm told that warranty as it relates to the wiring harness will be forgone.

Has anyone had work done with their wiring harness or had it replaced, and if you replaced it, why did you choose to replace it and not to fix it? Even if you haven't faced this question with your own car, anyone have an opinion?

Separately, the other thing I'm not clear on is whether my US 4 yr warranty applies if the vehicle is now in the UK where warranty is 2yrs. If it's 2yrs, then my warranty would be finished end of Jan 2010, so fixing the harness probably seems like a more viable solution. From the Porsche website, it suggests that my US warranty shouldn't be applicable in the UK, yet the service guy handling my car in the UK claims that when he punches my VIN into the system as if he were ordering parts, the system says my car is covered through Jan 2014. He isn't sure what the story is, but is in the process of finding out, but I'm curious if others have a view on this.

The interior is a mess. Does anyone know if after your interior has been dried and cleaned and your car is put back together, if it still smells like new and looks like new and ages in the same fashion? I'm pushing the insurance claims surveyor that the cleaning/drying won't be sufficient and that I need my seats reupholstered, but wanted to check here first to see if anyone has had first hand experience with this. It appears the water came from the bottom rather than through windows/sunroof, like the car was sitting in 6-8inches of water, so the seat cushions aren't waterlogged. Rather the leather is warped and cracked from absorbing moisture that's been evaporating in the car for the last 3 weeks. They're horribly discolored from the humidity/evaporation as well, in addition to having grease marks/stains all over the place (incl dash panelling, console, hand brake, gear shift ****, it's a complete disaster...). Please let me know if you have a view here.

I've owned my 08 C4S since late August last year, it's never been driven in the rain, has never touched road salt, and it's always been kept in a private garage with a cover on it (although it has been tracked!!). I'm at the point of exaspiration as I don't believe the outcome of all this work will yield how showroom new the car was the day I dropped it off at the docks in Newark, NJ, but I'm trying to be optimistic. I put so much effort into caring for this car, and now it's been stripped away by some careless, dignity-less, apathetic import/export dock handlers of Wallenius Wilhelmsen, in both the US and UK I might add (in the UK, they tried to convince me my car was fine and all of the malfunctioning I noticed immediately was due to a flat battery [I trickle charge my battery]). Please do not ever use them. Feel free to pass this nightmare story on to anyone who is considering shipping their vehicle, anyone involved in the business shipping of vehicles, anyone in the business of insuring the shipping of vehicles, or just anyone. It's just not how you treat the property of other human beings, regardless of what the item is.

Thanks everyone. Sorry to be longwinded.

Here's the Wallenius Wilhelmsen website, they are a major player in car transport. The level of professionalism has been unspeakably poor.
2wglobal.com/www/wep/

 

So sorry to hear about your experience, what happened is just sad. Sorry I can't help out but I feel you and I hope the best for you!!

 

I would run away from this car, who is going to say that this water problem today won't cause a bunch of problems in the next few years.

If I were to get it fixed, I would get a new wiring harness, spicing is only a recipe
for disaster.

As for the warranty, I beleive that PCNA will only cover it as long as it is registered in the USA or Canada.

 

It's a little late now , but I believe a car like yours should be shippep in a container.

 

OMG, terribly sorry for you. The car has been flooded and should be totalled. Flood titles here get designated such and effectively become like salvage cars (theft strippers). Unlike a flooded car from the south due to rain, this car has been flooded with SALT water. The damage will go way beyond the water and will come into play down the road. Car should be totalled and sold for salvage. I sincerely hope you can get them total it. Start to get ludicrous estimates for repair - a complete new interior must cost over $10k. That will help get the car totalled.

 

It wasn't flooded with sea water...but I take your point. It's not obvious to me that I can push for the car being in the totalled category but will press aggressively.

 

The water intrusion concerns me especially since you shipped the car on a boat and it is most likely salt water that has destroyed your car. Salt water will corrode everything much faster than non-salt water. I would think that your electrical connector will be destroyed all through out the car due to salt water corrosion.

As far as the wire harness from what I know is a cut wire harness can total a car. One of my track buddy's car was broken into and the seats were stolen and the wire harness cut. His insurance totaled his perfect 2 year old C4S and was told it was too costly to try and replace the wire harness.

 

If it was shipped on a boat, how can it NOT be salt water? Salt water flooding on oversea transports happens in containers too, especially when we get into hurricane season. You just need to pray your stuff is in a container on top. PUSH to have the car totalled.

Worst case I saw in person was the damage when one of BMW's ships had the teathers on the cars break loose. They rolled around like marbles and pretty soon all the teathers had broken loose. Many of the cars were really destroyed. I saw many of them at the delivery center.

 

I don't know that it's not saltwater for sure, but the insurance claim surveyor took a sample of the water to test it.

The reason I think it's not saltwater is because when the UK dock people got to the car, it was already dead and the electrical system was already paralyzed. However, when the got into the car, it was already filthy with grease marks. The only explanation how that's possible is if someone on the dock in Newark needed to get a mechanic to work on the car to get it started in order to drive it on to the ship. Also, Roll-On/Roll-Off ships have multiple decks for car transport that are all covered, so rough seas wouldn't have caused this.

 

Wow. If the carpets were still soaking when you saw the car, it should have been very easy to tell if it was salt water. You can smell it, taste it, whatever. I simply cannot fathom how your car could be filled with 6-8 inches of rain water when it was transported on a ship.
Man, I'm just reading your mod list, I'm going to cry for you...

 

Have the car totaled and walk away. Water damage will cause problems that won't surface for some time.

 

Yeah, it's painful. I did taste the water and it's not salty. However, the surveyor said that he's seen cases where the water hasn't smelled/tasted salty when in actuality, it was salt water. I'm just going on the interior grease marks being present before the UK dock handlers got to the car to unload it, and making a best guess.

 

To be clear, there weren't 6-8" of water in the car, but rather it must have been sitting in a pool of water at least that deep to have the bottom of the car flooded. the lower door arms are dry for instance. So is the carpet on the vertical axis that houses the electronics behind the center console, like adjacent to the driver/passenger footwells.

 

Understood. But that is a LOT of water. What would the source be for that much FRESH water... seems impossible, ESPECIALLY given where the car has just been - in a boat on the ocean.

 

You also have to watch out possible mold spores growing in the hidden area's. These can make you very sick. I would get a second opinion from someone that deals with these type of problems more often then you and I.