Hi all,
Short story:
I am looking for advice on what to do with my totaled 2017 Sportsmobile, which was caught in a flood 2 years ago in my driveway and now suddenly my neighbors reported it as "derelict"/"abandoned" and the city wants it gone (or magically no longer "derelict") in two weeks.
Longer story:
I'm in the St. Louis, MO area (University City, to be precise)
I had a Sprinter Sportsmobile custom built for me by SMB West back in 2017. Back then I was a moderately-wealthy software engineer.
A couple years ago, our street flooded completely (my house is juuuust inside a 100-year flood zone so it was mostly unexpected). The Sportsmobile was standing in my driveway at the time, and there it has remained to this day.
The insurance company declared it a total loss without even sending anyone out to look at it - just based on my pictures of how high the waterline got. Which was just about up to the inside of the hood. (I just made an album called "Drowned Sprinter" with the pictures).
I felt like there was a high enough chance that the van is salvageable that it was at least worth someone taking a look at it. So I requested to keep it as "owner-retained salvage". The insurance company agreed, though in exchange for a fairly large subtraction from the payout. Maybe too large, but still, you know, sentimental value and stuff.
This is where I hit a snag, and why the van has been standing around for two years - apparently it's really hard to find a mechanic who is willing to work on (a) a Sprinter which (b) has water damage. (Especially when you are an overwhelmed grad student with anywhere from 2-7 rescue/foster dogs depending on the exact moment in time, recovering from your house also being flooded... I have excuses!)
Suddenly, I get a letter from the city police department telling me that the van (which, again, is in my driveway) is "derelict" and/or "abandoned" because the neighbors reported that its tags are expired and it hasn't moved in a while. It has to be fixed by October 8th (and that's after I got an extension) or they'll tow it and charge me daily for storage and make me jump through hoops to get it back.
I'm still having trouble finding someone who would even take a look at it; I found one local mechanic who is known to have rebuilt flooded vehicles, but he said he couldn't work on a Sprinter.
Here's what I know about the state of the van:
Any thoughts or advice on what I should do?
I would still be ecstatic if I could somehow keep it and get it running and get a rebuilt title for it. However, this seems vanishingly unlikely, between the new deadline, the lack of willing mechanics, and my current budget of "grad student with expensive dogs who keep needing complicated surgeries".
I feel like even if the van doesn't run, it should be worth something to someone. The pop top in particular should still be perfectly fine (and the solar panels on top of that, I imagine). The second best case scenario would be if someone knowledgeable buys it off me and is able to do something sensible with it. But not entirely sure where to start with that either - for starters, I'd still like to be able to assess what is wrong with it. But even then how do I decide how much it's worth?
I am happy to provide more details if needed!
Short story:
I am looking for advice on what to do with my totaled 2017 Sportsmobile, which was caught in a flood 2 years ago in my driveway and now suddenly my neighbors reported it as "derelict"/"abandoned" and the city wants it gone (or magically no longer "derelict") in two weeks.
Longer story:
I'm in the St. Louis, MO area (University City, to be precise)
I had a Sprinter Sportsmobile custom built for me by SMB West back in 2017. Back then I was a moderately-wealthy software engineer.
A couple years ago, our street flooded completely (my house is juuuust inside a 100-year flood zone so it was mostly unexpected). The Sportsmobile was standing in my driveway at the time, and there it has remained to this day.
The insurance company declared it a total loss without even sending anyone out to look at it - just based on my pictures of how high the waterline got. Which was just about up to the inside of the hood. (I just made an album called "Drowned Sprinter" with the pictures).
I felt like there was a high enough chance that the van is salvageable that it was at least worth someone taking a look at it. So I requested to keep it as "owner-retained salvage". The insurance company agreed, though in exchange for a fairly large subtraction from the payout. Maybe too large, but still, you know, sentimental value and stuff.
This is where I hit a snag, and why the van has been standing around for two years - apparently it's really hard to find a mechanic who is willing to work on (a) a Sprinter which (b) has water damage. (Especially when you are an overwhelmed grad student with anywhere from 2-7 rescue/foster dogs depending on the exact moment in time, recovering from your house also being flooded... I have excuses!)
Suddenly, I get a letter from the city police department telling me that the van (which, again, is in my driveway) is "derelict" and/or "abandoned" because the neighbors reported that its tags are expired and it hasn't moved in a while. It has to be fixed by October 8th (and that's after I got an extension) or they'll tow it and charge me daily for storage and make me jump through hoops to get it back.
I'm still having trouble finding someone who would even take a look at it; I found one local mechanic who is known to have rebuilt flooded vehicles, but he said he couldn't work on a Sprinter.
Here's what I know about the state of the van:
- Both of its batteries happened to be dead at the time of the flood, which I think is good because there wouldn't be any shorts caused by the flood then?
- The water only went to its highest point (just about above the engine) for a short amount of time; the flood started in the middle of the night and the water had drained by the morning
- There were no water droplets on the oil dipstick, so as I understand it that prooobably means that the water didn't get into the engine?
- As far as the interior, I did my best to dry it out with a strong fan right after the flood and then ran an ozone machine. It seems to be in OK shape. Certainly would be acceptable for me if the rest of the van worked!
- With a fresh battery, the key turns part of the way in the ignition, but the van refuses to even try to start. It shows a "Brake force distribution error", which seems to be an error that prevents ignition in these vans. There are a couple of other errors, too: ESP/ABS/SRS error; tail lamp left; aux lamp active; check engine light on, low tire pressure light on.
- I plugged in an OBD2 scanner (Autophix 7770, it specifically has a Sprinter mode). There are error codes in 4 systems: N15/3 (2 errors), ESP(8 errors), SRS(13 errors), and SAM(3 errors). Most of the error codes seem to be complaining about CAN bus/communication issues.
Any thoughts or advice on what I should do?
I would still be ecstatic if I could somehow keep it and get it running and get a rebuilt title for it. However, this seems vanishingly unlikely, between the new deadline, the lack of willing mechanics, and my current budget of "grad student with expensive dogs who keep needing complicated surgeries".
I feel like even if the van doesn't run, it should be worth something to someone. The pop top in particular should still be perfectly fine (and the solar panels on top of that, I imagine). The second best case scenario would be if someone knowledgeable buys it off me and is able to do something sensible with it. But not entirely sure where to start with that either - for starters, I'd still like to be able to assess what is wrong with it. But even then how do I decide how much it's worth?
I am happy to provide more details if needed!
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