Neighbor had a beautiful E6 that had 3ft of water damage. Salt water was half way up the steering column. He bought a brand new one that I reprogrammed and gave me the flood car as a thank you present. He must have been mad at me because this Gem is hell. I thought how hard can it be? Have all the major replacement parts in the shop, change them out, put in a big lithium battery and off I go. Wrong! First of all it wont move because the brakes are locked up. Got those working but found the parking brake cables are locked up. Any one got a set of cables? Next we started evaluating the damage. When DC current contacts salt water it is like acid. Most of the terminals have completely disolved, even the brass studs on the psdm are completely gone.
The battery hold downs were so rusted we couldn’t get them off, had to use a cutting wheel to remove all of them. Then pull 500lbs of lead batteies out, LG hates lead!
Every nut and bolt are rusted and need to be replaced. when I pulled the connectors off the psdm, most of the pins are gone. Thouhgt the wiring harness’s would be salvageable but now I donI don’t think so. Every high voltage terminal is going to have to be cut off and replaced. By the time I’m done I will make less than minimum wage. Could make twice as much working at McDonalds. For the love of God, do not attempt to repair a salt water flood car, even working on a 2002 Gem would be better.
Dang. In my mind I thought some of these cars might be salvaged if you got to them fast enough and hosed them down with diesel of something but now I don’t think so.
Electrolysis is fun!
What is status of the motor and gearbox? Not being actually powered/running and having a floating B-, might have affected them a bit different but I’m sure ol Reddy would find some way to loop back through them. If anything, just sitting in salt water would mess them up. With MainSwON the DC Converter was active so there was 12v present on all the lowV stuff.
Beyond the Electrics - If it got to the seats, I’m thinking the seat frames are silently dying as we speak. Even the seat belt retractors are probably going to have issues.
At least that will have one of the new pedal pots on it. That might be OK.
Even if the wire harness can be salvaged, salty water will keep eating the copper and it will likely fail in a few months.
Worked in a 2016+ and the 14v output from dc dc converter was 10v at the Aux battery terminal due to the high resistance of that wire.
If even the SS body screws and bolts are corroding that ya, let JarJarJava have at it with a long fuse.
Otherwise, it would seem anything not greased would need replacing so it should be looked at as a platform with 4 wheels, steering and transmission and everything from lighting to power systems and control would need replacing.
Really surprised how quickly it ate up the PSDM. Guessing that nobody disconnected the battery after it was flooded so it sat under water for a few days with power all the way to the master disconnect.
You could break out of hail with some saltwater and a 12v battery.
And that guys’ prosthetic leg.
I’m guessing nobody ever thought the water would get up past the curb, let alone two feet above the garage slab. Those that were around could have at least disconnected the main battery cable and there would have been a good chance most of the electrolysis damage would have been dodged. I bet their minds were on other things tho.
Either that or these cars were parked in vacation homes and the cars were left in “Maint Mode” (MainSwON and chargers plugged in) so when they came back thier batteries would not be dead-dead.
Thank you Mike for telling the truth and showing that a salt water attacked car, boat, truck, outboard motor is gone. No matter how pretty on the outside, it is gone!! I had to learn this with a couple of Mercury Racing outboards on a 33 foot Donzi. So much damage and the wire corrosion from the salt slowly eating away the copper made this a teaching lesson for me. Suppository method of teaching. The only thing these under-salt-water machines are good for are destruction in a B movie. It looks like a real car was run over the cliff.
And in GEM car doors there are lots of metal fittings. Chomp.
Mike, your truth shines again. Oh, and they pay $15.00 / hr at McD now.
Love your commentary, but we are suckers too. have replaced a motor, controller, & psdm on a 2014 flood gem. Takes and holds a charge, but wont move, so now looking at replacing the main contactor, but confused about amps. on the internet , we see Albright contactors for 72 v, but don’t know which amp option to select. Any suggestions, other than pushing her into the Gulf? Accelerator pedal assy probable needs to be replace too.
Just dawned on me, a flood car might be just the platform for a JATO motor.
The GEM is not as heavy as a 67’ Chevy Impala so should reach new heights.
Wow, thanks for the quick reply. attaching 2 photos. blue tape is the high water line. not sure how long the water was that level. The other pic is the display, which shows batteries not charged right now, but it will charge using the regular charging system. When i release the parking brake, is get an alarm sound. - Becky
@Beckytitmus - I have a few things for you to try, and a few more questions, but first- let us start you own Topic so we don’t cloud up LG’s own frustrations.
Tap the C key on your keyboard and it will open up the editor window. Depending on where you were it may also put in some code attaching it to the previous window. Delete that code and type what you got going on.
Change the subject to something catchy that describes your issues.
The 2 flooded 2022 GEMS that I purchased did not have as high a waterlevel as yours did. But the motors were frozen, and rust in the front metal frame forced me to treat with abrasive blast and powdercoating. Damage to wiring was primarily in those wires that were charged when under water. Anion to Cathode electron migration. Those wiring terminals needed to be replaced. I was able to find replacement terminals for 2016+ on the internet. Some had to be ordered from China. The older GEMS go for pretty cheap on Auction sites. You may need to get a donor cart.
