I Bought a Flood Totaled Bentley for $9,000 with a 'Really Low Water Line'

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[columbiaindieband]

The big question we are all asking is “how many months before the next video on this car”😂 Sam is the king of parking em up lol. Still love the content tho

[Beer_Dad]

Save yourself a bunch of time and just use a multimeter to measure the resistance across the fuses rather than pulling each one out! Also a fuse can appear good to the eye but still have a break - so not only is measuring them faster, it's more accurate. It's literally why they have the two little holes in the top of them!

[Ponch]

I'm an adjuster for a large insurance company. You mentioned at the end of the video that you haven't really heard of insurance companies sending a flood car to a shop to see if it can be repaired - I can tell that this is something that does happen. The reality of insurance claims are not that an insurance company just looks at a car and says "yep, it's totaled" and moves on about their day. We have to build an estimate for every claim we have. The result of the estimate then determines if its a total or repairable. Now, in most states we can "construct" a total loss by taking the cost of the repairs, combine that with an estimated selling price at auction and if those two numbers exceed the vehicles value they can be declared totals. The #1 thing in deciding if a car is a total or not is the cost of the repair vs the actual cash value of the vehicle. Many states have a specific "threshold" that must be reached to declare a car a total loss. Some states is 70% of the value, some 75 or 80%.

Now fresh water vs salt water makes a huge difference in flood claims. The margin of replacement in a salt water loss is far less than a fresh water loss. For example, in a fresh water loss we might write to try and clean carpet vs in a salt water flood replacement is the only option. I had a claim that I worked recently that was a flood claim similar to this, only fresh water, and the vehicle ended up getting repaired at a shop and is back on the road today. I have also had ones that didn't total on the initial estimate, but got to a shop, disassembled and ended up totaling due to all of the hidden damage/issues the shop found after teardown.

Now - what I will say is any adjuster with any sort of common sense will always do everything they can do to total a flood car when they look at it the first time because repaired flood vehicles are always a pain in the rear later on down the road. The vehicle owner will always blame the flood (either correctly or incorrectly) for any little thing that goes wrong with the vehicle after its been repaired and as a result we as the adjuster/insurance company become "married" to these cars. My motto is when it doubt, total it out!

[jamesemcclure]

The key stuck in the ignition was probably the reason for the fully depleted battery. Once the car was powered up again it has no memory of the key being inserted into the ignition. Remove it first, then lock the car and open it again. Before you try this make sure you use the big battery that came with the car. Bentley's can be finicky about their choice of battery as the owner is about their choice of wine.

[johnsonrepp]

The lock/key/“kessey” module is located under the passenger footwell area…. If you need any parts, bumpers or anything for the Bentley, bentleybumpers will help and probably sponsor/work with you

[TiptronicSS]

Sam is finally back full speed! Love it!

[timfreeman]

Sam is the goat at segueing into those sponsors.

[MrAndytork]

Just fixed a similar issue on a flying spur, kessy is under the passenger floor on a RHD model but i belive its on the same place on a LHD (so drivers floor). There is a set of relays on the angled section between the floor and firewall. Water leaks in here all the time, not just under flood conditions as the drains in the AC plenum block under the bonnet (hood) and water collects in the kessy / under the seats.

My issue was corroded wiring to the ignition relay. The main wires just fell out of yhe relay socket.

Bentley supposedly sell a wiring harness patch kit for this issue.

[grahamwilliamson]

This 7200 bid at my local auction would only go up to 7600 after fees and taxes. 1800 uptick is absolutely INSANE

[Ed-G]

You should never trust a visual inspection on fuses always put a meter on to make sure that those fuses are good. As far as the relays go the Car Wizard has resettable relays that he uses to troubleshoot electrical systems.

[bbkmm]

17 year old flood Bentley. With the key worn down to nothing. What a bargain with "low mileage."🤣

[canofbeer]

Sam don't forget that this is a UK car and drivers side is the R/hand so it could be worth a look under the passenger side carpet on your car for the module.
Good luck with the car!

[danielsiminski]

GEEZ, that poor Bentley is BEAT to HELL!

[rafaeltorovip]

Best line “this car looks fine from certain angles”. Real meaning, looks fine from far far far away.😂

[AntCooke]

That fact the key is stuck in the ignition is a big clue. I’d be starting by looking at that before any modules.

[kuba]

It seems like immobiliser issue, in video I can see the key symbol on a dash. Maybe something is wrong with the key itself. Key was in few pieces when you got this car.

[chris]

2:55 that jack sounds like your step mom

[wrcktngl]

I bet this car was a basket case before the flood, owner used the flood as an excuse to get rid of it

[Pozzibilitiiz]

The key usually gets stuck in these types of ignitions when the battery dies completely. Would probably bet it's a simple fix and wouldn't try going through all the modules at first. Would eject the key out manually, put in the now-charged main battery, unlock car with remote, close doors, lock car, unlock car, get in and try to start it. What happening under the driver's seat I would ignore, probably blew one of those fuses and fixed it cheaply by wiring them all together somehow.

[deancwhmackinnon]

Im an expert in NOT going anywhere near a Bentley 🤣