It's strange that she found wetness. Without that bit, I'd ask how long she has own the car. But with it being wet under the mats it seems like a strange anomaly.
I bought a 2019 honda in November and one thing I had to be wary about was cars that were coming up from the storms from down south (I'm in the north) to try and be sold. I ultimately ended up buying from my friend who is the finance manager at Honda and it's a real big issue when floods happens. We get a flood up here and cars go down south to sell, Vice versa. You might not notice the corrosion immediately
She bought it new in 2019. No flooding ever that she's known of. And the wetness under the mats was totally out of the blue. It might have been there for a couple of days (how often do you lift your mats up?), but it still doesn't explain where it came from.
I think what he's saying is that the car was new on a dealer lot or in transit when it was exposed to the salt water. The car was then transported to the dealership your friend bought it from. Flood damage and then transported far away is something you have to look out for in the used car world, but it wouldn't surprise me if an unethical dealer did this to a new, never titled car. I don't know if it would take this long for the damage to show up though.
Well that could be the case. But I actually meant if they bought the car used it could be old storm damage that is now showing. A carfax or Vin report wouldn't show something like that right away *if it was* reported. But the wetness under the mats doesn't make sense and would completely throw out my guess as what could've happened.
At least with the dealer branch I went through, they avoid buying used Hondas or even having new inventory shipped from areas where a current or past flood in the last 3 months occurred.
Recent dampness could be a red herring as to the timing of the damage. Maybe the corrosion has progressed and now the floor can get wet going through a puddle or from driving in a windy, driving rain, because 4 years of corrosion has resulted in holes.
Ohhh!! That completely makes sense too. I guess we won't find out since they already got a payout for their car which I guess means they no longer have the car in their possession. I'd really like to know if the subfloor is corroded enough for wetness to show in the interior.
Well, an insurance adjuster gave her $35K so it must have been at the Flintstones model level of corrosion for her to get an ethical pay out from *them*
You know the adjusters aren't out to lowball people, they don't even come up with the ACV of a vehicle independently. They all use software for it, anytime an insured is offered a settlement they are more than welcome to go through the valuation report to make sure everything is correct. Sometimes trim levels get missed or automatic vs manual gets mixed up which can affect the total value.
Also saltwater damage is pretty much an instant total because even if you think you got all of the corroded pieces out it almost always continues to get worse.
Yes? I mean, do you know what rust does to metal? Do you know what salt water does to metal?
My uncle used to have this old Mustang where you literally had to straddle the hole in the passenger floorboard with your feet. Same with a friend I had in hs- he picked me up for school one day after he'd gotten his license, didn't think k to warn me that the old ass Trans Am he was driving had a bunch of small holes in the passenger floorboard and I went to school that day with frozen feet due to snowmelt splashing up through the holes. And the rest of the floorboard stayed wet.
> A carfax or Vin report wouldn't show something like that right away if it was reported
Carfax is absolutely useless outside (and even inside frankly) the borders of California. had a friend with a unlimited carfax search subscription, so gave them the vin for my Pickup truck. It should show two owners (me being the second) but i'm the "only" owner.
This is real ironic, as I became the second owner in 2013. Furthermore, the truck was built a month before I was even born back in the 80s...
Due to the [Rebecca Schaffer](https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Schaeffer) Laws, Many records are obscured or outright blocked in the state of California. This makes Carfax useless as seen.
Bought in California, Registered in Nevada
This is the most likely option. I'm going to guess the car hadn't been wet for 3 years but likely had some breakdown which creates holes in tj places. When rainwater was mixed with dry salt water, it smelled salty.
Not sure if this is something you can actually check where you live, but is the car’s license plate what it’s supposed to be compared to the moment it was given to the car? Where I live, license plates are assigned sequentially, and I once bought a vehicle that had a license plate that was given out 6 months before I bought it. Basically, the importer gets the license, and once it’s registered to a final customer for the first time, that registration date goes in the paperwork. Would it be possible that she is the first owner, but that the car had suffered water damage before the official date of registration?
more likely then my tin foil hat theory, someone stole it for a joy ride, went on the beach and drove it back, but lives near by so may as well return it
Joyrides are almost never returned let alone in a condition where you wouldn’t have noticed it was getting joyridden (especially if that place was the beach) they’re criminals, not Ferris Bueller and gang.
I did say tin foil hat theory..
more likely is someone who didnt like her was pouring salt water in the vents and looked up how to actually make sure it goes into the cabin instead of running off
In the US, most of the time license plates are not assigned to a vehicle forever. If you buy a car, you go to the DMV/ RMV and get a plate. Then if you sell the car, the plate either goes to YOUR new car (not the old cars new owner), or it’s returned to the DMV or just retired. I don’t know of any states that move a license plate from one owner to another. I know in Europe plates are typically assigned to a particular car for life. Not the case in the US.
Where did it come from ? Where I live, Kia’s arrive by ship and they ALWAYS have to be fully detailed inside and out before they’re collected by owners. Due to being at sea for two months in order to get here. I am presuming they’re not manufactured in the US and so perhaps this is something dating back to when it was shipped.
Either way, good score on the insurance actually covering it!
Corrosion takes a while to start trashing your car, it could be a year in before the damage starts to appear.
My car flooded and when getting it reviewed was told that the issues tend to start cropping up after a while if they're not immediately apparent.
My oil light was on immediately, and after draining all the fluids and refilling the car was mechanically sound again, but I was aware that the corrosion was a time bomb.
So her car could have flooded like a year ago and just showed corrosion now. That would make sense but she's owned it for 3+ years and to her knowledge, it's never flooded.
For sure.
It might not even be a single event.
A leaking A/C or condensate line can be a common issue that causes a steady but small amount of water ingress over time. Salt off your shoes in the winter can provide the necessary sale to kick off corrosion.
There's loads of ways for salted water to be present inside the car that aren't the obvious culprets.
My Ford Taurus had bad seals around the tail lights and I guess years of rain caused a giant pond in the spare tire compartment under the trunk. Had no idea for years there was even a leak until the emergency fuel pump shutoff switch in the trunk failed. The water ate everything in the trunk and it eventually spread to the passenger floorboards and no amount of shop vac and damp rid could get rid of the interior humidity. Sounds like OP's car is in a beachy state where there'd naturally be salty air which is an even worse combo.
Well this sucks, I drove through flooded salt water that came inside my car, I aired it out and used a shop vac for like 2 days. That was a year ago…I hope I don’t start seeing things falling apart… I knew the water was high but did not think it would enter the car when I drove through …
Yeah the wetness on the mat could be recent and unrelated to the corrosion. It's hard to know without seeing or feeling it. It might've not even been wet. But if we assume everything is true, then it wouldve needed to be in 2 feet of water. The electrical component to the story (the Bluetooth) makes it also seem more like degradation over time and not something that happened the night or week before.
But I really don't think the "stolen car into 1-2 feet of sea water and then brought back and parked where they found it" story really makes sense. Especially with how OP painted their friend, they would have suggested something if the placement or appearance of the car was off.
It's odd how it suddenly happened, corrosion is a relatively slow process, and the waterlogging only caused a dead battery and faulty bluetooth? as cars use a common ground they normally go crazy after getting wet especially after being "dipped in the ocean" as everything is shorted to ground and every single thing on the car is turned on.
I wonder if the storm was involved, 2 miles isn't that far and weather events can carry objects much larger then saltwater droplets for miles
There’s no way it was submerged and then returned without it being noticed by smell, dampness or some other resulting change even if for example, somebody detailed it to try to restore it to previous condition, you would notice that much.
i actually have a friend who has had hers stolen twice. lol
i don’t think that’s what happened at all here tho, joy riders/thieves don’t politely bring back your car and park it in the drive way when they’re done.
Funny story, when I was like 13 or so, my neighbors car was stolen and he told us it could be started without a key, just turn the ignition and it would start. It was an old beater. The cops found it and he got it back. Well being the little trouble maker teenager I was, I told my 2 best friends and we decided to take it for a drive one night. We did return it to its original place afterwards lol.
Not OP but, when I heard about cars getting stolen and chopped in my little shit hole corner of Texas, without fail it was usually newer Kias or Older Hyundais. Other stuff got stolen of course, usually older Tahoes or Ford Rangers so I can only assume they're all incredibly easy to get into for, oh I dunno, dumb High School kids wanting to go for a joyride or make a quick buck.
Any GM truck is easy enough to steal by bringing a preprogrammed ecm that bypasses the security and takes less than 2 minutes to install, the ford is a bit more time consuming depending on year model but doable in about 11 minutes.
The software is available and not very expensive or there are services that will do it rather inexpensively.
i’ve been doing it locally for about 20yrs, though the only suspicious characters were used car lots who just didn’t want to spend the money to fix those systems and instead bypass them.
There are TONS of kids and hacks in Texas with a similar software, I guarantee if you check facebook or craigslist you’ll find tons of folks offering “VATS” (GM) or “PATS” (Ford) deletes.
I heard it was a trend on tiktok, because 2 car brands were really easy to get into and hotwire, something like kia challenge. Kids (I assume mostly in america since we own a kia and nothing happened, also never heard about it in the news) were just hotwiring cars and stealing them with explainations given frlm tiktok videos on how to do it. But yeah, kia and the other brand (I forgot which one) don't like spending extra money on safety measures on their cars and thus are easily stolen. If they weren't as greedy they could make them way harder to steal very easily.
I don't think that explains the story OP told though
It is an American thing, actually. The same cars are sold overseas with an ignition lockout, which they decided to cheap out on cars sold in America since that part is not mandated. The thefts are still rampant, and the companies have done little to nothing to fix the issue. I can't imagine why, it's soiling the brands.
Locks keep out honest people, that’s why key antitheft is important.
I can get into most vehicles just taking the antenna off real quick, but that still wouldn’t let me drive it with antitheft present.
It’s pretty easy to get by almost anything once you understand its parts and its functions on a fundamental level.
However that’s for smart people.
Never worry about a guy who knows how to pick your locks, he’s smart enough to make money honestly.
Worry about the idiot armed with a rock and ignorance who is looking to score something the only way he knows how, by destruction.
Thieves don’t care about doing things cleanly without damage, which is why locks still won’t stop them as they just break them to get in.
*To be clear in the antenna scenario it’s just a quick tool that can be unscrewed and screwed back on easily, we’re not allowed to have metal hangers anymore*
The news recently discussed how some cars are becoming uninsurable because of how easy they are to hotwire and I'm pretty sure you're spot on here with what happened.
That particular storm was more about wind and a coastal storm surge, and not a lot of rain or precipitation. The insurance person said it looked just like submerged flood damage. And no other cars in her neighborhood sustained any saltwater damage. It's so weird!
I'd put money that it did have existing flood damage that she didn't know about when she bought it, and a resent spike in moisture from a storm or just seasonal humidity was the last straw. The moisture under the mat could just be a coincidental faulty door seal.
This is actually exactly how that type of issue presents, as a random electrical fault you don’t expect.
When explored the existing damage is found, having not necessarily gotten far enough yet to cause a symptom.
I’ve done many flood vehicles as well as electrical strikes, quite a few drive in with what seems to be only a minor issue until we begin searching for the root cause.
There is always a first symptom, regardless of the damage.
My immediate thought was it was bought used and was likely flooded previously.
Half the flood vehicles i’ve worked on were for small car lots buying auction vehicles after hurricanes like Katrina.
The immediate damage is easy to rectify, generally the only modules that short are active modules that are basically in standby like the body control module which controls alot of internal stuff as well as the restraint module which is bolted to the floor.
The rest is perfectly fine until corrosion sets in which can take quite awhile or very little time.
They can actually be fun puzzles to piece together.
This car was purchased new. I suppose it’s possible it flooded before it was purchased, and didn’t start presenting problems for 3 years? But then why sudden wetness under the mats?
No idea and it honestly doesn’t matter really except for solving an interesting puzzle.
It could be that the original damage while being primary to the fault, is still secondary to a newer fault like leaking windshield or sunroof trim or sometime even a washer fluid leak to a rear wiper that easily go unnoticed for awhile.
It could be completely unrelated to the big immersion problem found, and given the facts as-is that is what I would assume without being able to inspect it myself.
If I saw actual complete immersion type flood damage, a little water on the floor probably isn’t even going to get my attention since it likely has nothing to do with the big picture and even if it did it has no bearing on the solution.
Does she live somewhere that salts the road a lot during the winter? I lived in MA for a couple decades and know that could sometimes cause issues with cars - mostly rust/frame issues (it has been few more decades since I've lived there so I don't know if that is a bigger issue with "modern" cars) . But the salt could have eaten away at something to then allow more water/salt to get into the areas that were damaged.
To a technician there is obvious difference between flood damage and leaks or salt from roadways etc..
It’s usually a pretty easy distinction just visually inspecting the different areas of the vehicle due to all the different materials used.
I would even venture to say that an average adjuster (who are notoriously ignorant in these areas in my experience) should be able to tell the difference.
Yes, but we've had no snow this year and barely any ice. So the roads have been very clean. And she's had this car in near-perfect condition since 2019-- through 2 other messier winters. Suddenly massive saltwater damage throughout the entire just makes no sense.
I guess it's possible, but then wouldn't it happen to every car in the area? And my friend takes really great care of her vehicles. They always look brand new inside and out. I can't imagine she'd miss mounting water damage for years.
It's possible that her car doors didn't seal completely and then moisture absorbs into things. If she drove in the rain did she have alot of trouble with the car fogging up? That's one sign that there's a 'leak'.
And this might sound silly; I often spill salt in my car (because I eat in there, lol) and wherever I spill it it draws moisture.
So I can imagine if the salt from the road accumulated on her shoes and then ended up eventually eating at her car. It would ofc require that there's an air leak moisture would pull in from (basic morning dew would do) and that would also be the reason it doesn't happen to everyone else
Did she buy it new or used? There is a big problems with cars totaled in floods getting sold back on dealer lots and the titles are being manipulated to “clean”.
It’s been a problem for years and years.
ABC News did a 5 month investigation into this and the shady practice, and how these flooded cars ended back up on dealer lots. They followed cars and helped people who had bought these.
Print and also has video from the episode:
>*“In a five month investigation, "ABC's The Lookout" found these cars turning up on used car lots across the country.”*
https://abcnews.go.com/Business/sandy-damaged-vehicles-sold-car-lots/story?id=19829090
Jan 2023:
Here is a recent LA Times article
[Beware: Flood-damaged cars may be coming to a dealer ...](https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-01-20/la-flood-damaged-cars)
Oct 2022: Kiplinger
[Watch Out for Flood-Damaged Cars from Hurricane Ian](https://www.kiplinger.com/personal-finance/shopping/cars/603404/after-hurricane-beware-flooded-cars-for-sale)
You could crosscheck the location of the car dealership with weather reports. See if it was at a location that had surges. Your friend sounds quite tidy-ask if she still has the origination papers that came with the car. That would nail down times and places.
https://fortune.com/2022/09/22/hyundai-kia-cars-stealing-hack-thieves/amp/
A slim Jim will get them into the car very quickly. And not everyone has security cameras.
There is no usb slot. There is a tab behind the ignition cylinder that is the right size and shape to be turned by the end of a usb cable, but the cable has no part in the theft other than being the right size and shape.
If "ur" going "2" tell somebody to "do some basic research", maybe make sure that you're not talking bullshit yourself.
why are you so butthurt about it? you come in here with a shitty attitude and immediately start namecalling, you having a bad day? or is this just how you conduct yourself in public, being hostile and abusive to people
I'm truly blown away that people who are ostensibly adults with responsibilities can survive this long completely lacking common sense or the ability to think critically. Also please shut up with your nannying.
People are always so sure of themselves. They heard something on Reddit and think they are experts. Telling you to do basic research when they have no clue. Lol
It's insane isn't it? This whole thread is a bunch of grown children with fantastical ideas. "Maybe it was stolen and returned secretly!" "Maybe someone switched out that car with an IDNETICAL one!". WTF is this shit. These people are out of their minds. It was probably salt accumulation and a body defect that allowed seepage.
This might sound crazy, but are you absolutely sure it's the same car? Check the V.I.N. on the bodywork against your paper/online records. I've never heard of this actually happening, but theoretically someone who totalled their own same model car could have switched it with yours, swapping the plates and contents...
Although it's more likely that someone else does actually have access to your keys and has "borrowed" your car without you knowing. I would check this possibility first, even if you live with people who you absolutely trust and know "would never do a thing like this".... truth might surprise you. Who has visited recently? Have you had plumber/builders in, etc.?
The insurance checked the VIN to see if it matched what it was when she bought it.
There isn't anyone who could have done something like this but I will ask her to check around to be sure.
I mean, you live 2 miles from the coast and you have saltwater damage. *Somebody* took it to the sea -- it's the most glaringly obvious explanation. Saltwater doesn't just magically teleport itself into vehicles. The only real questions are who took it and when.
The fact it was returned suggests that it was someone near to you or known to you, who didn't want to get caught, and hoped they'd get away with it but fucked up by flooding it.
If she has teenage kids it's almost certainly them or their friends, or her neighbours kids. Or a friend/neighbour who has keys to the house. Or possibly someone who worked at a garage or parking service, etc. who had temporary access to your keys and decided to go for a spin. Airport parking is notorious in some places for taking customer cars for journeys and parking cars in random public locations when they're full.
Edit: rereading, you've discounted most of those, but clearly someone had access to the car at some point.
> My friend has no kids and no one else has her car keys or access to them. She has a security system at home with cameras etc. and nothing suspicious has happened. Her car is either home in her driveway, or she's driving it. She hasn't used valet parking or parked it anywhere out of the ordinary.
So either seawater is capable of teleportation, or you've overlooked something. Or you're making an invalid assumption somewhere.
Somebody has exposed the car to sea water. It didn't just happen by magic.
> nothing suspicious has happened
This is clearly not true, or we wouldn't be here having this conversation.
Who reviewed the security footage? What dates did you check? What dates did you skip? Who are you assuming would never lie or take a car? What are you assuming is impossible that really isn't?
When I lived on the gulf, I definitely saw the occasional waterspout make it 2M or more from the shore. Sometimes they'd damage one or two things and just dissolve. Super unlikely, but plausible.
I had a similar thing happen with my floor mats randomly being wet one afternoon. Couldn’t figure out where it was coming from either until the mechanic found that the filter at the bottom of the windshield was clogged. I park under a tree at home so shit from the tree clogged it over a few years.
I had the same happen because I barely drove my car during the pandemic, only about once a month. Cleared the leaves when I went to drive it but it was obviously too late.
You mean you *don't* clean that shit out on the regular? In over thirty years I've never seen that *actually* happen because we've always cleaned ours out and so have our neighbors.
Oh well, lesson learned.
Retired tech here who has dealt with flood damaged stuff quite a bit after events like Katrina etc..
If I consider everything said as fact than it’s most likely the damage occurred at a dealers lot before it was sold.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be known even to previous dealer, though selling those off to other unsuspecting dealers is a thing.
The dealer should be able to print out something that includes info on the original sale or delivery for reasons like warranty start times or build/rpo data (at least other brand dealers can).
This might hold some clue like the original delivery to the trading dealer or hopefully a clue in the transportation dates.
It could be the flooding happened before delivery to the dealer, so check the area and the time period for likely causal events.
Also, we drive lot cars all the time, I was just a tech and took a different one to lunch every day if I didn’t have a customer car that need a drive for testing or verification reasons (yeah, majority of people request we do that so we kill two birds).
It could’ve been a demo or program car that a worker drove so your original starting mileage is also a clue.
This is probably one of the more plausible explanations in this thread of sheer insanity but the only thing I'd think about this is that a dealer would probably risk losing any future inventory if Kia ever found out about that
I was about ready to ask if maybe the dealer lied about the history of the car, but you mentioned she bought it new a few years ago. I bought a used car in 2011 in NJ that had been involved with flooding in NY during hurricane Irene, and the dealer covered up all the issues and about a week after buying I had electrical issues/the car smelled like a wet basement. I hope she gets some answers!
I’m chiming in here because I haven’t seen this mentioned. I own an auto repair shop, (European specialists) been a tech since the 80’s water entry is something we deal with regularly…clogged sunroof drains, bad windshield seals, clogged a/c drains, all these are very common here on the east coast especially with the rainfall we’ve been seeing.
I went into work just yesterday to put the interior back on a Volvo that had gallons of water sloshing around underneath the carpets. It was a combination of a leaking windshield and clogged sunroof drains the customer complained of windows fogging up they were ignorant of the gallons of water sloshing around. Now when the carpets (not the floor mats) we’re removed the painted metal floor was corroded with a white substance that could be misconstrued as salt but it was likely just something leaching out from the carpet foam.
This is it. A windshield was replaced on one of our vehicles in 2016 and a similar chain of events happened last year. No indicators up to that point, no weird smells or sensors acting funny. Then it was a quick cascade of failures.
Does your friend have anyone who might’ve taken the car behind her back for a joyride on a beach or something?
This likely isn’t a new issue, because those kinds of damages take ages to build up to “totaled car” level. Perhaps a sibling or crappy friend who likes to be a bit wild with other people’s things?
Also I hate to ask, but has your friend had any memory issues or mania episodes? It really doesn’t make a lot of sense that she didn’t notice this happening unless it was someone close to her or it was her.
Absolutely no chance of that happening. And my friend is one of the sanest people I know. She's a high-level manager at work, juggles and ton of responsibilities, has a lot of wonderful friends, and is just an all-around lovely person.
Do any of these wonderful friends have siblings or other friends who might’ve had access to the car (stealing keys during a party, roadtrips, etc)?
If she’s a high-level manager, what about work rivals/enemies? Someone she may have boasted to about her car who could have taken the keys while she was at work?
I'm betting it was in a flood before she bought it. The corrosion happened over the course of years and eventually ate a hole in a place that water gains access. Then, a storm happens and water gets in through the rust hole.
Living anywhere near the ocean will cause saltwater damage to any non treated/painted exposed metal parts; specifically engine mounts/components, undercarriage and exhaust. These parts will experience expedited rusting and corrosion. Even the moisture in the air can cause saltwater damage to a vehicle near the coast.
In terms of the wetness, I had a 90's Chevy that used to pool water under both of the floorboards. The problem was a piece of the rubber door seal which had become weak and failed, allowing water to enter around the doors when it rained and accumulate in the cars undercarriage and puddle up through the floor.
Are you certain it's a Sorento? Those are all manufactured domestically in Georgia but if it's a Soul or Sportage it might have been manufactured in Korea (you can tell by the VIN) and shipped here overseas and even though they're enclosed ships I suppose there's potential for saltwater infiltration if there's enormous waves or something.
It is common to buy a car and be lied to about the fact that it is a salvaged car. I can’t tell you how many cars I’ve uncovered as salvaged when they were being sold as not salvaged. Cars that have been wrecked or flooded, etc.
Does the car have a sunroof?
The sunroof could have had a clogged drain hose causing water to divert into the interior of the car. I had a car totaled out from this.
The simplest answer is that someone stole their car for a joyride or switched it for another. I doubt anyone is going around dumping buckets of seawater on cars. The timing of the damage and the felt wetness in the car seems to suggest this happened in a brief window of time, between your friend using the car. The Kia Sorento is one of the cars being stolen for joyrides.
“The simplest answer is clearly that she didn’t notice her window being smashed and ignition housing being destroyed and if she did notice those things she definitely wouldn’t checked the security cameras she owns”.
No, I'm just blown away by how some people can manage to stay alive long enough to learn how to read, create a reddit account, and comment something like that while have zero ability for critical thought.
You assume the OP has accurate information, and that the owner of the car properly inspected the car for such incidents. Just because video footage exists does not mean the owner properly accessed it. You are the one making assumptions in this case. Error occurs. It isn't wrong to express some doubts about the ability of the owner to determine these things, especially when they seem willing to accept that magically sea water appeared in their car.
Holy shit this response just confirmed my suspicion. Are you in an assisted living facility? I honestly hope so.
Because I am a normal human being I'm able to do things in my brain like gauge the probability of an outcome based on common sense. You live in a fantasy land and it's unsettling. How fucking likely do you suppose it is that someone would steal the car, trash it in salt water, and then have the goodwill to return it!?! What the fuck. Or swap it out with an identical car!?! You know how all those car thieves are, they love crimes but they love honesty and kindness even more, which is why they'll usually replace the vehicles they've stolen instead of just fucking trashing them or crashing them (like all the Kia situations have ended up)... OH WAIT.
You're telling me you think it takes PROPER INSPECTION of a vehicle to determine if the ignition system has been ripped open and a window has been smashed?!?!
I'm telling you this for your wellbeing, you should have a psych evaluation to determine if you're fit for independence.
The lengths to which you have gone to comment a variety of insults across a public discussion thread is both bewildering and comical. No one here is so seriously attached to their theories over what happened to the car as to require the peer review process of your unhinged fury. With your investment in steering away from others' unconfirmed theories on the problem it would seem almost equally valid to accuse you of the crime itself. Or, you know, maybe someone who knows the owner well enough to not want to have caused such damage (but did anyway) decided to steal their car for a joyride and being an adolescent of some sort tried to at least return it unnoticed. There are other valid possibilities, beyond your screeching.
Yes this is what I get for derailing your imagination time. A pathetic attempt at an intellectual wall of text. Get bent, ya nut. Life is less disappointing if you get your head out of the clouds.
> With your investment in steering away from others' unconfirmed theories on the problem it would seem almost equally valid to accuse you of the crime itself.
Don’t mind me I’m just quoting this so I have a record of the most hilariously insane replies I’ve ever gotten.
It looks like you say she lives near the ocean
While ocean water that evaporates does not contain salt when waves break they can throw salt spray into the air. That is why costal areas smell salty.
Rain is never pure rain forms around dust or can also form around salt.
My guess is that her car's drains in the fresh air system was clogged and allowing water in. It was mildly salty but as more came in and the water evaporated it became salter but not noticed because it was never enough to look wet wet.
It’s either the sunroof drains were clogged or the cowl drains were clogged which caused water to fill up the HVAC box behind the passenger side dashboard. All it takes is a bad rain storm.
there's a good change the water came from a faulty AC drain pan, they get clogged and the water that was meant to run out onto the road will leak inside the car..
left un-noticed for many month would cause exactly this...
So probably not what happened, because of the corrosion on the battery, but I had a similar experience back in 2015 with my Chrysler Sebring. One day noticed a faint smell, too faint to really tell but it seemed like rainwater. Nobody had my car keys ever, and I hate rolling windows down so I’d never done so to leave them open during the recent rains, and nothing anywhere seemed wet. Fast forward a year or so and I get in and swear I can smell water again! But this time I searched and had dampness I could feel on the mats on the passengers side. I couldn’t understand it as it was again not driven by anyone, the back seats as well as the passengers seat were clean and rarely used! I eventually found the chance to wait in the car during a big rain storm, and to my surprise, there was a tiny crack at the bottom of the rear passenger side door allowing the failing weatherstripping to drip water in when things got wet outside! I was shocked how easy it was to find after about 30 minutes the door had enough water in it to hit the hood and leak in. Damn annoying
We recently had something similar happen to one of our cars. We live about 5 miles from the ocean but our car is much older than yours. My suggestion is this:
The local fog in your area is saltier than regular fog. Over time it deposited salt on your car that would have built up if not rinsed off and could corrode not just your electrical system but also the body of your car where your windshield gaskets connect the glass to the frame of your car.
You experienced a normal rain event at some point in the recent past and the rain flooded under your floor mats and possibly was the last straw for your already salt-corroded electrical system.
We ended up a bit luckier but still had to have body work done around our windshield before we could replace the gaskets and seal the car back up. The rain pooled right under the floor mats just like yours.
Edit: sorry. I was so excited to have a solution I wasn't precise. Replace "you" with "your friend."
Something similar happened to me. We live near the ocean and during a particularly high tide, our property flooded. My car’s electrical wiring is underneath the car. High tide flooding lasted about 2 hours and it was long enough to destroy my electrical system. Thankfully insurance didn’t total my car, but it did need to be completely retired.
When the insurance agent said it must have been damaged in coastal flooding, we were cracking up. If 2 feet of water ended up 2 miles inland from the ocean, we would have known about it and seen it on the news!
What you can do is plug a scan tool into the obd2 port and confirm the vin that the ECM has listed matches the vin plate. I doubt it was vin swapped and returned but if it was they weren’t going to replace every module in the vehicle.
Does this vehicle have a sunroof/moonroof ? Is the headliner wet? I’ve dealt with a personal vehicle that had the drain tube plug and disconnect and it dumped a shitload of water on to the passenger floorboard and it took a week with the carpet pulled up and a fan on it to get even remotely dry. If it was an ongoing occurrence you could very easily miss it unless they had passengers
I live in a low lying area near the coast. If it’s raining and high tide, the puddles can be salty. Storm drains back up with sea water and get to the surface. I always rinse my car after it rains.
It was probably a storm-damaged car that also has a leak which caused it to fill up with water.
We have a perfectly good Camry with a mysterious leak somewhere around the rear window. Have to keep a bucket in the trunk to catch the water that comes in when it rains.
You said she bought it new. Unless it has over 100K miles this may be covered by the warranty. She should take it to a dealer to get inspected. They may replace components under warranty.
I had a similar issue with an old Nissan I owned. Nearly same scenario but I *actually began to hear sloshing* and when I investigated where it was coming from, my mats were wet.
Not puddle or wet enough to explain the noise, but damp. It still took me longer to find it after a couple more days when I noticed it audibly sloshed differently when I turned.
It turned out to be a seal that was loose around my door/window that was allowing water to get trapped in the door frame when it rained or splashed in when I drove through puddles. It was all salty water too because I was not far from the coast.
My guess is salt and from boots soaked through the carpet and started rusting out the car from the inside and the salt from the roads did it’s worst on the outside. It’s not uncommon to start happening on older cars, weird to happen on a 4 year old car, but maybe they used a bad batch of paint on the interior, or a window was left open during rain and water was just marinating the insides.
I've lived near the coast my entire life and never heard of anything with this level of damage. Sure, we get our cars and undercarriages washed often because of the salt, and housepaint peels faster, but otherwise this seems really sudden and excessive.
I’m not saying she did and I’m not saying she didn’t. But that car 100 percent went through salt water and not rinsed off. And couple with the salt in the air yes it can happen.
I had a bmw fhat leaked from the sunroof to under the back seat. I got it used. Used to find water in the back, under floor mats. Turns out there was a bog under the back seat for god knows how long.
Did the car have a sunroof? If it did, it's possible a seal was off just a little bit and not properly sealing and a slow leak was happening in the background when it rained or if yard sprinkler system was spraying on the car. My husband drives an older truck that had some issues he figured was due to old age (it's 15+ years old) until it was out during a storm. He thought he somehow left the sunroof opened a crack cause the seats/dash were wet and water poured out when he opened the door. Found that between a grommet missing and sunroof seal having a crack, rain water would come in, run along some wires down to the dash then during the heavy storm it was so much leaking in it was dripping everywhere. He found evidence under the hood as well where the wires water was running along went.
Doesn't solve how it was saltwater, and may not be likely with it being a 2019 vehicle/if it didn't have a sunroof
Salt could have come from air from nearby bodies of water.
Leaking perhaps from AC related ish.
Finding wet floors caused by an AC-associated leak isn't super uncommon perhaps.
Hence, water + salt without actually going into ocean.
For ex;
[https://duckduckgo.com/?q=leaking+AC+water+on+floor+of+car&atb=v314-1&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DXZ8M4KN9MIY](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=leaking+AC+water+on+floor+of+car&atb=v314-1&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DXZ8M4KN9MIY)
[https://duckduckgo.com/?q=leaking+AC+water+on+floor+of+car&atb=v314-1&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D2Qob8Zis\_Mo](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=leaking+AC+water+on+floor+of+car&atb=v314-1&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D2Qob8Zis_Mo)
Discussion of dipping car into ocean probably hyperboly.
Key to this may be where AC associated hoses run around \~dash area of car.
Could have been blocked and leaking for a time, and pooling water could have been absorbing salt from air while collecting behind dash for ex., and once it was overflowing from behind dash board was then coming down front area of car interior per se, to then pooling/soaking in around floor of car potentially, for ex.
This could be the dumbest suggestion, but is acid rain a possibility? Is acid rain acidic enough or salty? I'm trying to link something like rain causing the wetness in the car. Perhaps by corroding the weather striping and causing a leak and then drying up (leaving salt).
Based on what you have said I would say the salt water damage happened when new at the factory/dealer time. You mention there was a storm lately and the water in the foot wells could come from blocked drains at the windscreen, so basically this is rain water but it has exposed an issue that has been in the car since 2019 when new.
I’m not sure if you’ve seen the news stories, but certain Kias are notoriously easy to steal using only a usb cable. I wonder if someone has been using her car.
Noted as evidence of simulation theory. I suspect a corrupted world chunk glitched for a second and there was ocean instead of air around where her car was parked overnight.
Overnight there is more glitches in darker areas, does she park in an unlit lot?
I've said it's possible there was water damage before she bought it new. And I guess there's the remote possibility someone took it for an ocean-filled joyride. Other than that, I have no idea.
It's strange that she found wetness. Without that bit, I'd ask how long she has own the car. But with it being wet under the mats it seems like a strange anomaly. I bought a 2019 honda in November and one thing I had to be wary about was cars that were coming up from the storms from down south (I'm in the north) to try and be sold. I ultimately ended up buying from my friend who is the finance manager at Honda and it's a real big issue when floods happens. We get a flood up here and cars go down south to sell, Vice versa. You might not notice the corrosion immediately
She bought it new in 2019. No flooding ever that she's known of. And the wetness under the mats was totally out of the blue. It might have been there for a couple of days (how often do you lift your mats up?), but it still doesn't explain where it came from.
I think what he's saying is that the car was new on a dealer lot or in transit when it was exposed to the salt water. The car was then transported to the dealership your friend bought it from. Flood damage and then transported far away is something you have to look out for in the used car world, but it wouldn't surprise me if an unethical dealer did this to a new, never titled car. I don't know if it would take this long for the damage to show up though.
Well that could be the case. But I actually meant if they bought the car used it could be old storm damage that is now showing. A carfax or Vin report wouldn't show something like that right away *if it was* reported. But the wetness under the mats doesn't make sense and would completely throw out my guess as what could've happened. At least with the dealer branch I went through, they avoid buying used Hondas or even having new inventory shipped from areas where a current or past flood in the last 3 months occurred.
Interesting! Yes, that sounds like a possibility.
It being a flood car would make sense if it weren't still damp. There's no way it was damp for 4 years.
Recent dampness could be a red herring as to the timing of the damage. Maybe the corrosion has progressed and now the floor can get wet going through a puddle or from driving in a windy, driving rain, because 4 years of corrosion has resulted in holes.
Ohhh!! That completely makes sense too. I guess we won't find out since they already got a payout for their car which I guess means they no longer have the car in their possession. I'd really like to know if the subfloor is corroded enough for wetness to show in the interior.
Good thinking!!!
The inner floor can get wet from driving through a puddle? Come on.
Yes, from holes due to corrosion. Happened to my dad's car.
Well, an insurance adjuster gave her $35K so it must have been at the Flintstones model level of corrosion for her to get an ethical pay out from *them*
You know the adjusters aren't out to lowball people, they don't even come up with the ACV of a vehicle independently. They all use software for it, anytime an insured is offered a settlement they are more than welcome to go through the valuation report to make sure everything is correct. Sometimes trim levels get missed or automatic vs manual gets mixed up which can affect the total value. Also saltwater damage is pretty much an instant total because even if you think you got all of the corroded pieces out it almost always continues to get worse.
Yes? I mean, do you know what rust does to metal? Do you know what salt water does to metal? My uncle used to have this old Mustang where you literally had to straddle the hole in the passenger floorboard with your feet. Same with a friend I had in hs- he picked me up for school one day after he'd gotten his license, didn't think k to warn me that the old ass Trans Am he was driving had a bunch of small holes in the passenger floorboard and I went to school that day with frozen feet due to snowmelt splashing up through the holes. And the rest of the floorboard stayed wet.
My guess is a drain was blocked letting water in and through 5he system. Possibly the sunroof or the windshield
Sunroof wouldnt make sense for salt water.
> A carfax or Vin report wouldn't show something like that right away if it was reported Carfax is absolutely useless outside (and even inside frankly) the borders of California. had a friend with a unlimited carfax search subscription, so gave them the vin for my Pickup truck. It should show two owners (me being the second) but i'm the "only" owner. This is real ironic, as I became the second owner in 2013. Furthermore, the truck was built a month before I was even born back in the 80s... Due to the [Rebecca Schaffer](https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Schaeffer) Laws, Many records are obscured or outright blocked in the state of California. This makes Carfax useless as seen. Bought in California, Registered in Nevada
This is the most likely option. I'm going to guess the car hadn't been wet for 3 years but likely had some breakdown which creates holes in tj places. When rainwater was mixed with dry salt water, it smelled salty.
Not sure if this is something you can actually check where you live, but is the car’s license plate what it’s supposed to be compared to the moment it was given to the car? Where I live, license plates are assigned sequentially, and I once bought a vehicle that had a license plate that was given out 6 months before I bought it. Basically, the importer gets the license, and once it’s registered to a final customer for the first time, that registration date goes in the paperwork. Would it be possible that she is the first owner, but that the car had suffered water damage before the official date of registration?
more likely then my tin foil hat theory, someone stole it for a joy ride, went on the beach and drove it back, but lives near by so may as well return it
Joyrides are almost never returned let alone in a condition where you wouldn’t have noticed it was getting joyridden (especially if that place was the beach) they’re criminals, not Ferris Bueller and gang.
I did say tin foil hat theory.. more likely is someone who didnt like her was pouring salt water in the vents and looked up how to actually make sure it goes into the cabin instead of running off
In the US, most of the time license plates are not assigned to a vehicle forever. If you buy a car, you go to the DMV/ RMV and get a plate. Then if you sell the car, the plate either goes to YOUR new car (not the old cars new owner), or it’s returned to the DMV or just retired. I don’t know of any states that move a license plate from one owner to another. I know in Europe plates are typically assigned to a particular car for life. Not the case in the US.
Hawaii assigns them for life. It's wild, until I moved here I had no idea they did that. It's trippy to see used cars with aged plates on them.
That’s interesting! I wonder if it’s the only state that does that.
Delaware ?
Where did it come from ? Where I live, Kia’s arrive by ship and they ALWAYS have to be fully detailed inside and out before they’re collected by owners. Due to being at sea for two months in order to get here. I am presuming they’re not manufactured in the US and so perhaps this is something dating back to when it was shipped. Either way, good score on the insurance actually covering it!
*wary :)
Sorry my mind is fried from being outside all day for work 😭
That'll make anyone weary.
Carvana is famous for doing this
Corrosion takes a while to start trashing your car, it could be a year in before the damage starts to appear. My car flooded and when getting it reviewed was told that the issues tend to start cropping up after a while if they're not immediately apparent. My oil light was on immediately, and after draining all the fluids and refilling the car was mechanically sound again, but I was aware that the corrosion was a time bomb.
So her car could have flooded like a year ago and just showed corrosion now. That would make sense but she's owned it for 3+ years and to her knowledge, it's never flooded.
For sure. It might not even be a single event. A leaking A/C or condensate line can be a common issue that causes a steady but small amount of water ingress over time. Salt off your shoes in the winter can provide the necessary sale to kick off corrosion. There's loads of ways for salted water to be present inside the car that aren't the obvious culprets.
My Ford Taurus had bad seals around the tail lights and I guess years of rain caused a giant pond in the spare tire compartment under the trunk. Had no idea for years there was even a leak until the emergency fuel pump shutoff switch in the trunk failed. The water ate everything in the trunk and it eventually spread to the passenger floorboards and no amount of shop vac and damp rid could get rid of the interior humidity. Sounds like OP's car is in a beachy state where there'd naturally be salty air which is an even worse combo.
Well this sucks, I drove through flooded salt water that came inside my car, I aired it out and used a shop vac for like 2 days. That was a year ago…I hope I don’t start seeing things falling apart… I knew the water was high but did not think it would enter the car when I drove through …
As long as it didn’t get in your engine, you should be fine.
Yeah the wetness on the mat could be recent and unrelated to the corrosion. It's hard to know without seeing or feeling it. It might've not even been wet. But if we assume everything is true, then it wouldve needed to be in 2 feet of water. The electrical component to the story (the Bluetooth) makes it also seem more like degradation over time and not something that happened the night or week before. But I really don't think the "stolen car into 1-2 feet of sea water and then brought back and parked where they found it" story really makes sense. Especially with how OP painted their friend, they would have suggested something if the placement or appearance of the car was off.
It's odd how it suddenly happened, corrosion is a relatively slow process, and the waterlogging only caused a dead battery and faulty bluetooth? as cars use a common ground they normally go crazy after getting wet especially after being "dipped in the ocean" as everything is shorted to ground and every single thing on the car is turned on. I wonder if the storm was involved, 2 miles isn't that far and weather events can carry objects much larger then saltwater droplets for miles
Wait! 2019 Kia? If it has key start (as opposed to push button start) - many Kia models are \*incredibly\* easy to hotwire and go joyriding in.
There’s no way it was submerged and then returned without it being noticed by smell, dampness or some other resulting change even if for example, somebody detailed it to try to restore it to previous condition, you would notice that much.
The Kia Boyz know no bounds!
i actually have a friend who has had hers stolen twice. lol i don’t think that’s what happened at all here tho, joy riders/thieves don’t politely bring back your car and park it in the drive way when they’re done.
Funny story, when I was like 13 or so, my neighbors car was stolen and he told us it could be started without a key, just turn the ignition and it would start. It was an old beater. The cops found it and he got it back. Well being the little trouble maker teenager I was, I told my 2 best friends and we decided to take it for a drive one night. We did return it to its original place afterwards lol.
That, and from what I've seen, they have to break open the plastic covering under the steering wheel to expose the wires, and that's pretty noticeable
Are they that easy to unlock to get into, though?
Not OP but, when I heard about cars getting stolen and chopped in my little shit hole corner of Texas, without fail it was usually newer Kias or Older Hyundais. Other stuff got stolen of course, usually older Tahoes or Ford Rangers so I can only assume they're all incredibly easy to get into for, oh I dunno, dumb High School kids wanting to go for a joyride or make a quick buck.
Any GM truck is easy enough to steal by bringing a preprogrammed ecm that bypasses the security and takes less than 2 minutes to install, the ford is a bit more time consuming depending on year model but doable in about 11 minutes. The software is available and not very expensive or there are services that will do it rather inexpensively. i’ve been doing it locally for about 20yrs, though the only suspicious characters were used car lots who just didn’t want to spend the money to fix those systems and instead bypass them. There are TONS of kids and hacks in Texas with a similar software, I guarantee if you check facebook or craigslist you’ll find tons of folks offering “VATS” (GM) or “PATS” (Ford) deletes.
I heard it was a trend on tiktok, because 2 car brands were really easy to get into and hotwire, something like kia challenge. Kids (I assume mostly in america since we own a kia and nothing happened, also never heard about it in the news) were just hotwiring cars and stealing them with explainations given frlm tiktok videos on how to do it. But yeah, kia and the other brand (I forgot which one) don't like spending extra money on safety measures on their cars and thus are easily stolen. If they weren't as greedy they could make them way harder to steal very easily. I don't think that explains the story OP told though
It is an American thing, actually. The same cars are sold overseas with an ignition lockout, which they decided to cheap out on cars sold in America since that part is not mandated. The thefts are still rampant, and the companies have done little to nothing to fix the issue. I can't imagine why, it's soiling the brands.
Locks keep out honest people, that’s why key antitheft is important. I can get into most vehicles just taking the antenna off real quick, but that still wouldn’t let me drive it with antitheft present.
It's really that easy? Jesus. I realize that locks are to keep honest people out, but it sounds like locks are just an illusion all together.
It’s pretty easy to get by almost anything once you understand its parts and its functions on a fundamental level. However that’s for smart people. Never worry about a guy who knows how to pick your locks, he’s smart enough to make money honestly. Worry about the idiot armed with a rock and ignorance who is looking to score something the only way he knows how, by destruction. Thieves don’t care about doing things cleanly without damage, which is why locks still won’t stop them as they just break them to get in. *To be clear in the antenna scenario it’s just a quick tool that can be unscrewed and screwed back on easily, we’re not allowed to have metal hangers anymore*
easy enough it’s getting tougher to get good insurance rates on them. a friend of mine had hers stolen twice in one summer.
Any car can be.
This was my first thought as well.
The news recently discussed how some cars are becoming uninsurable because of how easy they are to hotwire and I'm pretty sure you're spot on here with what happened.
Which reminds me - I should call the dealer to schedule the software upgrade on our Sportage…
That particular storm was more about wind and a coastal storm surge, and not a lot of rain or precipitation. The insurance person said it looked just like submerged flood damage. And no other cars in her neighborhood sustained any saltwater damage. It's so weird!
I'd put money that it did have existing flood damage that she didn't know about when she bought it, and a resent spike in moisture from a storm or just seasonal humidity was the last straw. The moisture under the mat could just be a coincidental faulty door seal.
This is actually exactly how that type of issue presents, as a random electrical fault you don’t expect. When explored the existing damage is found, having not necessarily gotten far enough yet to cause a symptom. I’ve done many flood vehicles as well as electrical strikes, quite a few drive in with what seems to be only a minor issue until we begin searching for the root cause. There is always a first symptom, regardless of the damage. My immediate thought was it was bought used and was likely flooded previously. Half the flood vehicles i’ve worked on were for small car lots buying auction vehicles after hurricanes like Katrina. The immediate damage is easy to rectify, generally the only modules that short are active modules that are basically in standby like the body control module which controls alot of internal stuff as well as the restraint module which is bolted to the floor. The rest is perfectly fine until corrosion sets in which can take quite awhile or very little time. They can actually be fun puzzles to piece together.
This car was purchased new. I suppose it’s possible it flooded before it was purchased, and didn’t start presenting problems for 3 years? But then why sudden wetness under the mats?
No idea and it honestly doesn’t matter really except for solving an interesting puzzle. It could be that the original damage while being primary to the fault, is still secondary to a newer fault like leaking windshield or sunroof trim or sometime even a washer fluid leak to a rear wiper that easily go unnoticed for awhile. It could be completely unrelated to the big immersion problem found, and given the facts as-is that is what I would assume without being able to inspect it myself. If I saw actual complete immersion type flood damage, a little water on the floor probably isn’t even going to get my attention since it likely has nothing to do with the big picture and even if it did it has no bearing on the solution.
Does she live somewhere that salts the road a lot during the winter? I lived in MA for a couple decades and know that could sometimes cause issues with cars - mostly rust/frame issues (it has been few more decades since I've lived there so I don't know if that is a bigger issue with "modern" cars) . But the salt could have eaten away at something to then allow more water/salt to get into the areas that were damaged.
To a technician there is obvious difference between flood damage and leaks or salt from roadways etc.. It’s usually a pretty easy distinction just visually inspecting the different areas of the vehicle due to all the different materials used. I would even venture to say that an average adjuster (who are notoriously ignorant in these areas in my experience) should be able to tell the difference.
Yes, but we've had no snow this year and barely any ice. So the roads have been very clean. And she's had this car in near-perfect condition since 2019-- through 2 other messier winters. Suddenly massive saltwater damage throughout the entire just makes no sense.
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I guess it's possible, but then wouldn't it happen to every car in the area? And my friend takes really great care of her vehicles. They always look brand new inside and out. I can't imagine she'd miss mounting water damage for years.
It's possible that her car doors didn't seal completely and then moisture absorbs into things. If she drove in the rain did she have alot of trouble with the car fogging up? That's one sign that there's a 'leak'. And this might sound silly; I often spill salt in my car (because I eat in there, lol) and wherever I spill it it draws moisture. So I can imagine if the salt from the road accumulated on her shoes and then ended up eventually eating at her car. It would ofc require that there's an air leak moisture would pull in from (basic morning dew would do) and that would also be the reason it doesn't happen to everyone else
Does she get her undercarriage clean when she gets a car wash?
Did she buy it new or used? There is a big problems with cars totaled in floods getting sold back on dealer lots and the titles are being manipulated to “clean”. It’s been a problem for years and years. ABC News did a 5 month investigation into this and the shady practice, and how these flooded cars ended back up on dealer lots. They followed cars and helped people who had bought these. Print and also has video from the episode: >*“In a five month investigation, "ABC's The Lookout" found these cars turning up on used car lots across the country.”* https://abcnews.go.com/Business/sandy-damaged-vehicles-sold-car-lots/story?id=19829090 Jan 2023: Here is a recent LA Times article [Beware: Flood-damaged cars may be coming to a dealer ...](https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-01-20/la-flood-damaged-cars) Oct 2022: Kiplinger [Watch Out for Flood-Damaged Cars from Hurricane Ian](https://www.kiplinger.com/personal-finance/shopping/cars/603404/after-hurricane-beware-flooded-cars-for-sale)
She bought it new, but it is an interesting idea that it might have flooded before she bought it.
You could crosscheck the location of the car dealership with weather reports. See if it was at a location that had surges. Your friend sounds quite tidy-ask if she still has the origination papers that came with the car. That would nail down times and places.
Is it one of the Kias that can be stolen easily because of no immobilizer? (the kia boys that have been in the news)
Being from the Milwaukee area, this is exactly where my mind went as well.
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https://fortune.com/2022/09/22/hyundai-kia-cars-stealing-hack-thieves/amp/ A slim Jim will get them into the car very quickly. And not everyone has security cameras.
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Bro, are you okay?
That's not how these Kias are stolen. Do some basic research.
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Yes it is. U have to get inside the car somehow. Then you have to break the ignition cover to access the USB slot. Do some basic research
There is no usb slot. There is a tab behind the ignition cylinder that is the right size and shape to be turned by the end of a usb cable, but the cable has no part in the theft other than being the right size and shape. If "ur" going "2" tell somebody to "do some basic research", maybe make sure that you're not talking bullshit yourself.
HEY! Knock it off with your logic!
Redacted comment ` this post was mass deleted with www.Redact.dev `
Absolutely not. It takes 2 minutes to find a video. How dense can you be? They use a USB plug to turn the ignition.
It literally is, dumbass. They break open the ignition and use a USB cable to turn it.
Not always.
Lmao k
why are you so butthurt about it? you come in here with a shitty attitude and immediately start namecalling, you having a bad day? or is this just how you conduct yourself in public, being hostile and abusive to people
Crespo is probably one of the dumbass kids who tried to steal the cars so they think they know everything about it
I'm truly blown away that people who are ostensibly adults with responsibilities can survive this long completely lacking common sense or the ability to think critically. Also please shut up with your nannying.
People are always so sure of themselves. They heard something on Reddit and think they are experts. Telling you to do basic research when they have no clue. Lol
It's insane isn't it? This whole thread is a bunch of grown children with fantastical ideas. "Maybe it was stolen and returned secretly!" "Maybe someone switched out that car with an IDNETICAL one!". WTF is this shit. These people are out of their minds. It was probably salt accumulation and a body defect that allowed seepage.
I know right! Lmao. Both those ideas had me laughing out loud. Picture a thief replacing your car with an imposter like it's a Picasso painting.
Just here to say that I am reading, enjoying and upvoting both of your comments Crespo and Niko. 😂
Did she buy it new? Maybe the previous owner parked it on the beach and let the tide come in on it one day and then sold it without telling anyone.
Bought it brand new in 2019 and drove it for nearly 3.5 years with no issues.
This might sound crazy, but are you absolutely sure it's the same car? Check the V.I.N. on the bodywork against your paper/online records. I've never heard of this actually happening, but theoretically someone who totalled their own same model car could have switched it with yours, swapping the plates and contents... Although it's more likely that someone else does actually have access to your keys and has "borrowed" your car without you knowing. I would check this possibility first, even if you live with people who you absolutely trust and know "would never do a thing like this".... truth might surprise you. Who has visited recently? Have you had plumber/builders in, etc.?
The insurance checked the VIN to see if it matched what it was when she bought it. There isn't anyone who could have done something like this but I will ask her to check around to be sure.
I mean, you live 2 miles from the coast and you have saltwater damage. *Somebody* took it to the sea -- it's the most glaringly obvious explanation. Saltwater doesn't just magically teleport itself into vehicles. The only real questions are who took it and when. The fact it was returned suggests that it was someone near to you or known to you, who didn't want to get caught, and hoped they'd get away with it but fucked up by flooding it. If she has teenage kids it's almost certainly them or their friends, or her neighbours kids. Or a friend/neighbour who has keys to the house. Or possibly someone who worked at a garage or parking service, etc. who had temporary access to your keys and decided to go for a spin. Airport parking is notorious in some places for taking customer cars for journeys and parking cars in random public locations when they're full. Edit: rereading, you've discounted most of those, but clearly someone had access to the car at some point.
> My friend has no kids and no one else has her car keys or access to them. She has a security system at home with cameras etc. and nothing suspicious has happened. Her car is either home in her driveway, or she's driving it. She hasn't used valet parking or parked it anywhere out of the ordinary.
So either seawater is capable of teleportation, or you've overlooked something. Or you're making an invalid assumption somewhere. Somebody has exposed the car to sea water. It didn't just happen by magic. > nothing suspicious has happened This is clearly not true, or we wouldn't be here having this conversation. Who reviewed the security footage? What dates did you check? What dates did you skip? Who are you assuming would never lie or take a car? What are you assuming is impossible that really isn't?
When I lived on the gulf, I definitely saw the occasional waterspout make it 2M or more from the shore. Sometimes they'd damage one or two things and just dissolve. Super unlikely, but plausible.
At this time of year, at this time of day, localised entirely within OP's friend's car? 😄
...*Yes.*
Ask OP. I'm not OP.
Sorry, missed the block quotation as I'm currently reading on a quirky mobile device with terrible color contrast!
Maybe it or the container it was in went for a swim at the port and the freight people just gave it a good shake and sat it in the sun a few days?
>gave it a good shake and sat it in the sun for a few day Put it in a container of rice for a few days…
I had a similar thing happen with my floor mats randomly being wet one afternoon. Couldn’t figure out where it was coming from either until the mechanic found that the filter at the bottom of the windshield was clogged. I park under a tree at home so shit from the tree clogged it over a few years.
I had the same happen because I barely drove my car during the pandemic, only about once a month. Cleared the leaves when I went to drive it but it was obviously too late.
You mean you *don't* clean that shit out on the regular? In over thirty years I've never seen that *actually* happen because we've always cleaned ours out and so have our neighbors. Oh well, lesson learned.
Retired tech here who has dealt with flood damaged stuff quite a bit after events like Katrina etc.. If I consider everything said as fact than it’s most likely the damage occurred at a dealers lot before it was sold. It doesn’t necessarily have to be known even to previous dealer, though selling those off to other unsuspecting dealers is a thing. The dealer should be able to print out something that includes info on the original sale or delivery for reasons like warranty start times or build/rpo data (at least other brand dealers can). This might hold some clue like the original delivery to the trading dealer or hopefully a clue in the transportation dates. It could be the flooding happened before delivery to the dealer, so check the area and the time period for likely causal events. Also, we drive lot cars all the time, I was just a tech and took a different one to lunch every day if I didn’t have a customer car that need a drive for testing or verification reasons (yeah, majority of people request we do that so we kill two birds). It could’ve been a demo or program car that a worker drove so your original starting mileage is also a clue.
Perhaps it was flooded at a dealership, cleaned up, and sold as new.
This is probably one of the more plausible explanations in this thread of sheer insanity but the only thing I'd think about this is that a dealer would probably risk losing any future inventory if Kia ever found out about that
Dealers buy the cars from the manufacturers. And oftentimes dealerships swap inventory with one another.
I was about ready to ask if maybe the dealer lied about the history of the car, but you mentioned she bought it new a few years ago. I bought a used car in 2011 in NJ that had been involved with flooding in NY during hurricane Irene, and the dealer covered up all the issues and about a week after buying I had electrical issues/the car smelled like a wet basement. I hope she gets some answers!
I’m chiming in here because I haven’t seen this mentioned. I own an auto repair shop, (European specialists) been a tech since the 80’s water entry is something we deal with regularly…clogged sunroof drains, bad windshield seals, clogged a/c drains, all these are very common here on the east coast especially with the rainfall we’ve been seeing. I went into work just yesterday to put the interior back on a Volvo that had gallons of water sloshing around underneath the carpets. It was a combination of a leaking windshield and clogged sunroof drains the customer complained of windows fogging up they were ignorant of the gallons of water sloshing around. Now when the carpets (not the floor mats) we’re removed the painted metal floor was corroded with a white substance that could be misconstrued as salt but it was likely just something leaching out from the carpet foam.
This is it. A windshield was replaced on one of our vehicles in 2016 and a similar chain of events happened last year. No indicators up to that point, no weird smells or sensors acting funny. Then it was a quick cascade of failures.
Does your friend have anyone who might’ve taken the car behind her back for a joyride on a beach or something? This likely isn’t a new issue, because those kinds of damages take ages to build up to “totaled car” level. Perhaps a sibling or crappy friend who likes to be a bit wild with other people’s things? Also I hate to ask, but has your friend had any memory issues or mania episodes? It really doesn’t make a lot of sense that she didn’t notice this happening unless it was someone close to her or it was her.
Absolutely no chance of that happening. And my friend is one of the sanest people I know. She's a high-level manager at work, juggles and ton of responsibilities, has a lot of wonderful friends, and is just an all-around lovely person.
Do any of these wonderful friends have siblings or other friends who might’ve had access to the car (stealing keys during a party, roadtrips, etc)? If she’s a high-level manager, what about work rivals/enemies? Someone she may have boasted to about her car who could have taken the keys while she was at work?
Thats incredibly unlikely and there's no evidence to suggest anything close to that.
I'm betting it was in a flood before she bought it. The corrosion happened over the course of years and eventually ate a hole in a place that water gains access. Then, a storm happens and water gets in through the rust hole.
This happened to me a little over a year ago. It was the first thing I thought of when I read OP’s story. Stay away from Carvana, kids.
Living anywhere near the ocean will cause saltwater damage to any non treated/painted exposed metal parts; specifically engine mounts/components, undercarriage and exhaust. These parts will experience expedited rusting and corrosion. Even the moisture in the air can cause saltwater damage to a vehicle near the coast. In terms of the wetness, I had a 90's Chevy that used to pool water under both of the floorboards. The problem was a piece of the rubber door seal which had become weak and failed, allowing water to enter around the doors when it rained and accumulate in the cars undercarriage and puddle up through the floor.
Bet it got damaged before it was bought. Dealer sold it anyways and that’s how you get these issues.
Totally plausible.
Are you certain it's a Sorento? Those are all manufactured domestically in Georgia but if it's a Soul or Sportage it might have been manufactured in Korea (you can tell by the VIN) and shipped here overseas and even though they're enclosed ships I suppose there's potential for saltwater infiltration if there's enormous waves or something.
Definitely a Sorento.
It is common to buy a car and be lied to about the fact that it is a salvaged car. I can’t tell you how many cars I’ve uncovered as salvaged when they were being sold as not salvaged. Cars that have been wrecked or flooded, etc.
Even sold as new?
Yes!
Does the car have a sunroof? The sunroof could have had a clogged drain hose causing water to divert into the interior of the car. I had a car totaled out from this.
The simplest answer is that someone stole their car for a joyride or switched it for another. I doubt anyone is going around dumping buckets of seawater on cars. The timing of the damage and the felt wetness in the car seems to suggest this happened in a brief window of time, between your friend using the car. The Kia Sorento is one of the cars being stolen for joyrides.
I did not know that about Kia's-- that does sound like a crazy possibility.
Yeah some insurance companies are refusing to insure Kias and Hyundais because of this theft stuff
“The simplest answer is clearly that she didn’t notice her window being smashed and ignition housing being destroyed and if she did notice those things she definitely wouldn’t checked the security cameras she owns”.
You’re saltier than this car
No, I'm just blown away by how some people can manage to stay alive long enough to learn how to read, create a reddit account, and comment something like that while have zero ability for critical thought.
You assume the OP has accurate information, and that the owner of the car properly inspected the car for such incidents. Just because video footage exists does not mean the owner properly accessed it. You are the one making assumptions in this case. Error occurs. It isn't wrong to express some doubts about the ability of the owner to determine these things, especially when they seem willing to accept that magically sea water appeared in their car.
Holy shit this response just confirmed my suspicion. Are you in an assisted living facility? I honestly hope so. Because I am a normal human being I'm able to do things in my brain like gauge the probability of an outcome based on common sense. You live in a fantasy land and it's unsettling. How fucking likely do you suppose it is that someone would steal the car, trash it in salt water, and then have the goodwill to return it!?! What the fuck. Or swap it out with an identical car!?! You know how all those car thieves are, they love crimes but they love honesty and kindness even more, which is why they'll usually replace the vehicles they've stolen instead of just fucking trashing them or crashing them (like all the Kia situations have ended up)... OH WAIT. You're telling me you think it takes PROPER INSPECTION of a vehicle to determine if the ignition system has been ripped open and a window has been smashed?!?! I'm telling you this for your wellbeing, you should have a psych evaluation to determine if you're fit for independence.
The lengths to which you have gone to comment a variety of insults across a public discussion thread is both bewildering and comical. No one here is so seriously attached to their theories over what happened to the car as to require the peer review process of your unhinged fury. With your investment in steering away from others' unconfirmed theories on the problem it would seem almost equally valid to accuse you of the crime itself. Or, you know, maybe someone who knows the owner well enough to not want to have caused such damage (but did anyway) decided to steal their car for a joyride and being an adolescent of some sort tried to at least return it unnoticed. There are other valid possibilities, beyond your screeching.
Yes this is what I get for derailing your imagination time. A pathetic attempt at an intellectual wall of text. Get bent, ya nut. Life is less disappointing if you get your head out of the clouds.
> With your investment in steering away from others' unconfirmed theories on the problem it would seem almost equally valid to accuse you of the crime itself. Don’t mind me I’m just quoting this so I have a record of the most hilariously insane replies I’ve ever gotten.
No odor? This thing didn’t get up in there and die? https://trekkingwithdennis.com/tag/salt-vampire/
I’mNotSayingItWasAliensButItWasAliens.gif
It looks like you say she lives near the ocean While ocean water that evaporates does not contain salt when waves break they can throw salt spray into the air. That is why costal areas smell salty. Rain is never pure rain forms around dust or can also form around salt. My guess is that her car's drains in the fresh air system was clogged and allowing water in. It was mildly salty but as more came in and the water evaporated it became salter but not noticed because it was never enough to look wet wet.
It’s either the sunroof drains were clogged or the cowl drains were clogged which caused water to fill up the HVAC box behind the passenger side dashboard. All it takes is a bad rain storm.
there's a good change the water came from a faulty AC drain pan, they get clogged and the water that was meant to run out onto the road will leak inside the car.. left un-noticed for many month would cause exactly this...
So probably not what happened, because of the corrosion on the battery, but I had a similar experience back in 2015 with my Chrysler Sebring. One day noticed a faint smell, too faint to really tell but it seemed like rainwater. Nobody had my car keys ever, and I hate rolling windows down so I’d never done so to leave them open during the recent rains, and nothing anywhere seemed wet. Fast forward a year or so and I get in and swear I can smell water again! But this time I searched and had dampness I could feel on the mats on the passengers side. I couldn’t understand it as it was again not driven by anyone, the back seats as well as the passengers seat were clean and rarely used! I eventually found the chance to wait in the car during a big rain storm, and to my surprise, there was a tiny crack at the bottom of the rear passenger side door allowing the failing weatherstripping to drip water in when things got wet outside! I was shocked how easy it was to find after about 30 minutes the door had enough water in it to hit the hood and leak in. Damn annoying
We recently had something similar happen to one of our cars. We live about 5 miles from the ocean but our car is much older than yours. My suggestion is this: The local fog in your area is saltier than regular fog. Over time it deposited salt on your car that would have built up if not rinsed off and could corrode not just your electrical system but also the body of your car where your windshield gaskets connect the glass to the frame of your car. You experienced a normal rain event at some point in the recent past and the rain flooded under your floor mats and possibly was the last straw for your already salt-corroded electrical system. We ended up a bit luckier but still had to have body work done around our windshield before we could replace the gaskets and seal the car back up. The rain pooled right under the floor mats just like yours. Edit: sorry. I was so excited to have a solution I wasn't precise. Replace "you" with "your friend."
Something similar happened to me. We live near the ocean and during a particularly high tide, our property flooded. My car’s electrical wiring is underneath the car. High tide flooding lasted about 2 hours and it was long enough to destroy my electrical system. Thankfully insurance didn’t total my car, but it did need to be completely retired.
When the insurance agent said it must have been damaged in coastal flooding, we were cracking up. If 2 feet of water ended up 2 miles inland from the ocean, we would have known about it and seen it on the news!
So strange! Do you by chance have any salt water rivers nearby? I live 2 miles from the ocean but we have tidal rivers that flood.
What you can do is plug a scan tool into the obd2 port and confirm the vin that the ECM has listed matches the vin plate. I doubt it was vin swapped and returned but if it was they weren’t going to replace every module in the vehicle. Does this vehicle have a sunroof/moonroof ? Is the headliner wet? I’ve dealt with a personal vehicle that had the drain tube plug and disconnect and it dumped a shitload of water on to the passenger floorboard and it took a week with the carpet pulled up and a fan on it to get even remotely dry. If it was an ongoing occurrence you could very easily miss it unless they had passengers
I live in a low lying area near the coast. If it’s raining and high tide, the puddles can be salty. Storm drains back up with sea water and get to the surface. I always rinse my car after it rains.
It was probably a storm-damaged car that also has a leak which caused it to fill up with water. We have a perfectly good Camry with a mysterious leak somewhere around the rear window. Have to keep a bucket in the trunk to catch the water that comes in when it rains.
You said she bought it new. Unless it has over 100K miles this may be covered by the warranty. She should take it to a dealer to get inspected. They may replace components under warranty.
I had a similar issue with an old Nissan I owned. Nearly same scenario but I *actually began to hear sloshing* and when I investigated where it was coming from, my mats were wet. Not puddle or wet enough to explain the noise, but damp. It still took me longer to find it after a couple more days when I noticed it audibly sloshed differently when I turned. It turned out to be a seal that was loose around my door/window that was allowing water to get trapped in the door frame when it rained or splashed in when I drove through puddles. It was all salty water too because I was not far from the coast.
My guess is salt and from boots soaked through the carpet and started rusting out the car from the inside and the salt from the roads did it’s worst on the outside. It’s not uncommon to start happening on older cars, weird to happen on a 4 year old car, but maybe they used a bad batch of paint on the interior, or a window was left open during rain and water was just marinating the insides.
It’s from living near the coast. The salt is in the air. Happens in my area.
I've lived near the coast my entire life and never heard of anything with this level of damage. Sure, we get our cars and undercarriages washed often because of the salt, and housepaint peels faster, but otherwise this seems really sudden and excessive.
I’m not saying she did and I’m not saying she didn’t. But that car 100 percent went through salt water and not rinsed off. And couple with the salt in the air yes it can happen.
I had a bmw fhat leaked from the sunroof to under the back seat. I got it used. Used to find water in the back, under floor mats. Turns out there was a bog under the back seat for god knows how long.
Did the car have a sunroof? If it did, it's possible a seal was off just a little bit and not properly sealing and a slow leak was happening in the background when it rained or if yard sprinkler system was spraying on the car. My husband drives an older truck that had some issues he figured was due to old age (it's 15+ years old) until it was out during a storm. He thought he somehow left the sunroof opened a crack cause the seats/dash were wet and water poured out when he opened the door. Found that between a grommet missing and sunroof seal having a crack, rain water would come in, run along some wires down to the dash then during the heavy storm it was so much leaking in it was dripping everywhere. He found evidence under the hood as well where the wires water was running along went. Doesn't solve how it was saltwater, and may not be likely with it being a 2019 vehicle/if it didn't have a sunroof
Salt could have come from air from nearby bodies of water. Leaking perhaps from AC related ish. Finding wet floors caused by an AC-associated leak isn't super uncommon perhaps. Hence, water + salt without actually going into ocean. For ex; [https://duckduckgo.com/?q=leaking+AC+water+on+floor+of+car&atb=v314-1&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DXZ8M4KN9MIY](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=leaking+AC+water+on+floor+of+car&atb=v314-1&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DXZ8M4KN9MIY) [https://duckduckgo.com/?q=leaking+AC+water+on+floor+of+car&atb=v314-1&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D2Qob8Zis\_Mo](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=leaking+AC+water+on+floor+of+car&atb=v314-1&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D2Qob8Zis_Mo) Discussion of dipping car into ocean probably hyperboly. Key to this may be where AC associated hoses run around \~dash area of car. Could have been blocked and leaking for a time, and pooling water could have been absorbing salt from air while collecting behind dash for ex., and once it was overflowing from behind dash board was then coming down front area of car interior per se, to then pooling/soaking in around floor of car potentially, for ex.
This could be the dumbest suggestion, but is acid rain a possibility? Is acid rain acidic enough or salty? I'm trying to link something like rain causing the wetness in the car. Perhaps by corroding the weather striping and causing a leak and then drying up (leaving salt).
Do they salt the roads near you and has she driven through snow or puddles? Is it humid in your town?
Kia boys
That’s what I was thinking tbh
Did the car have a sunroof?
Based on what you have said I would say the salt water damage happened when new at the factory/dealer time. You mention there was a storm lately and the water in the foot wells could come from blocked drains at the windscreen, so basically this is rain water but it has exposed an issue that has been in the car since 2019 when new.
It's an AC vent leak https://youtu.be/2CQ09RX-SYo And https://youtu.be/18uMPkelQeQ And https://youtu.be/ct8iNfEl2DI
I live on Cape Cod, shit happens!
I’m not sure if you’ve seen the news stories, but certain Kias are notoriously easy to steal using only a usb cable. I wonder if someone has been using her car.
Is she the first and ONLY owner of that car? Who else drove it?
First and only owner. No else has driven it.
Noted as evidence of simulation theory. I suspect a corrupted world chunk glitched for a second and there was ocean instead of air around where her car was parked overnight. Overnight there is more glitches in darker areas, does she park in an unlit lot?
I'm honestly going with this. Or has anyone seen John Carpenter's The Fog?
Yes! People have definitely seen that.
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I'm assuming sarcasm from u/canyousmellyourshirt, but can anyone ever be sure?
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Was just trying to have some light-hearted fun ✌️
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No. She didn't destroy it for the insurance. She was perfectly happy with the car. Bought same model again.
If it's snowy where you are, roads are often heavily salted and snow makes for water... so...y'know.
We’ve had no snow, ice, or slush this year.
Where did this happen? I'm wondering if the acid rain from Ohio or Houston was a factor
I think the possibility that your friend is lying should be considered. This to me seems more likely than an invisible tsunami.
I would trust this person with my life. I've known her for nearly 30 years. She's not lying.
Well you've steadfastly refused all other explanations offered, so I think invisible tsunami is all that remains.
I've said it's possible there was water damage before she bought it new. And I guess there's the remote possibility someone took it for an ocean-filled joyride. Other than that, I have no idea.