What is leaking by my wheel?

nkaminar said:
"I also forgot to mention that the car was sitting by my parents' house In a leaky garage in an area that also flooded whenever there was heavy rains."

Very possible water got into the rear end when the car was standing in the flooded garage. As I stated above, the best solution is to take the rear end apart and clean it out. If that is not in the cards then drain the rear end, grease the bearings, repeat until no evidence of water.
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Neil, I would be concerned about that. If there was still water in there, it would quickly turn a a gooey, milky and sticky cream. Once that has happened, it can be difficult to clean out by anything other than physical removal. It happens very quickly when a car is even moved with water in there. Someone here will hopefully have knowledge on whether using say, non ethanol petrol (gasoline) of even methylated spirits to either dissolve the creamy goo or absorb the water before you drain everything might work.
I have a friend who works in a car restoration business and they had a car in for repair after it was flooded in a basement garage for a couple of weeks. They were careful not to roll the car and had to wait till the insurance company did their thing before they could start work on it. Even then, they found that when it was towed out of the garage and onto the truck, oil in the gearbox and diff had turned to cream. Every bearing has to be replaced but most of the gears were salvageable. That was about 5 years ago and the disappointing part is that the car has sat in the same garage untouched since. BTW, all of the other cars in that garage were near new and were immediately written off.
 
Before modern oils, it was common in the states to fill an engine crankcase with kerosene after an oil change and then change out the kerosene for the regular oil after a short engine run. That might work here. You are right though, the best thing is to take the rear end apart. I am sure the owner does not want to hear that.

Lots of modern cars that have been flooded are sold after a cleanup. The cars have lots of problems, mostly in the electrical and electronic components. Not exactly legal.
 
nkaminar said:
Before modern oils, it was common in the states to fill an engine crankcase with kerosene after an oil change and then change out the kerosene for the regular oil after a short engine run. That might work here. You are right though, the best thing is to take the rear end apart. I am sure the owner does not want to hear that.

Lots of modern cars that have been flooded are sold after a cleanup. The cars have lots of problems, mostly in the electrical and electronic components. Not exactly legal.
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Nothing ventured, nothing gained. It might be worth a try.
As for flooded modern cars, I don't know if there are any regulations covering that here but it's pretty much standard practice that a flooded car is scrapped. Same with any car where the airbags have gone off.
 
Synchro909 said:
Nothing ventured, nothing gained. It might be worth a try.
As for flooded modern cars, I don't know if there are any regulations covering that here but it's pretty much standard practice that a flooded car is scrapped. Same with any car where the airbags have gone off.
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Here in Calif. they get a "salvage" title on the pink-slip but can still be resold. I see them all the time on Craigslist, they look good but who knows what dangers lurk.
 
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