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I am working on restoring a 2018 Cayman 718 that was flooded during a hurricane. This type of project isn't for the faint of heart but if you have a lot of time and enjoy the mechanical side of cars it can be very fulfilling. I have found a lot of great information on Rennlist and other internet sources that have helped me through the process of starting the restoration. I wanted to give back with the information that I have found as well as have a place that I can ask questions of the community when I run into an issue. Below is the first entry about buying a Porsche Cayman from an auction.
Auction Process
Finding the right car - The salvage auction sites like Copart and IAA are full of thousands of cars that need a home. In my case I was looking for a sports car. Before selecting your car spend a lot of time looking through the salvage auctions to get a sense of the types of damage and what the cars are selling for. When you have narrowed down the list of cars it is time to do your home work. Getting a vehicle history report like CarFax https://www.carfax.com is worth every penny. Make sure that the car doesn't have any unresolved liens that might prevent the transfer of ownership. Pay special attention to the car's history, why is it up for auction now? To determine all of the car's features get a Monroney label https://monroneylabels.com . The Monroney label is the window sticker that would be in the car if it was being sold new. This provides a reliable estimate of the features that were provided when the car was built. In the auction information for the car there will be a listing of the salvage type that has been assigned to the car. Every state has different salvage designations and they mean different things. Some states will allow the repair and retitle of salvaged cards and some states won't. Check with the department of motor vehicles in your state to determine what your options are. This can mean the difference between a car that drives on the road or has to be parted out.
Determining damage - In the auction for each car there will be a description of the state of the car. Some examples of the states of cars are "Runs and drives", "Turns on", "Mold", "Water damage", etc. In my case there was water damage. I choose a water damaged car because it seemed like that would be easier to repair then a car that had mechanical or body damage. Water damage can be minimal or sever, it is important to determine the extent of the damage. In the car auction there should be pictures of the car. For water damaged cars there is usually a picture that has a mark for the line on the car where the water came to. For cars that have a water line below the bottom of the door it is likely that there isn't much damage or cleanup. There are electronic modules on the floor of the car under carpet. These modules will likely have failed or will fail shortly, it just depends upon the length of time and the amount of water in the module. If the water line is up to the mid point in the door then the engine, transmission and most of the electronics have been covered in water. This type of car will require a lot of cleanup and some investment to repair it. If the car was covered with water then be prepared for a project. For cars that have had water in the engine and transmission it doesn't necessarily mean that the engine or transmission is lost. The key is if the car was running when it flooded. If the car was turned off when it flooded then the engine and transmission might be able to be saved. If the car was running when it was flooded and water got into the engine while it was running then the engine will likely be hydro locked and need to be replaced or rebuilt. Look at the pictures to see if the key is in the ignition. This usually means that the car was running when the flooding happened.
Purchasing the car - I purchased my car through Copart using a broker called AutoBid Master https://www.autobidmaster.com/en . I used AutoBid Master because I was limited to unrestricted auctions only with Copart. Many of the cars that I was interested in required a dealer license. AutoBid Master is an authorized Copart broker and has access to a wider varity of auctions. Going through AutoBid Master gave me access to bid on more cars then I had with going directly through Copart. AutoBid master requires a membership to bid on an auction through their brokerage. If you plan to bid and win an auction sign up for the highest level package that they have. The highest level package gives discounts off of auction commissions and a discount on shipping. Once I won the auction several things happened that I wasn't prepared for. Payment of the auction is due within a very short period of time. Copart tracks the time period in 24 hour increments (not business days). Three days in Copart time could be one full day with two night periods on both sides. Have the money to pay for the auction available before you bid. You will need to perform a wire transfer which requires funds to be in your bank account. I was also a little surprised by the auction fees. Copart charges a fee of 10% of the auction. AutoBid Master charged several fees for the auction and title transfer process in addition to their membership fee. There was also a fee to have the car shipped from the auction house to where I live. I do want to state that although I was suprised about the fees, this was my fault and not the auction houses' fault. All of the fees and time lines were clearly listed, I just didn't put all of them together in my head.
Shipping the car - AutoBid Master was able to broker a shipping company to pickup my car from the auction house and deliver it to my house. This part of the process went very smoothly and I was very satisfied. Over all I was very happy with AutoBid Master and wouldn't hesitate to do business with them again. Although my shipping experience went very smoothly I was very lucky. There are a lot of small details that you have to take into account when having a damaged car delivered to you. Do you have room to receive the car at your house? A double decker car carrier will arrive at your house and want to drop off your car. If you don't have easy access for a semi sized truck to come into your neighborhood then you need to find an alternative delivery area. How are you going to get the car off of the carrier? The car was likely put on the carrier by a fork lift. To get the car off the carrier you will need to back the car down the ramp. If your car doesn't turn on or can't be put into neutral how are you going to get it to roll backwards? If the car has damaged brakes how are you going to stop once you get rolling? In my case I have a Cayman with a manual transmission. The operator of the car carrier used tie down ropes and a wench to slowly lower my car down the ramp. Mid way down the ramp the tie down strap broke and my car slid the remaining way down the ramp. Thankfully I was in the car and the breaks worked enough to slow down the car. My drive way is long enough that I had plenty of room to come to a stop. Where are you going to store the car? If your car doesn't start you are going to have to push the car into it's long term resting place. Most drive ways are graded for drainage. This means that your garage is at the very highest point in your drive way. No matter how flat your drive way appears to you it is not flat. Pushing the car into the garage is nearly impossible. I was able to jack up the back wheels of the car, insert 2x4 boards on top of some blocks of wood behind each wheel and then let gravity push the car up the drive way. This was a slow and tedious process. You can use a wench to get the car into the garage but you will need a Porsche towing eye bolt. The towing eye is usually in the frunk which is locked. I recommend ordering a towing eye bolt ahead of time and having it ready when your car arrives. The towing eye bolt screws in counter clock wise.
Although there are a lot of hurtles to finding, purchasing and taking possession of an auction car. Once that gorgeous car was in my driveway I fell in love and all the logical parts of my brain turned off.
In the next post I will talk about getting into the frunk, trunk and removing all of the interior.
Last edited by Cayman718MT; 01-09-2023 at 09:46 AM.
Wondering what you've found so far now that you've dug into it a bit?
Went through all the same stuff with mine and have now completely stripped interior, cleaned corrosion from all terminals, replaced fuses and relays and was still not able to get any power anywhere with the exception of a few random lights throughout vehicle (all looked to be red/yellow wired).
Once I started pulling and opening up all the modules I found that several were definitely super corroded internally and most definitely fried. Among those were the ignition switch, front and rear BCM's, gateway module, parking module, active suspension module and I the main power distribution panel. I went ahead and got replacements for all of those and am now just needing the dealership to reprogram.... Unfortunately, both dealerships here in Utah are booked out until mid/late February.
Thanks for the update. It sounds like you are about a half a step ahead of me. I have the interior pulled out and I am working through the modules. I have also found that most of the modules are very corroded. I have been investigating every avenue to get the parts replaced. I have come to the same conclusion that you have, replace the modules and get them re-coded. I am exploring one avenue before going down the path you have gone down. There is a company that clones automotive control modules to new uncoded modules. This company also used to repair modules in the past. I am going to ship them the body control module and see if they can read the programming and clone it to a new donor module. I will let you know if I have any success with this.
Were the Porsche dealerships open to re-coding all of the modules that you replaced? If so would you be willing to share the cost of the recoding? Where I live is a three hour drive over two mountain passes to the nearest Porsche dealership. I am working to confirm if the local Porsche repair shop has a PIWIS III at their disposal before I make the drive.
Have you tried powering anything on at all? If so, do you have power anywhere in vehicle?
Mind sharing the name of company that will clone modules?
Yes, the dealership is willing to program the replacement modules, however, that means waiting another month and a half. I'm not sure exactly how much it will cost, however, I had to have a couple modules and new keys for my Land Rover reprogrammed last year and the cost of that was about 200 per module/keys.
As far as I know, the modules that are VIN specific (rather than model specific) can only be programmed by the dealership. I believe the VIN specific modules are the front/rear BCM, ECU/DME and gateway module. However, as I understand it, it should be possible to make a clone of the damaged module and then transfer that to a replacement module. I actually just posted in this forum and a couple others asking for any information on this.
Curious how much your total fees were, as sometimes it makes "the deal", turn out to be not so much. With regards to flooded Porsches, your biggest obstacle will be the electronics under the seat, airbag control module in the center console under the radio and the fuse box on the drivers side floor well. I had an '06 Boxster S track car that was a flood car and whomever "repaired it", bypassed the fuse box and ran every wire direct. Needless to say once I found that out I sold the car. Next time I know what to look for.
Sorry for the delayed response. I wasn't getting notified that there were updates to the post. Below are the companies that I have found for copying the programming from a damaged module to a donor module.
High Tech Mobile - mbkeytool@gmail.com - They have my damaged BCM at their shop right now. They haven't had a chance to work on it but they anticipate that there will be some repairs required on the module for the programming to be read. This is the only group I have found that has experience with repairing modules and would be interested in taking a module as badly damaged as mine. I will let you know the outcome.
Karman Auto - https://karmanauto.com - sales@karmanauto.com - This group also let me know that they were willing to attempt to read the programming from the modules. They let me know that I could ship them the damaged modules for analysis. They would only charge me for the modules that they were actually able to transfer programming from.
Microtronik - https://www.microtronik.com and https://www.hexprog.com - DirectSales@microtronik.com - This company makes software to read automotive modules. I explored the option of repairing my own modules and reading the programming but I would prefer to have a professional do this. Microtronik is based in the middle east but they were very responsive to my emails regardless of the time of day that I reached out to them.
I don't think that any of these options are going to be faster then what you already have setup with the Porsche dealership. In my case going to the Porsche dealership is a big undertaking. I am going to explore all of the other options first.
I am hoping the community can point me in the right direction. I am trying to remove the dashboard for my Cayman 718. I followed the directions posted by the YouTuber Jeff Richardson in this post
but unfortunately the dashboard isn't coming off. I was able to find and remove all of the screws and clips that Jeff recommended. The part of the dashboard closest to the interior of the car is lose and can be lifted about an inch. The part of the dashboard closest to the front of the car appears to be hooked or have a bracket that I still need to remove. I looked under the dashboard but can't find anything that it would be hooked on or clipped to. In the post Jeff recommended removing the A pillar trim covers. I haven't been able to figure out how to remove those. The a pillar trim covers might be blocking the dashboard from coming out.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I have added pictures below. They are a little dark but should give some insight.
Last edited by Cayman718MT; 01-25-2023 at 11:46 PM.
Just bought a 2018 718 Salt water flood damaged, the car runs and every thing works
Originally Posted by jargen
Have you tried powering anything on at all? If so, do you have power anywhere in vehicle?
Mind sharing the name of company that will clone modules?
Yes, the dealership is willing to program the replacement modules, however, that means waiting another month and a half. I'm not sure exactly how much it will cost, however, I had to have a couple modules and new keys for my Land Rover reprogrammed last year and the cost of that was about 200 per module/keys.
As far as I know, the modules that are VIN specific (rather than model specific) can only be programmed by the dealership. I believe the VIN specific modules are the front/rear BCM, ECU/DME and gateway module. However, as I understand it, it should be possible to make a clone of the damaged module and then transfer that to a replacement module. I actually just posted in this forum and a couple others asking for any information on this.
Just bought a flood damaged 718 Cayman. It has 7000 miles on the clock and has been repaired.
The car runs fine and I just wanted to make sure the repairs were done properly. The car was Written off as it was Fully Immersed in Salt Water but the actual photos of the level of water damage came up above the door sill.
one seat module was replaced. All the seats and internal electrics work and the car starts and runs. No engine check lights!
how is it possible that a fully flooded car with salt water immersion that’s suposed to be completely immerse is running 100%???
I’ve already bought the car but wanna check for where the likely damaged modules in flood damaged cars are.
Can any fellow 718’ers direct me to the low level (as in height wise) modules that are usually damaged are located and how I can get to them?!!! I really want to check to see if they have been replaced or repaired properly
01-09-2023, 01:06 AM
718 Cayman Flood Restoration
