99 Chevrolet Lumina multiple problems

Recently, I had an incident where my car went into some flood waters. After about 10 minutes, someone came along and pushed my car out. I let it sit for around 8 hours and then started it. When it started the following things occurred:

Air bag light came on and stayed on
Seat belt light fades while engine is idle, but brightens as I speed up
There is a tapping noise that increases as I accelerate.

Over the course of a week, the following started to occur.

Service engine soon light came on
Accelerating is erratic-sometimes it stays in first and second. I have to let up on the gas for it to shift. Or, if I accelerate slowly it shifts into third by 10 miles an hour and drives sluggishly.

I had the vehicle in and replaced the transmission filter, had all fluids exchanged, had an oil change, and had an oil treatment done. I have also purchased an additive for my fuel to clear any water from it. Does anyone have any ideas where I should go from here?

Water was how deep, into the interior, salt? Lots of info missing here.

Sorry about that.

Yes, it did get into the interior. The water was about waist deep, around three feet. There was no salt in the water. It was rain water.

Let me add more to this. The interior floorboards had about an inch of water and when I used a rug doctor on them, I had to do it a few times because they kept refilling. It was throughout the floorboards except on the front passenger side. That part was completely dry. The outside water came up my door but not to the window and the top part of the hood was uncovered. The rain water was running into a drainage culvert across the street.

Any modules or relays that were submerged are done, ie seat motor, air bag controller, wiring connectors and such. Get ready for multiple problems here, if you have comprehensive insurance get a claim started. If water got in the tank, no treatment will work, has to be drained., The carpets should come out completely to properly dry the interior, the matting under the carpet has to be replaced, this is just phase one!

Any modules or relays that were submerged are done, ie seat motor, air bag controller, wiring connectors and such. Get ready for multiple problems here, if you have comprehensive insurance get a claim started. If water got in the tank, no treatment will work, has to be drained., The carpets should come out completely to properly dry the interior, the matting under the carpet has to be replaced, this is just phase one!


Thank you. I will be calling my agent on Friday to get the claim started and luckily I have a good mechanic that can fix most of what's wrong. The first Auto Shop I took it to said that if the ticking did not stop, my engine was shot and I should look for a new car. I am hoping this is not the case.