A friend bought one about a month ago and we're trying to figure out if its flood damaged or not.

[UglyXLT]

So to make a long story short, I have a friend who liked mine so much that he purchased a lightning off of carvana at a decent enough price at the end of december. He took it to the dealer to get it checked out and there were no issues noted apparently. Fast forward to today, he came over and we got to talking about potential problems down the road (glitches and the like). So I told him about reseating the connecters on the 12v battery. We go outside so I can show him where its located, and when I opened the cover we were shocked as of what we saw (see pictures below). Is this just dirt likely from carvana having it sit out in the arizona desert? or could it be signs of a flooded vehicle? Any help is appreciated.

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[lightspeed]

A flooded vehicle you would probably find rings of muck at whatever level the water reached.
Look around the footwells past the carpet in the back behind the seats. You would probably see evidence of crud if the truck were ever that flooded.

To me, that just looks like the previous owner travelled on a lot of dirt roads.

 

[Grumpy2]

Is this just dirt likely from carvana having it sit out in the arizona desert?

That looks like Arizona dust to me.

 

[electricpig]

One good drive on a dirt road will do that. Ask me how I know. That's just dust. No worries.

 

[B177y]

Yup, dust.

I took my 2 week old Lightning on a hunting trip to North Dakota in Oct. Hadn't rained in 56 days according to the landowner. All of the roads and fields were moon-dust.

When I removed the trim panels and frunk to add the ACC and LKA, everything looked exactly like your picture.

A shop-vac and a battery powered leaf blower worked wonders.

 

[UglyXLT]

Thanks all, I just let him know what everyone stated.

 

[flyct]

Best place and easiest to check for flooding is seat rails. Look for rust on the rails and hardware.

 

[Dan C]

Look under the dash for the same type of dirt.

 

[Heliian]

Ya, that's normal.

The area you're looking at is open to the elements and collects dust.

 

[Adventureboy]

Unfortunately, Ford did not do a good job designing to keep dust out of this area. Mine is quite dirty and I don't even drive on dirt roads.

Your picture looks normal for a dusty environment.

 

[Ted23Lightning]

So to make a long story short, I have a friend who liked mine so much that he purchased a lightning off of carvana at a decent enough price at the end of december. He took it to the dealer to get it checked out and there were no issues noted apparently. Fast forward to today, he came over and we got to talking about potential problems down the road (glitches and the like). So I told him about reseating the connecters on the 12v battery. We go outside so I can show him where its located, and when I opened the cover we were shocked as of what we saw (see pictures below). Is this just dirt likely from carvana having it sit out in the arizona desert? or could it be signs of a flooded vehicle? Any help is appreciated.

That’s crazy, mine looks the same

 

[hturnerfamily]

since the underside of your frunk area is open to the roadway, it's no alarm that over time you are going to have a lot of dirt, dust, debris, bird nest, insects, and leaves and such all in your battery/motor/underfrunk areas.... but, in the end, none of that affects your truck's capabilities.

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