ggarza270,

I'm sure that this will not be your last call of this sort. A waterlogged cable will probably pass what I call the "copper test", meaning that all of the pins are routed through to the other end and there are no shorts, but a waterlogged cable will not pass the bandwidth test.

It's expensive, but a proper tester will diagnose this sort of issue very quickly. Rather than speculating "maybe this or that" you'll have a firm diagnosis and you can show this "Fail" to the customer. The tester will save lots of time and misunderstandings in the long run.

Another dimension is the insurance adjuster. If you can show a clear "Fail" now, you'll avoid needing to bicker with the customer and the adjuster later if a latent problem develops.