The healing process....begins now

So this weekend I had a situation. No, not an orange Guido guy from Jersey but an "incident".

Long story short, we were at my friend's ranch doing some light offroading. There was an area that had some water and we wanted to go through it; standard procedure. The first part was about 20 feet across then there was a long island thing about 8 feet wide and then another section of water on the other side about 7 feet across. We measured the really wide side with a long branch and it was about 1 ft deep.

Now here's where my stupidity comes into play. The thought didn't even cross my mind to measure the other side that was about 1/3 as wide. Famous last words/thought? Can't be that deep right?

Oh shiiiii....it's more than 4 times as deep, and it's a sheer cliff. Lovely.

Face planted and stopped. I hit the gas once to see if we could roll back but knew instantly it wasn't happening. I killed the engine immediately because I figured the intake was underwater.

Got winched out by his uncle about half an hour later. Probably about 10 gallons of water in the footwells which all rolled back after the truck leveled. I pulled the intake to check the filter and it was dry meaning I wouldn't have to pull the spark plugs. Started right up. It's a fucking champion.


The Healing Process
When I got home I immediately stripped the entire vehicle down to the steel. Ripped the carpet out and let it dry after spraying it with disinfectant to keep it from growing anything. Threw away the carpet padding because that was going to be a cesspool.

The only other thing that appears to need attention is my headlights which have a ton of water in them. What else should I be doing to ensure Optimus Prime doesn't have problems down the road? I wasn't sure how sealed the coolant tank cap and I was considering a full fluid change. What am I looking at here people?

 

And no I'm not going to leave you guys without pictures.

 

Damn dude sorry to hear about that

 

OUCH! Good thing you didn't blow the motor up! Lesson learned the hard way.

 

Need pics . Make sure the ECU is dry. All wire connections in the engine bay can be sprayed down with electrical contact cleaner (MAF sensor cleaner, same shit), open the headlights up like you're doing the BHLM, get those silica packs and put them around the engine in places you don't want water. Be happy just the interior is nasty and not the engine.

 

wow...next time, get a longer stick so you can see both side's depth's...

 

Yeah, measure twice....cut once right? lol

I'm actually pretty stoked because I assumed it would be a total loss. I got to drive the bitch home so that's a big win in my book.

I'll check the ECU and I'll get some of that contact spray. I'm going to wash the engine bay first and then do the contact spray. Any particular connections I should make sure I do?

 

Yeah. I found out later that his uncle Dan had been using the bull doser to dig out some of these areas.....found one

PS: After all the crap he gave me I found out the bull doser is stuck on the other side of the ranch too lol

 

Wooo lucky dude. Hydrolock woulda sucked.

 

i would also check out that front diff, possibly change out the fluid. might have gotten water in there.

you did OK considering what happened. i'm sure you know coulda been ALOT worse. lucky for you man, now you know.

 

I'd considered changing the front diff fluid and also the power steering fluid. The PS fluid tank is close to the front as is the coolant tank. They haven't been changed in a while so this is as good a time as any.

 

LOL!

Gotta be one of the funniest pictures I have seen on this forum!

 

Could have been alot worse. I would add an oil change to the fluid changes stated above. Oil might be ok......but why chance it. Glad you are ok.

 

You should roll with one of those blind fold out sticks.

 

Ive put my older toyota trucks through a lot worse, change the front diff fluid, be sure to check the engine oil too, remember the dip stick is a lot lower than the top of the motor.

 

Good call gents. And I just rolled over 50k and I'm due for an oil change anyway.

 

I'm also going to take this opportunity to get a few goodies like a legitimate tow strap. I've considered getting a snorkel before but I know they don't make one for our trucks. That does have me considering a relocation for the air intake though...

 

The line you see in the dirt is the water line....

 

Not saying it'll happen, but be ready for a new alternator and/or starter if they got submerged. Sometimes they die right away, sometimes it takes a while but it seems on a lot of the threads where the front end submarined, one of those components took a crap not too long afterwards. Unfortunately, I don't think there's really anything you can do about it.

Also agree with a front diff fluid change. It's hard to tell on the truck, but did the transmission breathers go under water? It looks like they might have stayed dry based on the line but hard to tell.

 

Wow... at least it started back up.

They need to edit this emoticon for you