Guidance on repairs

Whilst hunting in Colorado, I managed to high center my 13 DCLB 4X4 in a bog. It sat in about 3 ft of water for a few hours(see pics). The radiator was above water, but had about an inch of water in the cab on the passenger side. I plan on changing fluids, no lights are on, everything is dry. Any advice on maintenance from this calamity would be greatly appreciated!

 

As long as your snorkle doesnt have any hidden holes in the bottom, meaning you sealed up your 2 airbox drains, you shouldnt have any issues really. If you suspect moisture injestion into your front diff / xfer case, you could swap that fluid out. As for the interior, best bet would be to pull the carpet out and pressure wash it. That'll involve pulling your front seats and center console, I cant remember if the rear seats have to come out. There's a good resource on here for pulling carpet. If you dont want to go through that, you can always wet vac your carpet and steam clean. I've heard of some that run one of those ozone machines inside the cab to get the mildew smell out. Other than a good cleaning at the carwash, you should be good.

-J

 

I hate when holes are deeper than they appear....

 

^ What that guy said about the airbox drains and also definitely change front/rear diff fluid

 

I dont know about changing the rear diff fluid. If you @Bed Bug did the rear diff breather mod, you shouldn't have to change that fluid. If it's still in its stock configuration, then your rear diff breather was submerged under water and it would be advised to replace that fluid.

-J

 

Even with the rear diff breather mod if that thing was under water for a few hours I wouldn't trust the seal over the hole. Cheap insurance and easy job IMO

 

I'd swap the rear diff fluid just in case; sitting with that wheel buried water may have penetrated in through the axle tube seal. For $10 in fluid it's worth the peace of mind.
I'd also give the passenger ball joints and tie rods a good dose of grease for the same reason; sitting underwater like that there's always the possibility of some contamination. Again, not overly likely that it did, but it's always possible. Your front hub assy is a sealed unit so it should be fine, but keep an eye/ear on it for a bit anyway just in case.

 

True, it could be draining while the front diff fluid is getting changed. All of this reminds me that its about that time for me to change those fluids, too many projects, not enough weekends.

-J

 

Pressure wash really dog around bearing more than once because it will shorten their life expectancy

 

that's not too bad. I've sunk my truck way worse only thing I had to replace was the starter

 

That’s nothing. Keep trucking. Front diff already has a breather from factory that terminated near the battery.

 

Where are you getting your diff oil? The rear takes somewhere in the ballpark of 3 qts which are running at about 20$ a qt. 75w-80. The front's take about 3 qts between the front diff and xfer case..

-J

 

Just get what is on sale it doesn't matter

 

Valvoline gear oil usually runs around $5-6 a quart at the local auto store. If it takes 3 quarts, I'll bump my estimate to $20 instead of $10. I thought that the G2's were around 2qts for the rear diff.

 

I wanna say its about 2.4 or 2.6 qts. Id have to check the manual to be sure. I believe theres a difference in fluid volume between the Sport to Off Road due to the differences in sizes.

-J

 

Gotcha.
What are you buying at $20/qt? Mobil 1 synthetic?

 

Yup. It's personal preference. Price seems to fluctuate between 10 to 30$ depending on what day of the week it is, so I just averaged it at 20$.

-J

 

I always ran synthetic because it was 'set it & forget it' but a couple of summers ago I got a boat. Since there's a couple of local boat ramps that are sloped shallowly enough that I'm dunking the rear axle at least a couple of times a season I've started swapping my fluid out more frequently and I went back to conventional.

 

I'm swapping at around every 30k so I run the synthetic, but I'm about 5k over my last diff oil swap. I need to get on that soon.

-J