rookie question about high water, and yes i tried to search

So we have got a ton of rain the past 2 days and i went down to a park along the river to drive around and check out the flooding. Ended up on part of the road that was flooded a bit and decided to keep going. Water got up to within an inch or two of the bottom of the doors but no higher.

My question is, I know that the breathers sit super low in the stock locations, but it was only about 40 degrees out and i was driving in water up to the bottom of the diff for quite some time before i got in that deep. Since it was cold out and the water most likely kept the diff cool before it went underwater should i have reservations about water pushing in through the seals, also most of this was at under 2 mph just crawling so nothing was spinning up and getting hot? If so is there a quick and easy way to check that there is no water in the diff, trans, or case without pulling the drain plug?

Please dont lecture me on this being a stupid decision, i recognize that now and just want to make sure that everything is ok

 

You should be fine, and ya don't have to pull the drain plug to find out. You can just pull the fill plug and dip your finger at the top. I'd drive it around first to mix the oil and if there is in fact water in your oil it will appear milky. Your front diff and Tcase are a hair over a quart a piece and the rear is 3qts. But like before you are good. One thing I would to is shoot some grease in your U joints. Any questions on that just ask. If ya don't have a grease gun your local shop will usually do it for free or slide the mech 5 bucks to do it. you got 6 u joints on a 2011 Taco.

 

^^^ I was planning on doing the scuba mod for all the breathers most likely this weekend just for the peace of mind of having them up high.

Is there a way to check the trans fluid to see if water got in?

Also, would it be worth my time to just drain all the diffs, trans case, and trans to go to full syn and not have to worry about it?

Thanks

 

I stand corrected. I was under the impression it was a double cardan behind the carrier.

 

The change interval for all that is 30k miles, I'd wait and use what's already in there. Then use royal purple. They came to my jobsite and showed us why it's the best. They filled then drained with RP, and filled another wit regular, RP stayed cooler for hours being empty. Tranny there is a fill hole on the side somewhere, and an overflow plug. Use those in conjuction to check the tranny fluid.

 

Ok so the more I've read about this throughout the day it looks like the only one that actually sits low is the rear diff. the trans case and transmission are both on top of the trans which it pretty high.
One of the threads I found referred to a e-locker breather but it was regarding a fj cruiser. Do the tacomas have a breather for the e locker as well?

 

i've never heard of the e-locker having a separate breather.
a toyota tech once told me the diff fluid is almost equivalent to royal purple.
and also toyota advertised that the fj fords up to 30" water stock config and they have this nice little animation with the air intake being the limiting factor. you know cause the fj is so much more capable than the tacoma right? haha. given the identical similarity under the hood i would deductively reason that the tacoma could handle whatever water you decide to cross. your diffs are probably just fine.
remember to have fun and enjoy your taco being able to do things that others can't even think about doing i their rides.

oh ya and in that video animation it includes showing the wake of the fj pushing the water and the water being lower at the transfer case and rear diff.

 

Get a snorkel scubasteve! username goes great with this thread.

 

any idea where that video of the fj is?


LOL note to self start making troll threads about snorkels

 

http://www.toyota.com/fjcruiser/demos.html

the water fording video is about half way down

 

My highschool had a dirt parking lot that all the trucks parked in, most of which are huge domestics with 35"+ tires. Everytime it would rain the parking lot would flood, and it would be a mud bog to leave school. I've been in water up to my doors and fogs and never had an issue.

I really do need to do the diff breather mod though, better safe than sorry.

 

where ya at in ohio? lots of closed roads in my neck of the woods

 

columbus so it wasnt that bad here... just down by the river it was up a bit... Findley got hosed, literally