Got stuck in a surprisingly deep mud hole, and now the truck is taking longer to start.

Your start description is pretty vague the amount of time to restart or time to actually crank? Kind of sounds like you are over thinking it. 1/2 a sec isn't a lot of time and fairly hard to determine.

 

Hmmm.......seems like a lesson to learn.

Go around the mud hole when you don't know the depth.

Starter will probably die without a bit of TLC.

 

Might just be your battery is failing. Your starter though is on borrowed time if it got submerged in murky water.

 

If the battery ground came loose then it's possible the computer reset itself and simply needs to relearn for a bit.

 

If your motor was hydro locked you’d know it. For the truck to start you need a couple of things, battery, starter, air, fuel.

I’d start with the air filter first, just to make sure it’s not wet. That will choke the airflow and could give you a starting issue. Then I’d get the battery and alternator tested. Any autopart store should do it for free now adays. Then all all is good I would check the starter. Make sure you’re getting full voltage at the starter and that all cables are tight. Could be sludge built up in there but it’s moving so not a complete issue. If all
Is well there you can check your fuel pressure. Are you part of the fuel pump recall? Perhaps it’s always started this way and you’re just paranoid?

 

I would go with it there is a drain in the bottom of the starter (that's what the little black hose is) Starters run pretty warm cranking and it's kind of bolted to an engine running at least 180* Or just take some sleeping pills before you go to bed.

 

I've driven my truck through worse.

The starter gets filled up with water the little black rubber drain doesn't do its job and traps the water inside the contacts of the starter and corroded them. I'm gonna look for some pictures that I took when I opened it up and cleaned the contacts fixed it right up and haven't had a problem since. Until I drove it through a river and same thing happened a again.

Here is a good (and funny) tutorial on how to rebuild/ replace the contacts in the starter. Same concept diffrent truck. Use sandpaper to clean off the corrosion on the copper parts to leave them looking shiny again!

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-rebuild-the-tacoma-starter-motor.200964/

 

Yes I do. That is the fun of it

 

Yep!

Little over a decade ago my pops took his almost new FJ and plowed it into an abandoned cattle pond during rainy season. He made it about a car length in before the nose dived in and the interior flooded. It fried his electric seats but that was the extent of the damage. Had to call a friend with a winch to get un-stuck as my Durango couldn't budge him.

 

i dont understand i hear about people doing water crossings/flood driving all the time, sure the trucks are still in motion but it seems as if the speeds are slow enough to submerge parts in the engine bay for a good amount of time. some describing water even sloshing over the hood

 

I think it takes a while for water to get into the starter casing. Usually the water crossings don't last more than 5 minutes. Whereas if the truck is stuck, it could be there for 15 minutes to half an hour. Out of the 6-7 Tacos that got swamped in my local off-road club, two had the starter go bad, a 2nd gen and a 3rd gen.

Other things on the truck (like the A.D.D. actuator) are probably also vulnerable to prolonged submersion.