Had to do a water crossing...

... now I'm getting a strange noise from the engine.

Yesterday one of my dudes collapsed on a PT run, so I grabbed my Tacoma and headed back to evac him. I had to cross a large stream to get back to him and at one point my front left tire and part of the front end was pretty deep. To the point that I had water coming through the left side door seal. No pictures as I was obviously concentrating on more important things.

Now when the engine RPMs come up, it sounds like one of the pulleys (on the front right side of the hood) is grinding. The sound is the worst from ~1500-2000 RPM. Any ideas on what I messed up?

 

Could have picked up dirt or something in there. have you looked under there for obvious stuff wedged in behind the pulleys??

 

I'll have to check for that in a few minutes. Thanks man.

 

It doesn't sound like this is the problem but just in case you may want to check your airbox and see if there's any water in there.

 

Air box is on the passenger side, he said it was deeper on the drivers side.

You toasted an idler pulley. Very common problem with these truck when they see water. they are supposed to be sealed bearings, but they are not.

$40 from trdparts4u. 5 minutes to replace it.

 

I had this exact problem it sounds like, I crossed thru mud up to the bottom of the doors and took my truck in, the problem they found is that it was the power steering pump and somethin with the serpintine belt... check those, hopefully that will give you an area to look at.

 

Good call, its always a pulley that goes. Strange you have a grinding sound. In my experience they just freeze up and squeal.

 

Yeah its most likely a idler pulley. I have the same problem but haven't fixed it yet.

 

I've already replaced the two upper idlers 2x a piece! I do wheel it very hard though...

 

Thanks for the info fellas. I really appreciate it. I'm going to take it to the local dealership tomorrow and see if they can narrow it down to the idler pulley.

 

As a follow up, it turned out to be the idler pulley. Thanks for the info fellas. I'm going to swap it out tonight and I'll put a few pics of what water does to one of these guys.

 

doesn't your warranty cover it? Just play dumb and say you didn't do anything, it just started making noise.

 

I would imagine they consider an idler pulley a wear item like belts, hoses and tires.

 

the idler pulleys are crap on our trucks. just have to swap 'em

I'm looking into better alternatives

 

Does this imply you can get the Army to expense your idler pulley?

I think you did the right thing by going to get your guy, and I think my tax dollars should cover you.

 

^ I agree. And I would think the Army should have vehicles nearby that can be used for this purpose. Vehicles that are much more capable of crossing 2' of water without issue.

 

X2.

 

As some of the other guys said, submit a request for reimbursement to your command. $40 worth of parts for your truck is far less than they would have had to spend had that soldier not been quickly and properly evac'd, not to mention the bad publicity of their not having a HMMV or med crew available. You did the right thing, you shouldn't have to pay for it (even if it's not much).

I was under the impression all that was going on at Bragg these days was SOCOM stuff and Airborne? Friends of mine would have me believe that such units never have anyone fall out during PT.

 

If I wasn't in a student billet at the moment I would submit said request. But in this case, the $40 for a pulley isn't worth the asspain.

And there are a metric shitton of mil vehicles on Bragg that are capable of crossing that sort of water. Unfortunately, my pickup was the most readily available. Some dudes showed up with a gov't 15 PAX van, but turned around at the water. So it was Tacoma to the rescue.

And I don't think this dude will be staying with the program, if you know what I mean....