Slow Turn Over After Wet Engine Bay

Crossed a river. Battery or starter maybe got wet? Truck is slow to turnover now and one time just "clicked," then started. 2019 25k miles.

Replace the battery ?

 

I'd start by cleaning the battery terminals. If that doesn't fix it, follow the heavy wires to the starter and look for potentially dirty connections.

 

This^ and also test and load test the battery.

 

Let things dry out!!

Be glad you did not suck any in the engine !!

You might need to pull the starter and clean the mud out of the solenoid .

Mud is not a good conductor !!

It should not hurt the battery unless it was sitting under water .If the battery was on the way out that is another problem .

Just how deep was the water??

 

High enough to wet my battery, but not higher than top of headlights

 

Also been stuck at 15 mpg since then. Was getting 17 or 18.

Rinsed everything off, cleaned all connections, starting over easier, but still at 15 mpg. Hmmmm....

 

Submerged to the headlights? I’m not super familiar with taking my truck for a drink but wouldn’t water get into the cab vents on the back of the cab?

 

Hmmm it's been 2 weeks and I don't smell anything. It certainly came in under the doors and took 3 days to dry out. I think the snorkel on some Pros give a false impression. These trucks, even the TRD OR, don't like deep water.

 

2 weeks and your truck is still caked in mud?

Also, no vehicle likes deep water. That's what boats are for.

 

Cleaned out mud and cleaned the battery, but went to turn over today and nothing happened. No click or anything. Then tried again and it fired up. Weird as hell...

 

Any specific connections to check? Fuse box dry as a bone.

 

Starter looks muddy

 

Starting and then not starting can sometimes be a loose cable. Or maybe your starter is full of mud and not making contact. If its not starting, maybe give it some hammer tappy tap taps and see if that helps.

 

Treating that 19 like a step child

 

I rinsed it off. Would it do any good to hit it with compressed air dust off?

 

In Highschool I had a civic with a bad starter. I used the ol tap method for almost a year before my dad helped me replace it. I was too embarrassed to tell him it was failing for the last year lol

 

Literally just drove through some mud. These trucks don't see built very tough. First puddle and my license plate bracket box broke off. Wtf? Is this toyota or fisher price? Seems like the starter should have better water protection with all the tacoma puddle commercials on tv.

 

Sounds like you have water in the distributor cap.

 

do the 3rd gens have a distributor cap? The 2nd gen Haynes says "all models are equipped with a direct ignition system (DIS) which has no distributor."

 

No Sir it was a joke for us older guys who used to have to dry out the cap on a regular basis