Offroad-Express

We took my truck for a drive up a river in the Coromandel on the weekend. It didn't get too deep, probably the deepest it got was just over the top of the wheels.

But........

We left it parked while we went for a swim. The water level where we left it would have been nearly at the top of the tyres for a couple of hours.

Is this bad for it? I've heard that the diff has a breather that can let air in, is it likely this has filled up with water?

We drove back to Auckland with no unusual noises but thought I'd just ask if you guys reckon I need to check it out....

And the reason to leave it parked in the river for that long was.........

Water may have seeped in through the seals while it sat.
i would be looking at all the oils . Diffs , transfer , gearbox , engine , trans. open the bungs and see if it is milky. If milky change oil.

Hope you have a snorkel going in that deep.

Pull apart wheel bearings, swivel hubs, diffs, grease all steering parts, driveshaft universal's, if it was top of the tyres deep then chances are, your motor, gearbox and transfer case will also have water in them.....

So yea, was a bit of a silly thing to do!!

piebuss wrote:Is this bad for it?

Yeah mate its not good for it, not only does your diffs, gearbox, engine and mechanical bits start filling up with water but its gets into everything else like your wiring loom, lights and anything else below the high tide mark and it traps the water and it never drains properly and shit starts farking out after a while

If you have to leave it in water try and make sure its below your hub level

so you must of been getting in and out dukes of hazard styles too

if you didnt, then you should have water inside when you open the door, and then you have problems later on like me where your fuel filler cable is seized inside and a whole host of other issues.

heres a pointer for ya...............

you may have read somewhere that I drowned mine recently, was up to windscreen height for about 5 mines then top of tyre height for another 20 mins whilst we winched it out.

water was in ...................

both diffs
all hubs
gearbox
inside the vehicle which includes computers and cables

amazingly the transfer case was untouched


I'm at a loss to think why you would even consider parking it up for that period of time in water

DaveM wrote:And the reason to leave it parked in the river for that long was.........

It looked good...thats why Dave

The engine computers are in the footwells aren't they?

Plus from an environmental perspective you should not do this. There is a thread on with heaps of crap and dissing in it for supposedly being in a river unnessecarily. In your case you had no reason to be in it. Think next time buddy, it's not a good look for the 4wheeling fraterntiy with you parked up to your nuts in river for no reason.
Al

Yeah I feel like I should probably explain myself.....

Looking at photos it was only the driver side wheel that was under water. Not actually the whole thing like I had thought, just above the hub. The other wheels were in past the rubber but not the hub so I don't actually think the rear diff was left under water and by the look of the photo I've got, the top of the front diff was actually out of the water.

Man it feels a lot deeper when you jump out than it does when you look at a photo.

Driving to the spot, some water came into the cab but only on the drivers side. We strapped a bodyboard to the front to make a bow wave so I don't think too much water got into the engine bay.

albundy, from an environmental perspective, my GF is a marine biologist and if there was any hint of polutants coming out of the car, let's just say we would not have had a 2 hour swim But I do hear you're concern, and although we noticed nothing dodgey like you are suggesting, coming from the car, the point has been taken onboard.

NJV6, that sounds like something I should probably do anyways, we've had the truck in the family since new in 95 and as far as my old man and I can remember we have never done this, so now's as good a time as any I guess...

SKID, I had read about you're mishap, that's no fun by the sound of it..... I do NOT want to do the same to mine

Anyways cheers fellas

Yeah, good excuse for some maintanence, as it may be well overdue.

So basically you grossly exaggerated a story and then had to backtrack to safe face.......





























All good We have all done it.

skid wrote:so you must of been getting in and out dukes of hazard styles too

if you didnt, then you should have water inside when you open the door, and then you have problems later on like me where your fuel filler cable is seized inside and a whole host of other issues.

heres a pointer for ya...............

you may have read somewhere that I drowned mine recently, was up to windscreen height for about 5 mines then top of tyre height for another 20 mins whilst we winched it out.

water was in ...................

both diffs
all hubs
gearbox
inside the vehicle which includes computers and cables

amazingly the transfer case was untouched


I'm at a loss to think why you would even consider parking it up for that period of time in water

exactly what iwas thinking.

water up to the tops of the wheels but no mention of it inside. cabins simply are not watertight and it'd have been full after two hours


I find this so funny- he got pwnt big time.

flyingbrick wrote:

skid wrote:so you must of been getting in and out dukes of hazard styles too

if you didnt, then you should have water inside when you open the door, and then you have problems later on like me where your fuel filler cable is seized inside and a whole host of other issues.

heres a pointer for ya...............

you may have read somewhere that I drowned mine recently, was up to windscreen height for about 5 mines then top of tyre height for another 20 mins whilst we winched it out.

water was in ...................

both diffs
all hubs
gearbox
inside the vehicle which includes computers and cables

amazingly the transfer case was untouched


I'm at a loss to think why you would even consider parking it up for that period of time in water

exactly what iwas thinking.

water up to the tops of the wheels but no mention of it inside. cabins simply are not watertight and it'd have been full after two hours


I find this so funny- he got pwnt big time.

or maybe he was just getting across the worst case scenario, so all possible problems were mentioned.
not everyone dribbles shit and exaggerates

Piebuss you asked a good question and amongst the dribble you got a few good answers.... good on ya for asking coz if you dont ask you wont know

Sadam_Husain wrote:Piebuss you asked a good question and amongst the dribble you got a few good answers.... good on ya for asking coz if you dont ask you wont know

Ditto, best to ask and find out what could be wrong, than sit there and hope all is ok.

Lol cheers guys,
Wow this is nothing like the fishing websites, where gross exaggerations are the norm

But yeah, was my first time going as deep as we did and I was a bit concerned. Might get a mate over on the weekend and do some maintanence as suggested anyways.

So FB, you wouldn't just be jealous that you weren't out 4x4ing on the weekend too would you???

piebuss wrote:So FB, you wouldn't just be jealous that you weren't out 4x4ing on the weekend too would you???

GOLD

Sadam_Husain wrote:Piebuss you asked a good question and amongst the dribble you got a few good answers.... good on ya for asking coz if you dont ask you wont know

Good answer, I was thinking how to word that myself!!

piebuss wrote:So FB you wouldn't just be jealous that you weren't out 4x4ing on the weekend too would you???

OWNED by a newbie!!!

I had mine stuck in a river up to the sills at xmas time .It was under for hours by the time I managed to extract myself. My front diff had totally filled with water, when I undone the fill up bung about 2 ltrs of pure water poured out, then after doing the drain bung all the milky oil came out. The rear diff was milky as well. Surprisingly the gearbox was ok.

How hard is it to replace the gearbox fluid in a GQ?

I had a skyline about 6 years ago which had gearbox issues and it turned into a complete mare to replace the fluids.....

Are there any cheats I can use to check if water has got in without having to do too much work? Not that I'm lazy, just that I'll be short of time this weekend if I'm replacing diff oil, checking the hubs etc.....

If you undo the filler bung and oil comes out then it is over fill and chances ae it has water sitting in the bottom. If the oil is milky after driving then there is water in it.
But if the truck has been sitting for a while then the oil and water can quite oftn seperate again so this isn't always a tell tale sign.

Anyone who hasn't had water in the diff oil etc hasn't really been stuck!!!!!!

darinz wrote:Anyone who hasn't had water in the diff oil etc hasn't really been stuck!!!!!!

Here's a story that is a bit hard to believe but it is true as it was me! I had Dad's vehicle stuck in the Arrow river with water over the transmission tunnel and the seat bases sitting in the river (seat backs were dry) and there was not a drop of water in ANYTHING except the front wheel bearings, and yes everything was checked!

Why is it hard to believe - here's the kicker, it was a Tdi LR Defender!

NJV6 wrote:

darinz wrote:Anyone who hasn't had water in the diff oil etc hasn't really been stuck!!!!!!

Here's a story that is a bit hard to believe but it is true as it was me! I had Dad's vehicle stuck in the Arrow river with water over the transmission tunnel and the seat bases sitting in the river (seat backs were dry) and there was not a drop of water in ANYTHING except the front wheel bearings, and yes everything was checked!

Why is it hard to believe - here's the kicker, it was a Tdi LR Defender!

i
ts english, theres gotta be oil in the diff for the water to get into the diff oil!

I was in aust and was riding with a young chap who stopped ina creak to look at an old log bridge beside the ford, an old chap in a cruiser told him to get moving as sitting in the water (about hub level) cools the brakes and they can jamb on! Interesting thought although I don't see it as much of an issue for the amoutn od expansion/contraction happening.

fweddy wrote:I was in aust and was riding with a young chap who stopped ina creak to look at an old log bridge beside the ford, an old chap in a cruiser told him to get moving as sitting in the water (about hub level) cools the brakes and they can jamb on! Interesting thought although I don't see it as much of an issue for the amoutn od expansion/contraction happening.

sort of think that mite of applied to the old days when every thing was cast iron brank drums etc, drums would cool faster then the internals and seize on

something like that anyways

There is no way that could happen. Even cast iron simply does not shrink that much.

flyingbrick wrote:There is no way that could happen. Even cast iron simply does not shrink that much.

Oh well maybe back in the horse and cart days the wooden wheels swelled up and bound onto the axles

Well had a fairly productive day today.....
Changed the oil in both front and rear diff and changed the auto transmission fluid.
The front diff oil was sweet but the rear diff oil was like chocolate milk. So I guess it was just as well I asked the question, otherwise I might not have changed it so soon, and would have been driving around with chocolate milk in the diff..
When I drained the transmission fluid only about 5L came out, but the service manual I've got says it needs 8.5L for a stage I or 11.5L for a stage II patrol. No idea which mine is, and I figured it's been running ok with just 5L in there, so I put 7L back in just incase it had been low to start with.
Once it had had time to settle I checked with the dipstick and it was reading over full, so now I'm wondering what to do.......
Should it be sweet with 7L? or do I need to drain some? Anybody know?

Cheers

Generally you fill it up to the level of the filler hole for diffs, tcase and gearbox. when you see oil coming out its at the level.