Flooded VX? Electrical Woes? Heres what happened to me
Water crossing gone bad? Heres what happened to me...
Well I decided to cross a creek a couple weekends ago, it was a bit deeper than it looked. As soon as I dropped in I knew it was DEEP, I tried to reverse out but the shelf I dropped in off of was too steep. So... "Roll up the windows and lets do this!". I went for it, and the water was about window high, I made it across 3/4 of the way before running into another steep shelf.
I go it turned around in the deep water and headed back to the shelf I came in on and made it to where my front tires were on shore but I couldn't get up and over the shelf, time to winch. Checked the intake.. no water... Phew! Water was well over my hood at points.
During the winching time water slowly filled the inside cab, The guy in the back seat kept telling me "It's getting wet back here.... It's getting REALLY wet back here" it got to the point where my butt got wet but my pedals were still above water. And the guy in the back seat was leaned up inbetween the passenger and driver seat, as the water was halfway up the back window.
It actually drove home fine, I removed all seats and carpet and put 3 fans in there to speed the drying process, in about 3-4 days things were dried out but I let it go a week just in case.
Then when I tried to drive it the electrical woes started happening, all sorts of random flashing lights on the dash for TOD and the P,R,N,3,2,1. So since I have been a part of this forum I automatically knew that the mode switch was toast. The water got as high as the TOD computer inside the cab and that was toast as well (you can tell by pulling out the circuit board card and looking for burnt connections)
I got a new mode switch (~$150) and used TOD computer ($60) and I am back on the road. Also my MAF sensor is acting really weird and I just placed an order for a new one but I think that may have been an existing problem. All very easily replaced parts. Replaced engine oil and differential oil as precaution, all fluids were still good, pulled the plug on the tranny and that fluid looked good, not planning on changing that.
Just thought I would throw this info out there if anybody else gets themselves in TOO deep of water. All in all it was a good lesson/reminder to always have another equiped vehicle with you when attempting water crossings, even if it doesn't "look deep"
BTW I crossed this same creek last year in the same spot and it was only about 6"-8" deep then, rivers can really change.
