Here is the story of my eventful evening...
So today my friends and i decided we wanted to go wheeling but had to wait for someone to get out of class. We end up hitting the road around 5... to go explore some place we were told about. Its called Mountain Lake Road in Blacksburg, VA. Not too exciting, but we did find some trails off on the sides that we took. They were cool, but short. It was about 6:30 so we decided to head back. On the way we discussed either grabbing a bite, or checking out an old forest service road we couldn't pass when it was snow covered. Of course we choose the trail... Passed where we had made it before, and decided to keep going. We came to what appeared to be a cul-de-sac. Off to one side the trail continued, but got more intense. There were rock obstacles and big mounds of dirt. Easily passed. Went around some giant mud holes and through others. We kept moving hoping the trail would come out somewhere, but it never did. We came to a dead end probably 5 or so miles off of the service road. The 4runner was great on the way there. It really impressed me with how it handled the mud and rocks. On the way back once the trail dead ended the tables had turned. The 4runner made it about half way back just fine, then **** hit the fan... it started running rough and cutting itself off. I decided to pop the hood and check it out. The air filter was bone dry, so i didn't hydro-lock it(hopefully). I needed to make it out. Luckily i had my friends. We had brought along an old GMC Jimmy, about a 2-3 inch lift on 33's. I think it was an 87 or so. I noticed the temp gauge rising after starting it a few more times so i decided to take a look at the radiator. The reservoir was bone dry... the radiator also didn't have anything visible... I looked underneath and it was dripping, but i thought it would have been from the puddles. Anyway i decided there was no way i was driving out, by my own power at least. I'm glad i noticed the gauge rising so i didn't try and run it hot and ruin anything. Luckily i had my new arb 30ft snatch strap. My friend had about a 15-20 ft long strap. We hooked them together and he still couldn't reach me. We had been stopped at another mud hole... he had gone through i had attempted to go around the side through some tight trees. This is where the 4runner shut down... we pushed it through some of the way then couldn't push it back up the hill behind us to try and take the turn at a different angle, so.... we had to pick up the rear and swing it wound to the side to clear the trees. I never thought that would happen, i mean lifting a suv? We still couldn't make the straps reach his Jimmy so somehow we managed to push it through the gap with about 2 inches on each side... Finally hooked up we made some progress until the mud holes came back around... one time he went first to check it out... made it through and reversed back to me. Hooked up, by the time he was out i was just going in, then all of the sudden the strap unhooked when there was some slack... i was still in the hole, helpless, but the one reachable side happened to be there the tow hook was, thank God. Hooked it back up and made our way out back through the rocks and over the mounds. Once on the gravel trail from before we had it made. I called my Allstate road assistance number and got a free tow home. Definitely an adventure, I got in around 12.
Now here is where i need some help... the engine was running rough, obviously there was an issue with the radiator leaking...but i heard a kind of clicking while it was running... I put some water in the radiator and a few seconds later i saw it draining out the bottom of the passenger side of the skid plate... I cant tell if a hose cracked/broke or if the radiator itself is cracked? The truck has 137k on it... the water pump hasn't been changed but i was planning on replacing that and the timing belt this summer... I just wanna find out what happened. Could there be some electronics that got wet under the hood that would make it shut off? would being low on water cause the problem? Or could there be an issue with the water pump itself? i guess all of these are possibilities... any advice is appreciated. My spring break starts tomorrow so i'll be needing a ride from Virginia Tech back to Richmond lol.
Definitely an eventful night, but i thought it was still fun even though it ended the way it did.
So today my friends and i decided we wanted to go wheeling but had to wait for someone to get out of class. We end up hitting the road around 5... to go explore some place we were told about. Its called Mountain Lake Road in Blacksburg, VA. Not too exciting, but we did find some trails off on the sides that we took. They were cool, but short. It was about 6:30 so we decided to head back. On the way we discussed either grabbing a bite, or checking out an old forest service road we couldn't pass when it was snow covered. Of course we choose the trail... Passed where we had made it before, and decided to keep going. We came to what appeared to be a cul-de-sac. Off to one side the trail continued, but got more intense. There were rock obstacles and big mounds of dirt. Easily passed. Went around some giant mud holes and through others. We kept moving hoping the trail would come out somewhere, but it never did. We came to a dead end probably 5 or so miles off of the service road. The 4runner was great on the way there. It really impressed me with how it handled the mud and rocks. On the way back once the trail dead ended the tables had turned. The 4runner made it about half way back just fine, then **** hit the fan... it started running rough and cutting itself off. I decided to pop the hood and check it out. The air filter was bone dry, so i didn't hydro-lock it(hopefully). I needed to make it out. Luckily i had my friends. We had brought along an old GMC Jimmy, about a 2-3 inch lift on 33's. I think it was an 87 or so. I noticed the temp gauge rising after starting it a few more times so i decided to take a look at the radiator. The reservoir was bone dry... the radiator also didn't have anything visible... I looked underneath and it was dripping, but i thought it would have been from the puddles. Anyway i decided there was no way i was driving out, by my own power at least. I'm glad i noticed the gauge rising so i didn't try and run it hot and ruin anything. Luckily i had my new arb 30ft snatch strap. My friend had about a 15-20 ft long strap. We hooked them together and he still couldn't reach me. We had been stopped at another mud hole... he had gone through i had attempted to go around the side through some tight trees. This is where the 4runner shut down... we pushed it through some of the way then couldn't push it back up the hill behind us to try and take the turn at a different angle, so.... we had to pick up the rear and swing it wound to the side to clear the trees. I never thought that would happen, i mean lifting a suv? We still couldn't make the straps reach his Jimmy so somehow we managed to push it through the gap with about 2 inches on each side... Finally hooked up we made some progress until the mud holes came back around... one time he went first to check it out... made it through and reversed back to me. Hooked up, by the time he was out i was just going in, then all of the sudden the strap unhooked when there was some slack... i was still in the hole, helpless, but the one reachable side happened to be there the tow hook was, thank God. Hooked it back up and made our way out back through the rocks and over the mounds. Once on the gravel trail from before we had it made. I called my Allstate road assistance number and got a free tow home. Definitely an adventure, I got in around 12.
Now here is where i need some help... the engine was running rough, obviously there was an issue with the radiator leaking...but i heard a kind of clicking while it was running... I put some water in the radiator and a few seconds later i saw it draining out the bottom of the passenger side of the skid plate... I cant tell if a hose cracked/broke or if the radiator itself is cracked? The truck has 137k on it... the water pump hasn't been changed but i was planning on replacing that and the timing belt this summer... I just wanna find out what happened. Could there be some electronics that got wet under the hood that would make it shut off? would being low on water cause the problem? Or could there be an issue with the water pump itself? i guess all of these are possibilities... any advice is appreciated. My spring break starts tomorrow so i'll be needing a ride from Virginia Tech back to Richmond lol.
Definitely an eventful night, but i thought it was still fun even though it ended the way it did.
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