Sunk the 4Runner x2 -please help !!!

[afg10000]

I don't know if this is as bad as ARKRAWLR's post. Roached the '01 I bought 2 weeks ago. Went to Kenosha pass with no problems. Drove through a river or two with no issues. Scangauge had the tranny temp at 231 at it's highest reading going up and down 285 and everything was running fine. On the second leg of the trip at Lake Mcconaughy I screwed up bad. Went out playing with my buddy and his F-150 and went through what seemed to be an innocent mud pit that we've done a thousand times in the past. Turned out that it was not a receding pool of goop, there's actually a spring that ran underneath. He blasted through and broke it up. I followed and was not so fortunate. Sunk it and stuck. Got my other buddy over there with his '06 Taco to try and pull it out. Originally had the exhaust under water. Managed to get that above water at least. At that point the Runner was more cockeyed and my feet were under water at the pedals. Had about 4-5" of water in the cab on that side. The next morning we got a tractor to pull us both out. $60 each. Pretty reasonable for the idiot price that I felt. Started it and thank god I didn't get water in the motor. The second I pressed the brake to put it in gear it died. Alternator shot. Sat under water in the muddy stream all night and filled it with poo. 350 miles from home got Napa in Ogalalla to order one from Denver. Got it and installed it the next day. Fixed my voltage issues then tried to drive it to the RV dump place that has a hose. Had no speedo on the dash or Scangauge. VSC lights on, ABS lights and tranny running like poo. Finally the SG gave a code of P0500. Got under there and cleared the mud and goop above the tranny and wiggled the connection on the VSS and that fixed many things (other than the mud and goo inside the truck on the drivers front and rear side). At least it was moving. Took it down to town the next morning to the power washer and got all the pieces and parts sprayed out. It seemed to behave better after driving a bit after the Alternator and the VSS were tended to. It was running a little hotter than normal but the transfer case and center diff lock and electric systems all were happy. Pulled the kicker panel off to see if the 4WD comp had sat under water and also to help all that wiring to dry out. The water line was just under the comp. Drove to town the next morning with the wife and on the way back it got fairly warm. Dash coolant gauge got just under the red. Tranny got to 244 at highest point. Pulled into the park and stopped at the ranger station and the Runner died at idle. Started it and it fired right up. Put it in gear and died. Tried again, threw in reverse and got it backed up and off the road. Had friends pick us up and take us back to camp. Went back after it had cooled off. Figured out I still had a bunch of sand and muck clogging the back of the radiator. However, the tranny was still very angry. The only way to get it moving was put it in neutral, get the RPM's to 1000-1500 and release the brake. Got back to the RV hose and cleaned the rad. Limped it back to the parking lot above the campsite. Scanguage showing a P0770 code. Tranny shifter solenoid. Harnesses and input were clean and tight. At this point the tranny clearly had some noises that were definitly not right. Thank god I had gear with me, good friends and computer phones. Still not enough to be dropping tranny pans in a parking lot full of sand 350 miles from home. Called it done. Made some calls to Omaha and I'm getting it towed back for $400. We're hoping it's the torque converter and I didn't roach the tranny. Just wanted to share my story and see what ya'll had to say. Call me an idiot but I've learned some valuable lessons. Either way I didn't let it ruin my vacation and everyone got home safely. At least I gots my '96 here. I can't help but feel the '96 would have had better chance to make it through the pit of doom. Again, I always appreciate everyone's help and advice.
Andy

 

[KMAYO]

I don't know if this is as bad as ARKRWLR's post.

Coming from the guy that jumped in the water to hook up the shackle for ARKRWLR (JWaldz). Yes this is much much much worse! Sorry to hear about your bad luck.

-KMAYO

 

[slowpoke99]

that's why i avoid mud as much as possible!!! kinda hard to do on our trails here in the northwest but i stay away from those pits if i can. glad you got your rig and yourself back home safely.

 

[afg10000]

that's why i avoid mud as much as possible!!! kinda hard to do on our trails here in the northwest but i stay away from those pits if i can. glad you got your rig and yourself back home safely.

I think I've learned my lesson with the mud at this point. That being said, I'll just go ahead and assume that I'll roach another Toyota at some point in the learning process. I'd really like to get an old mini Toyota pickup at some point and build the crap out of it and tow it with one of the Runners. This one stung pretty bad being that I just bought it for the wife, then i destroyed it before she even really got a chance to drive it. Especially after I just found the big rust hole in the frame of my '96 a few weeks ago. Not having good luck with the Runners thus far. Not giving up, though. We have the technology to rebuild them -

 

[slowpoke99]

I think I've learned my lesson with the mud at this point. That being said, I'll just go ahead and assume that I'll roach another Toyota at some point in the learning process. I'd really like to get an old mini Toyota pickup at some point and build the crap out of it and tow it with one of the Runners. This one stung pretty bad being that I just bought it for the wife, then i destroyed it before she even really got a chance to drive it. Especially after I just found the big rust hole in the frame of my '96 a few weeks ago. Not having good luck with the Runners thus far. Not giving up, though. We have the technology to rebuild them -

yeah i kept my '88 toy p/u for that very reason. i'm building my '99runner a little over kill with the sas, lonfields, dual cases, etc. but i want it capable of taking a beating in a pinch as i will be doing alot of wheeling in it but my '88 will be the one i continue to thrash on the more hardcore stuff.

the aftermath of playing in the mud is what usually keeps me from doing it. not saying i haven't done it myself . i too learned the hard way!

 

[BrianSD_42]

Not having good luck with the Runners thus far. Not giving up, though. We have the technology to rebuild them

I don't think the luck problem is related to your 4Runner. It performed exactly as designed.

It does suck though, sorry to see it happen to another forum member.

 

[slapdappy]

The good news is it was not salt water, which you can't really recover from because it corrodes electricals immediately and without mercy. Corrosion should not be an issue for you. You did not suck water into the engine. Lets assume all of the components that are sealed have not been contaminated by water and grit. You should be able to readily determine every place which was infiltrated because there will be grit residue. Everywhere the water went it was transporting grit.
First I would use the most powerful wet/dry vac I could lay my hands on (rental?) and go over every square millimeter with the round brush attachment. I would then disconnect all below waterline electric connections and vac the heck out of them.
Then I would initiate the soaking phase. My theory is anywhere wetness and grit got, so too can your endless supply of clean fresh water. If the grit can get in there, you can get it out of there. If the water got in there, you can get it out of there. As long as you can expose moisture to the air, especially moving air (fan), it will evaporate. Soak it long enough with running water and the grit should be carried away.
If able, I would submerge it exactly as it was in a clean source of flowing water. I know this is not really doable, but that would be the ideal first step.

Was your front diff breather tube ever below the surface?
There is a second breather tube up front, either transfer case or transmission I think.
How about rear diff breather?
Obviously the water and grit infiltrated places it doesn't belong. There is a waterline on your truck, just like a high tide mark at the beach. Can we assume the components and connectors and whatever above the waterline escaped damage because they did not stew in the poo overnight?
I would disconnect the battery. Don't know how one disables the airbag mechanism so it doesn't go kerpow. Then I would disconnect and unplug everything that was below the waterline and was subject to water infiltration. I assume vacuum hoses remained dry. The engine compartment protected its contents from having thick mud jammed into every crack and crevice, unlike the undercarriage which was exposed and buried in the stuff. I assume all undercarriage electric connections were stuffed with grit. And when it got dragged out (backwards?) that jammed that poo in even deeper.
I would unplug every electric connection below the waterline. I would put a few oscillating sprinkler heads underneath the engine and transfer case and tranny etc, and one above the engine, and turn them on (not full blast) for 24 hours, alternating their positions every 4 hours. You wanna really get involved? put on a bathing suit and eye protection and get under there with the sprinklers. get under there with a hose and sprayer so you can do some detail work. Not full blast with the jet setting, the shower setting or even the mist setting. You want to saturate everything with an endless quantity of fresh water. You want to flow the gritty water out. Blasting might just lodge it deeper. Basically I would be looking to get steady stream of fresh water into all the places the gritty water went.
Water is bad for electric components, but dry grit isn't really an issue.
Grit is bad for mechanical components but water isnt, unless it gets inside a sealed tem like a transmission. U-joints don't care about water, but they hate grit. electrical components and connections hate water but some dry grit, doesn't matter.
I just realized, your entire interior fuse panel was stewing overnight. I would disassemble that and submerge it in bucket after bucket after bucket of water until the water ran clean. Then I would drop it in a bowl of 99% isopropyl alcohol. I would disconnect every interior electric connection or termination that was below the waterline. I would remove the panel under the steering wheel. I would gently soak all of this using the 'mist' setting. tape plastic over the other instrument panel stuff you want to keep dry. Could you just remove the wire harnesses and deal with them separately outside the truck?
The point of bathing all the electric stuff in water is to remove as much grit as possible. Electric contact cleaner displaces water, so you can blast and saturate all this stuff after the water bath.
If you can, hold these disconnected wires pointing down as you soak them to reduce the amoun of water that goes into the harness.
Paint shops often have giant ovens to cure paint. After you are done soaking everything see if you can put it in one of these with all connectors and such disconnected and a bunch of fans running. All that dry circulating heat should remove every smidgen of water.
So, I would vacuum, soak, and stick in an oven.
then electric contact cleaner and dielectric grease.

 

[afg10000]

Thanks for the thorough advice, slapdaddy. Alot of what you're saying is very doable, but I've got larger issues to deal with first. The interior fuse box was not in water at all. Nor was the 4WD computer. The harnesses below that were. That was the worst of the water line inside the cab. All the electical components seem fine for now after getting the VSS connector cleaned and reseated. It got back to Omaha this morning. I then noticed a puddle collecting. Seemed to be coming from the transfer case. The truck had no fluids leaking before. It immediately got towed to the transmission shop. There's something seriously wrong in there. I'd hate to say it, but I'm expecting some really bad news tomorrow. I'll need to deal with that first before I can begin going through everything else. I appreciate the help immensely.

 

[JWaldz]

I don't know if this is as bad as ARKRAWLR's post.

Haha Yea that was way worse than mine.. Mud is a definite no no for me always!

 

[slapdappy]

Thanks for the thorough advice, slapdaddy. Alot of what you're saying is very doable, but I've got larger issues to deal with first. The interior fuse box was not in water at all. Nor was the 4WD computer. The harnesses below that were. That was the worst of the water line inside the cab. All the electical components seem fine for now after getting the VSS connector cleaned and reseated. It got back to Omaha this morning. I then noticed a puddle collecting. Seemed to be coming from the transfer case. The truck had no fluids leaking before. It immediately got towed to the transmission shop. There's something seriously wrong in there. I'd hate to say it, but I'm expecting some really bad news tomorrow. I'll need to deal with that first before I can begin going through everything else. I appreciate the help immensely.

You're welcome. The fact is I don't know much about the inner workings of the transfer case. I was just speculating out loud. You've got professionals involved now. Hopefully the news will not be catastrophic.

 

[afg10000]

Yep, I screwed up real bad. Burned up the tranny. Torque convertor pretty beat up. Really didn't have much hope that any solenoids would fix it. They didn't find any transfer case leak. They did find a driver's side differential axle seal leak (I know I can fix that myself). It does make sense to the fluid I found dripping off the skid plate if the courier that towed it 300 miles had it at a higher angle toward the front. Regardless, they replace the transfer case seals and fluid whilst doing everything else anyway. Re-manned Toyota tranny is what's happening. Expensive mistake. Well, ya live and ya learn. I can start tending to all the other damages after I can at least drive it.
On a side note, I've been tooling around in my '96 and looked under there and both outer tie-rod boot clamps have come off. They're both dangling on the tie-rods. The boots aren't damaged and they're still firmly seated in their grooves. Anyone ever seen this and should it be of concern? I did swap the wheels and tires from the '01 onto the '96 before our ill fated tour. I've only driven the '96 for two days with no more than 10 miles total. Then, again I haven't looked under the '96 for a minute so I have no way to know if this occured some time ago.

 

[slapdappy]

Burned up the tranny. Torque convertor pretty beat up.

Is this because you kept spinning the wheels when you got stuck? and when your bud was trying to pull you out? Or was this because it sat there overnight? Did driving it afterwards cause the damage or cause more severe damage? Or was the damage done by the time it got dragged out so it didn't matter whether or not you drove it?
I ask not to make you relive the pain but to learn what I should or should not do when/if I get myself stuck like this. If you had left it alone after it got stuck, had a big tract pull it out, then had it flat bedded home would the tranny and torque converter be ok? Or if you had left it alone, had a big tractor pull it out, hosed it down, dealt with muddy elec. connectors, would it have been safely drivable?
non professional opinion: Re boot clamps, you are fine. The boots are still firmly seated so they are doing their job. The clamps are there as backup to keep therm in the groove. Can you pull the boot back and look? My inner tie rod boots were easy to pull off and look under.

 

[afg10000]

Yes - All of the above is exactly what happened. If we had just left it alone and waited until morning to get the tractor, at least the tranny would have been fine. But your first instinct is to get it out. In my case we had no choice to at least get it somewhat out because the muffler was underwater. We could not leave it like that. Pretty sure the initial damage to the tranny occurred whilst spinning the wheels whilst the Tacoma was pulling. We did get it to a better position. After that, I believe driving it around over the next few days was enough to finish the job in the tranny. From now on if I get stuck that bad, I'm not even going to try. Just stop before you dig a far worse hole (no pun intended).
As far as my tie-rods, my brother seemed to think that someone physically moved the clamps. Maybe the mechanic did last time it was in the shop for some reason. There's no way they just both magically came off. Clamps and boots are perfectly fine and tie-rods seem fine as well. Just really weird.
Thanks for your responses, slapdaddy. I'll keep ya posted on my rather expensive adventure in the mud pit of doom -
P.S. The center diff-lock on the '01 is quite inferior to the RR diff-lock. I firmly believe had I had my '96 in that situation, We would have had a pretty good chance of getting that sucker out.

 

[slapdappy]

human nature

It is human nature to try to get unstuck, believing 'this time will work. Just once more. Pull harder." I would have done the same thing. Thank you for sharing this info. It may save me substantial time and $ in the future, even though I've reached an age when caution and consequence is beginning to trump enthusiasm. You'll have a good story to tell the young'uns/nieces/nephews/grandchildren - "when I was younger and full of bravado…"

 

[audiness]

Sorry to hear about your situation, sounds like you are getting it taken care of though.

so just to clarify, it was not water intrusion that killed the tranny?

 

[I_bRAD]

Sounds like an interesting story! Please put it into paragraphs so I can read it!

 

[afg10000]

Sorry to hear about your situation, sounds like you are getting it taken care of though.

so just to clarify, it was not water intrusion that killed the tranny?

To my knowledge, no. The transmission fluid looked clean and we checked it multiple times for sand/particles. Seems it just got too hot and burned up the inner workings. Had my tranny temp gauge on the scanguage, but at that moment I was concentrating on the wheels and what the guys on the other end of the tow ropes were doing. I'll get more details when I get the truck back next week.

 

[afg10000]

Update -Got the '01 back today. Re-manned tranny and new battery. They also found a rear main seal leak after they put the tranny back on. Since they found it after the fact, they said they'd split the cost and fix it. So they pulled the tranny back off and changed the seal for $300. I knew about the oil leak when I got the truck. It was pretty minor. Didn't know it was the rear main seal but I'm glad it worked out that way. Both front diff axle seals are leaking which I'll have to tend to. Passenger side tie-rod boot is shredded. Not sure on the condition of the tie-rods yet. Gonna drain the rear diff and change seal first. The truck's a mess. Gonna take quite a bit of cleaning to even begin removing all the sand. It was pretty funny to hear the tranny shop guys say how much goop they had to dig out of there just do do their work. We had a good laugh about the photos. In my defense, the truck was drivable for two days after pulling out of the mire. I spent $35 at the power washer and did the best I could under there. Brakes are squealing like the chick from The Ring whilst driving. They needed to be done anyway (TBU). I guess I didn't realize how much difference that made until I got home and drove my '96. About threw my old lady through the windshield first time I touched the brakes. Plugs, wires, fuel filter and God knows what else I'm gonna find. All the electrical systems and functions seem to be working properly so far. Might need to replace the starter as well. Truck wouldn't start when they drove it out front for me at the shop. Irony. Started every time after that. Gonna be quite the project. That mud pit is very expensive. Don't go into it -

 

[93cr250]

Update -Got the '01 back today. Re-manned tranny and new battery. They also found a rear main seal leak after they put the tranny back on. Since they found it after the fact, they said they'd split the cost and fix it. So they pulled the tranny back off and changed the seal for $300. I knew about the oil leak when I got the truck. It was pretty minor. Didn't know it was the rear main seal but I'm glad it worked out that way. Both front diff axle seals are leaking which I'll have to tend to. Passenger side tie-rod boot is shredded. Not sure on the condition of the tie-rods yet. Gonna drain the rear diff and change seal first. The truck's a mess. Gonna take quite a bit of cleaning to even begin removing all the sand. It was pretty funny to hear the tranny shop guys say how much goop they had to dig out of there just do do their work. We had a good laugh about the photos. In my defense, the truck was drivable for two days after pulling out of the mire. I spent $35 at the power washer and did the best I could under there. Brakes are squealing like the chick from The Ring whilst driving. They needed to be done anyway (TBU). I guess I didn't realize how much difference that made until I got home and drove my '96. About threw my old lady through the windshield first time I touched the brakes. Plugs, wires, fuel filter and God knows what else I'm gonna find. All the electrical systems and functions seem to be working properly so far. Might need to replace the starter as well. Truck wouldn't start when they drove it out front for me at the shop. Irony. Started every time after that. Gonna be quite the project. That mud pit is very expensive. Don't go into it -

any interior pics?

I live right outside omaha and i decided awhile ago im just going to stay away from mud. Around here it seems to be either puddles or huge sticky messes where everyone involved gets stuck. Including a 2003 ford focus my idiot friend destroyed lol

 

[afg10000]

Here ya go. It's a lot worse in there than the pics portray. Started the process of cleaning it out this morning (after the pics). If you're ever in town, stop by my shop. I'm on 90th & L.