a day spa for a car ie. car sat in mud for a few days

[bananas]

After a nice new years rest in a delighful day spa down by a river under beautiful trees and pampering of finest kind by the likes of Jack, Spade, Bucket and nonoperationalwinch which culminated in the high point (almost deep enough to cover a 35inch tyre) of the gooiest mud bath one could imagine, the truck has now returned home to be assessed for holidayitis (broken things, water where it shouldnt be).

What should i be asking the "doctor" to look at? diffs, cvs, transfer case?
This is the first time ive ever played doctor to a muddy car and im not qualified.

[AFeral]

If all your seals are in good condition the mud should not have got into any axles etc as long as the breathers did not go under the water line. Possible drain the oils and check there condion. Would definatly grease all joints.

[DUDELUX]

What he said^^^^

Check and clean CVs, axles, wheel bearings, check the seals, maybe invest in new seals, then repack with new fresh grease. Drain all oil from diffs, gearbox and transfer case.
Check diff breathers aren't blocked.
Depending on how bad it is, maybe check brakes over too.
Regrease all grease nipples along drivetrain.

Everything under the car was in the mud, clean, check, then recheck everything.

[offroadboss]

Alternatively if your car has ANY oil leaks at all then muds gonna get in pretty easy. At the very least dirty, gritty water, which is even worse. I've seen king pin bearings rusted to their shells, your cv's won't be happy, pinion bearings it can get into your engine drivetrain etc. If its sat still in the water and every things been aloud to cool and ingest water it can be really bad. I hate what water/ mud can do to a car

[date]

Good to hear that you finally got the beast out of the mud. How did you do it?

Brake fluid is hydgroscopic ie it absorbs water. This lowers the boiling point of the fluid and in extreme circumstances, can cause brake failure as the fluid in the calipers boils when you are trying to stop (total brake failure) - embarrasing. It only takes about 5% water to lower the boiling point from about 350 Deg C to less than 100. At the least, bleed all wheels and also the master cylinder if it has been submerged as well. Likewise, the clutch hydraulics need flushing as well.

Fairly good chance that the diffs & transfer case may need changing as well, because no doubt they were hot when you went into the water and as they cooled, they could easily have sucked in a bit of water (depends on how good and how high the breathers were). You probably only need to drain a little bit from each item and then top up with fresh oil.

Unless it was really deep and covered your engine, the engine oil should be OK, but a change is relatively cheap insurance.

The universal joints will probably be OK if you can simply put some grease in - it should push any water out. If you have CV joints, there isn't much you can do about them apart from completely stripping them and repacking them with grease.

Where is your alternator? If it was dunked, the bearings on that will probably be damaged. Strip it and clean the bearings & brushes before failure. The starter motor will similarly be in need of stripping & cleaning.

An expensive exercise. Hope it hasn't been too bad for you.

[offroadboss]

Most front or rear mains leak. Dunk em in cold water, shut the engine off, water will go in

[bananas]

oh this isnt going to be cheap.

cheers for the info

[SCANAS]

I'd drop everything, spend $300-$400 and get it done.

[Busiboy]

I'd drop everything, spend $300-$400 and get it done.

What he said, get all fluids changed, after that they'll tell you where they found water, try regressing everything else at the same time, give it a good clean, sit a sprinkler under it for a while, flush water down your chassis rails, pull the carpets out if it got that high.

Have fun