Sunk my truck!

96silverado · August 4, 2003

Like the title says, I buried my truck in some deep water without any preperation to it. The tranny, transfer case, differentials all submerged, luckly my motor is OK. I had to drive agout 15 miles after too. This is my question. First off do you think I did any significant damage?, I know I should change ALL fluids, but is there anything else I should look out for? Any certain additives I should put in with the new fluids? My truck only has 63K on it and I did this I was able to clean the interior up nice though....there was about a half of foot in my cab! Thanks for any info, and gald to have joined here...looks awesome!!!!!

BTW....it's a 1996 Silverdao Ext. CAb Z71

Thanks!

Sorry, I also posted this in the open forum

GnatGoSplat · August 4, 2003

Only thing I can really think of, is when you change the fluids, make sure no debris is blocking the vent tubes. That's the only place I can think of that would have allowed water to contaminate the fluids as the rest is sealed.

96silverado · August 4, 2003

Thx for the info, are there vent tubes for all fluids/areas??

0nyx · August 4, 2003

i went muddin w/ my buds awhile back. and we got a jeep stuck in a pit for 2 days. well needless to say, we towed it out. and everything needed to be flushed. i would recommend flushing everything, and make sure nothing got in the pan.

GnatGoSplat · August 5, 2003

Thx for the info, are there vent tubes for all fluids/areas??

Yes, I think both front/rear diffs, tranny, and transfer case all have vent tubes. The engine vents through PCV, so depending on how high the water got, I'd say the engine is probably the only thing you don't have to flush.

MarkD · August 5, 2003

Look at the fluids when you drain them. If they have water in them, or milky, you will know that water got in. If you can't tell it in the fluids, I wouldn't worry about damage.

96silverado · August 5, 2003

thanks everybody. This is a kick ass site by the way!!!!

PFarkas · August 6, 2003

I got my truck stuck in water up to the rocker panels. It took me about 30 minutes to get it out, eventually succeeding with the help of another vehicle whose make and model shall remain nameless.

The front and rear differential fluid were a little milky when I changed them the next day.

About 3000 miles later my front wheel bearings failed. The seals didn't seal very well.

I had a dealership replace them under warranty. If the truck weren't under warranty, I'd have changed them myself. I found the assemblies for about $150 each from GMPartsDirect.Com.

Recently, but about 45,000 miles after the high-water incident, my pilot bearing completely failed (I did manage to salvage one or two needle bearings). It was completely dry and there was some rust in the assembly. I don't know if this was related. Truck has 80,500 miles on it, this happened at 78,000. There was plenty of life left in the clutch assembly.