Thread: water in oils

Where are the breathers terminating? You'll need to raise ALL of them if you want to keep playing in muck.. And you were in reasonably deep!

TC is just like a diff, a mechanical object with a breather and seals.. Same things happen.. Did you cool it down before taking the plunge?

I'd suggest changing ALL your diff, gearbox, TC fluids.... Then flush out the hand brake mechanism and be sure to flush through the radiator etc or you'll get overheating issues later on.

Then go get some hose and fittings (nylon air line etc) and extend all your breathers up nice and high.

DONT put them into the cabin as all you'll end up with is oil smells in the vehicle all the time...

No matter what you do with breathers , its quite common to get water in the axles when going through any depth of water over say 500MM.

I recall getting home once and was surprised to see water dripping out of a swivel.
That's why I hate deep water.( and of course emptying out my headlights and driving lights)
Regard sPhilip A

I think the grinding noise is due to a lack of lubrication when you got water in your oil - you have probably destroyed your diff and/or transfer case.

you could be lucky it could just be muck in the handbrake or a Uj giving up.

I'm with following Tombie's advice.

could be somthing stuped like when you washed your car mud and stones and things have gone behind the disk shealds and grinding away,

i have fresh oils all the way through from front to back.
no chance of lack of lube anywhere. I have done only a little driving since getting the water in there. maybe 15km on the way home after, and little 2km trips a few times since.
bit of water in with the oil destroy the diff/TC?
no we didn't think to stop and let it cool down before going through.
all my mates in their Prado's and Pajero's go through and never have any problems afterwards... I've even driven my little Toyota Tercel wagon/4wd through deep water and never had problems with water in diff/gb/ect.

Mud in a UJ cause grinding noises? sounds better than a destroyed Diff/TC.
Dont scare me Jim621.

flush out the hand break drum? could be a good idea, i wouldn't have thought of that.


I was almost about to pull out my rear axles and see if the bearings need grease, but after having a quick look in the service book I thought I'd leave it til i got some more advice.

the grinding noise is constant, has not eased off since renewing oil in TC and Rear Diff.

Sounds like a nasty old dry bearing grinding away, not a real gravely or clunky sound, it's smooth and grinding, hard to explain any better.

my breather in rear diff is up as high as it can go without penetrating the floor pan or going around the side of the vehicle. other option would be to run all the way up to the engine bay where the front diff breather go's up.
I have not seen the TC breather, I've heard if you remove the Cubby Box you can see straight down to the TC. Does the Gear Box have a breather as well that I need to check up on? I've seen a at least two breathers right up high against the fire wall in the engine bay, must be front diff and gear box.

thanks.

DONT put them into the cabin as all you'll end up with is oil smells in the vehicle all the time...

But . . . but . . . what's wrong with oily smells?

Anyway, do the easy things first. Grease all UJs. Check the handbrake. Get the car on stands and turn the wheels by hand to see if is indeed something simple. (After all, often it is after we get ourselves all wound up and think it's something really serious!)