Have you don't anything for your tacoma alternator?

[vanguard]

I have just met a third person this year that needed to replace their alternator after driving off road. In all three cases it wasn't a water crossing or even what I think of as "mudding". It was just driving through a muddy/watery patch to get to where they were going. All three were the 2001-2004 style tacoma. One had a stock skid plate and the other two had bud built skid plates (which provide more coverage).

It seems like just a good "splash proofing" would go a long way. Do you guys have any experience with protecting your alternator?

Edit: Hmm, I can't seem to fix the typo in the title. If the mod gods can fix it that would be great.

 

[Nullifier]

Intereting...Ihave totaly submersed my fronet several times and never had a problem. Are they cleaning it thouroghly after wheeling. Maybe they are getting mud in there and not washing it off. I would say the only thing you could Is put some die electric grease in the harness. If you were to fab a "shield" for it I would be very concerned about over heating it.

Maybe some of the more knowledgble minds then mine will have something else to offer.

 

[vanguard]

If you were to fab a "shield" for it I would be very concerned about over heating it.

My thought was to make some kind of splash guard to protect it from the bottom. I'm not sure that will do much though because the radiator fan does a fine job of shooting any water/mud through the engine compartment in nearly every direction.

Some guys have a snorkel and enough water proofing to drive around hood deep in a river. I wonder what they do?

 

[flyingwil]

Nullifier brings up some good points...

I have yet to encounter a problem with my '01, with water nor mud. What exactly seems to be failing with the alternators, if you can pinpoint the failure?

 

[OldSven]

I have steamed the engine plenty of times at work, and had the truck (almost stuck :victory: ) in a deep water hole and mine does fine. But some alternators are more touchy than others. Great now saying that mine is going to crap out

 

[vanguard]

What exactly seems to be failing with the alternators, if you can pinpoint the failure?

I wish I could. All I know is that they got it wet, later on the battery "idiot" light went on, and when they had the alternator tested it was confirmed to be the problem.

 

[CLynn85]

Not toyota related but I did manage to kill the alt in my Jeep when I first bought it. Buried the sucker in a mudhole and drove it around for about a week with no cleaning whatsoever. Sitting at a light one day and the low batt buzzer goes off and the engine died, had to push it into the campus lot and go steal the battery out of my mustang to drive it home. Needless to say I always spray mine out with electrical cleaner after wet offroad trips now.