Taking in water

[TacoTraveler]

Today I was out doing some general playing because we had a strong rain early in the morning. Long story short there was a deep part in the puddle I flooded the passenger side of my truck.
How do you normally keep water from coming inside the vehicle when it is above the bottom of the door? Good weather stripping?

Thanks,

Joseph

 

[lowenbrau]

Water getting in is a good thing. If it doesn't, you float. That can suck even if there is very little current. Just remove the plugs from the body and face the fact that in deep water, your carpets are going to get wet.

 

[BrandX]

yeah but what if you have a newer taco and everything is electronic. things like the gas pedal, brake light switch, ect cant be "waterproofed".

 

[XJINTX]

Sometimes shutting all windows tight and cranking the AC/Blower can create a kind of positive air pressure. That will only help a bit on a fast(er) high water type crossing.

Ditto, on the wet carpet or floorboard. Not sure where the ECU is on a Taco but the Xterra was on the transmission mound behind the console. Avid off roaders that frequented water were known to move it (PIA). Never heard of anyone that succeeded in water proofing it.

Also it was necessity to extend the differential breather tubes up high above the water lines. this is probably more of a necessity in mud.

 

[madizell]

To answer the question as asked, generally you can not prevent water from entering. The cab is not water tight and isn't intended to be so. Doors and seals are intended to drain, and there are numerous openings into the cab for wiring, ventilation, and other things. If the doors and panels didn't drain you would hold water and start rust around the doors. It is a fact of life that if you go into deep water, you will take on water in the cab. Your truck is not a boat.

Whether your door seals leak a bit or don't, that leakage won't stop you from floating if you get into sufficiently deep water. How long you float depends on how fast you leak, but unless you take your doors off, you won't leak fast enough to prevent floating in deep water. But to put the problem into a different perspective, unless you have purpose-built your truck for deep water fording, water deep enough to float your vehicle is far too deep to be in. Avoid it.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Also keep in mind that on the 96-04' Tacomas the stock in intake is precariously low and in the passenger front wheel well. Make sure you don't have a soggy air cleaner.

 

[TacoTraveler]

This all makes sense. Sorry for not specifying what I drive. It is a 2002 Tacoma 4x4 v6 5spd with power nothing.

Where are the drain plugs for future reference?

I did check my air box, it was a bit soggy. That is why I keep two air filters though, now I can keep running on my clean DD filter. =)

Thanks,

Joseph

 

[flyingwil]

You're going to need to be careful, especially with water in your air box.

Crawl underneath your cab you'll see several black plugs, these are the "drain plugs" As for the Tacoma, it has a world of electronics underneath the seats, and in the kick panels near your feet, so be cautious of those items. I would bet that your door's weather stripping is worn or you are missing the some of the cab plugs mentioned above if you are getting a lot of water in the cab.

 

[Overland Hadley]

Your truck is not a boat.

I think that is great.

 

[BrandX]

ok so what have some of you done to protect the electronics? cases, moveing them somewere,ect. lets see some ideas

 

[viter]

on 2001-2004 tacos some people have moved the ECU or tried waterproofing it since it sits right behind the kick-panel on passenger side.
I've been in water up to my door seals in my 2003 taco a couple of times (mind you - it was short duration - say crossing 100ft of deep water) and luckily never got much water inside - only once I noticed wet carpet in the back of the truck. I think good (read non-cracked or cut) weatherstipping around doors helps quite a bit on our trucks, but as other mentioned there are holes in the firewall for wires to come thru that can leak if you are in water long enough. Obviously you could try waterproofing these holes with some silicone. drain holes in the cab are plugged with black rubber plugs (about 1-2" in diameter) that you can see if you climb under the cab positionedc in various locations aroudn the floor. These should be splash-proof but you could silicone these as well if you wanted too - the only thing is that if you get water in some other way inside the cab and then want to drain it you'll have to rip the silicone off to get the plugs out. drain holes in the doors I believe are outside the weatherstripping so I think water shouldn't enter the cab through these. where tranny and transfer case poke through the floor is another area you could try sealing off with silicone if possible to make sure water doesn't enter through there. obviously like others said it is not a boat so eventually it will fill up with water but I think you could change the time it takes for water to leak in if you seal off as many things as possible and keep the weatherstripping in good condition.

also, don't forget about breathers on tranny, front diff, rear diff and transfer case. On my 4x4 V6 2003 taco the breather on the rear diff sits right on top of it, the breather for front diff and tranny exit on the firewall in the engine bay on driver side, and transfer case breather sits on top of transfer case and is really hard to reach. I extended all of them to the airbox, plugged up drain holes in the airbox and hooked up airbod to a snorkel.