Steps to recovering from “accidental water contamination” of a Jeep

I read numerous times on various BBS about people saying how a little rain ruined their jeep. I was kind of wondering what I would be up for after this day of wheeling. This is actually on the trail…not a lake, it was however much deeper than I had ever seen it before.

Here are the steps I followed from the time we pulled it out until the present (if any other problems come up I will update the write-up).

First and foremost, I turned the jeep off before it hydro-locked, then I sat in the jeep waiting for it to fill up enough to open the door (this was February 1st, and yes the water was cold).

Step 1. Pulled all the plugs, checked for water. Turned the engine over with the plugs removed to ensure no water in the cylinders.
Step 2 Dried out the air filter ( I use a K&N)
Step 3 Check all fluids, even though the oil dipstick has an o-ring seal…as the engine cools it draws a vacuum and pulled water into the engine. Oil level was almost twice normal.
Step 4 Towed the jeep to town to get fluids checked/changed. I had the Engine, Tranny and Front axle all contaminated with water ( the local oil change place in Belfair WA only charged me $80 for the fluid change and lube job) . The transfer case and rear end were fine.

The next thing to do is to drive it home. The heater worked except for the upper vents (later discovered to be due to ducting being full of water). I turned off the passenger airbag during this time because the light was glowing at various changing levels of intensity.

Once I got it home I removed all the carpets and hung them to dry. A carpet shampooer will ensure they don’t smell funky if you want to reinstall them. I removed the back seat and took it into the house to drain/dry much to my wife’s disgust. I setup the tent heater we have (a Coleman catalytic tent heater with a fan) in the jeep with a small reciprocating desk fan and let them run for about 8 hours. I ran them again the next day for another 8 hours.

The little vent deflectors are removable; I pulled them and used my shop-vac with a smaller tube to suck all the water out of the heater lines. An acquaintance recommended drilling a small (1/8”) inch hole in the very bottom of these vent ducts so they would drain in the future. Once the heater and vents were all working I drove it off and on with max heat several times a day to help dry everything out while at the same time keeping moving parts moving vice rusting and seizing in place….it is important to operate it as much as possible until dry. After 3 days of this I started in on the hard part. Every connector inside the jeep needs to be taken apart and cleaned. I also applied terminal grease to the blades on all the connectors to help prevent corrosion. I did the same thing with all the fuses and relays in the glove box and under the hood.

I also ran my winch in and out until it was warm…3 times, this will help to dry it out.


The only permanent damage that I suffered was not what I expected, 3 days after the submergence my check engine light came on. I ended up buying an OBDII hand scanner to investigate. I just knew I had toasted my O2 sensors or map sensor since they really hate water, or worse. It said my throttle position sensor failed, I removed it and tried to dry it and clean it but it was toast. I bought a new one from the dealer and everything appears to be fine ($76).

I also did all the post wheeling stuff….Pulled the wheels and brakes and cleaned out the mud and grit etc. Checked all nuts and bolts tight on the steering and suspension.

It took 14 days for the back seat to dry out. I was using a towel to sit on for about a week trying not to look like I was suffering from incontinence when I got to work. All in all I think I got off pretty lucky. I also had to disassemble my bazooka tube and CD changer to clean and dry them out….they both still work. My Cobra CB was simply amazing, the mic with all the controls was under water, and it works also. I am fairly sure that I will be fighting some little gremlins due to this but I am very happy to be driving and jeeping again. (P.S. I went through the same hole 2 weeks later after another 3.5” of rain…it was only 6” deep, only thing we can figure is storm damage blocked the run-off from that section of trail until the pressure got high enough to clear it).