Jeep fixed. Thanks all.

[Ron Texas]

This kind of damage is not covered by warranty. There was an article about the owner of a new Gladiator who got stuck for a huge repair bill after playing in mud.

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[AlgUSF]

I present to you, the infamous mud pit.

I'd have probably caught the edge a bit and bailed if I got into drama. That is how I ride the mud at Suburban. That pit didn't look that bad initially but when the folks went through the middle, I'd have bailed out the side.

 

[Viking Jeeper]

One of my first times off-road I never even came close to full send. When I stopped to air up and had to open the hood I was really disappointed with the mud. I never hit the mud hard but one of the last ones I hit somewhat faster than I wanted. Since then I'm in first gear crawling in the mud. I have a winch and a tow rope. Not going through that again.

 

[mikesicily]

To be fair, for a lot of us we kind of have no choice. It is either wheel on trails that have muddy areas or don't wheel at all.

Now "mudding" so to say, I am right there with you. However we don't have hardly anything around here that doesn't have at least 1 mud hole that is not optional.

I agree with you there. sometimes we have no choice. I see people purposely going out looking for crazy mud. thats what I avoid.

 

[COJeeper]

It’s 71 and pure blue sky right now. And will be all winter. But hey too hot. lol. Humidity is at 69%.

69!!!

Im too fat, I like mid 60s to mid 70s. Anything above 80 is too hot for me.

 

[DHW]

Would have made it through the mud easily and had absolutely no problems afterwards if it had been a Rubicon.





Just kidding

I did the same thing in high school in my dad's brand new 1993 Eddie Bauer Ford Explorer. Left the mud hole and immediately got the battery warning. Spent probably 2 hours at the nearby car wash cleaning off all the mud. Or so I thought. A few days later my mom opened the rear liftgate and the outer edges were coated in hard mud. The one place I forgot to clean. It was a while before I was allowed to drive it again.

 

[Trek54]

IF I had an older jeep I might not care as much but spending the $$$ on a new one Iam so careful off road I barely moved forward over rocks or mud puddles took me at lease an hour to get 1 mile!

 

[JL ME]

What a bunch of B.S.
I had a 79 CJ7 with the straight 6 and would go mudding every weekend wash it off Sunday drive it to work all week and do it aging the next week with little to no problems. The worst problem i would have is water in the distributor cap.
Who would have ever thought you can't drive a new jeep through a puddle without totaling it.

 

[GavinH]

Front crank seal?

Indeed it was the crank seal

 

[Old Jeeper]

Well.. We did have fun at least. We were at the saturday Jeeptober event in Ocala FL. At the end of the intermediate course, we a fairly shallow basically muddy-water pit people were going through. We were told at the start by the guy staging us, we should full send as to not get stuck. We saw other jeeps doing it and getting out ok. Some went slow, and of course got stuck. Well I took his advice... Didnt go well after the fact. We did make it through, but the surface under the water-mud was rutted and had some sort of ridge that sent us flying half way through it.

Out the other side aside from being shaken up like we had a major car accident, the jeep and us passengers were ok. For the moment...

Our JLU was completely coated in mud. Top to bottom as seen below. It was a mess. No worries, we wanted to get it dirty. The plan was that would be the end of our day and i was going to go find a spray wash place to get it cleaned up before we hit the highway to head home. Well that plan didnt happen.

What happened was a series of events that I would have never imagined a 3" lifted JLU with 35" tires would end up in. Apparently the mudpit was too much. About 10 minutes down the road from the event, the battery light came on. Errors for low voltage. CRAP. Well I was able to limp it back to the event and find a hose to start rinsing down the engine bay. EVERYTHING was completely coated in mud. ALternator was coated, everything. So I did my best to rinse it all off of the nose of the jeep so I could at least get a look and see if the belt was off or if some plug got knocked off. Everything looked normal. Jeep ran fine, only low voltage. It was clearly not charging. So thats going to be a problem. I tried to drive it some to see if the rinse and a bit of a dry would help. It started to charge for a bit so we decided to hit the highway and try to limp home the 60 or so miles.

HUGE mistake. Not 10 minutes down the road, low voltage again but this time it started to overheat. QUICKLY. I only made it about 5 miles before we had to pull over. All lights on, error everything and it was on the edge of over heating. Never did, but it was close. I tried to let it sit then limp it another mile so we could get to the next exit but it was too far. Voltage down to 8v now on the dash and she was done. I had to call for a tow that was three hours away. We were able to hitch a ride to the next exit by a random FDOT ranger truck that was helping someone else behind us a few minutes. He stopped for us and took us to the next exit. We had to wait for the truck to come. This was almost midnight now. And a $500 tow later, the jeep was at the dealer early sunday AM waiting for Monday for them to look at it.

ANOTHER MASSIVE mistake because our 21 JLU is not under warranty. We knew that but I figured the dealer would have the best options for parts and whatnot to get it done faster. Well that was wrong. They diagnosed both batteries were fried. $675. They had to steam clean the entire engine bay before they even started that. Another $500+. Then once we got new batteries, still not charging. Alternator installed was $1200. More cleaning needed for the starter which was seized up from mud. $250 more. Plus all the labor. We are at $2500 and it still hasnt ran on its own for more than a few minutes. They want another $500 to dissassemble the rad and all the parts around that to clean out the radiator and put the cooling system back together.

This one day event I paid $60 to get into is up to over $3k at this point in repairs. And I tried to get the alternator from the aftermarket, and NONE exist. NONE for the 2.0T non hybrid. They arent out there.

Plus we are out another $500 for a rental we had to get. Forgot about that. What a nightmare. And at the end, whos to say there more shit wont go bad a month or a year from now from all this. Its like having a flood car at this point. NEVER EVER will I take this offroad again. EVER.

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Thanks for the DETAILED post and I hope other read it and learn.

My BIL was a mud man and he drove a Chevy Blazer, 71 IIRC. He rebuilt that Blazer even year until my sister finally divorced him after the last straw...FIRE!

YEP, he loved the mud and that blazer out ran everyone. I often went with him and WOW what a ride and fun time and yes about half the time something broke. Then there the time when I got stuck in mud. 3 wreckers could not get him out until I figured out what was wrong. Bed of his blazer was 6 ft and 4 wide. Air weights 14.7 lb per sq in x 6 ft x 4 ft = 50,803.2 lbs of weight in the bed of that truck. The wreckers tore up his frame so bad he had to cut off the front section and weld on another one.

How did we get him out? Punch holes in the bed of the truck to let the air out.

The due to all of the above he had to call another wrecker with a flat bed since his from end was so torn up.

Cost to replace and repair front axle and steering and frame? Not known but my Sis found over $5000 worth of receipts in his closet...The year was 1982.

The fire: BIL begged my Sis to not leave him (after she found a hidden shoe box of receipts for over $88k. She agreed and he took her on a vacation when the truck come back from the shop. Truck drove Ok, she said but did have a few issues on the way. So They arrive at the vaca spot and it early afternoon. So BIL wants to show how well the Blazer is working and they hit a 4x4 trail (they went to an off road park near the Hotel). He hit the trail and only got about 100 yards and engine bay was spewing flames. The truck burned to the ground, they were luck to get out of the truck as the flames had gone under it (prob a gasoline leak). Everything they had was in the truck and flames were everywhere. Sis got out with her purse and that was all.

She walked back to the highway, waved down a Jeeper and asked if he would take her to the airport. She flew home, had the locks changed on the doors of the house, put house up for sale and told him to find some other place to live...

Mud will do that!

Cost: almost $3k for wrecker service

 

[VetRiderJLU]

Well update. No alternator in sight still. So I took it upon myself to start calling dealers myself. Found one 140miles away. I left this morning and was able to buy it. Then drive it straight to my dealer. Waiting on the confirmation if it has fixed our charging issue or not. Wish me luck. Alternator was $874 from mopar. $75 core. The one they ordered for us is still not showing shipped.

 

[AlgUSF]

Well update. No alternator in sight still. So I took it upon myself to start calling dealers myself. Found one 140miles away. I left this morning and was able to buy it. Then drive it straight to my dealer. Waiting on the confirmation if it has fixed our charging issue or not. Wish me luck. Alternator was $874 from mopar. $75 core. The one they ordered for us is still not showing shipped.

All the best on this alternator. 140 miles away, was that maybe in Melbourne?

 

[VetRiderJLU]

All the best on this alternator. 140 miles away, was that maybe in Melbourne?

Palatka. And it works. $2500 total with everything.

 

[VetRiderJLU]

Palatka. And it works. $2500 total with everything.

And yet the story is not over. Half way home the jeep wanted to over heat again. Got it home and found that they in fact DID NOT rinse out the rad like they said they did. I called this morning and they wanted to tow it back and needed it for two more days due to other jobs in the way now. I said no eff that. So in the driveway, I took it all apart and rinsed it out myself. loads and loads of mud came out. And now she runs super cool. Rad fan comes on very low and it sits at around 200 now fully heat soaked. Its better than it was before actually.

Called the dealer hoping they would help me out with some money back, and they offered a free oil change and an apology. I gave up the fight and we're just happy the jeep is back and working now.

STAY AWAY FROM MUD AND WATER. We will continue to dry offroad, but no more mud or water. Not worth it.

 

[PatriotX]

Holy moly, another dealership snafu! Who’d a thunk it ?

Dang glad it’s over. I am using the bypass on mud obstacles after your thread.

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