Whilst I am on the subject of water and maintenance, consider the following: if you are an off-road enthusiast or simply enjoying using your Land Rover to its limit, when driving consistently through deep water, especially stagnant water with much mud in suspension, you may enjoy it, but your vehicle certainly won't.
Quite simply muddy water destroys vehicles! Think about it. The mud simply eats brake disc pads, drum linings, suspension bushes, oil seals, their flanges and bearings. The poor chassis's life could be affected as well as any metal parts of the body. And if the mud does get in past the bottom door seals it won't do the carpets, if fitted, any good either.

Driving your vehicle through such areas occasionally, probably will not do much harm, but on a regular basis, expect problems and expensive maintenance.

Now, depending on what make or type of vehicle, and if it is petrol or diesel you are using, there are the following points to consider.

Having checked all fluid levels, i.e. engine oil, water, brake and clutch fluids, power steering and washer bottle, waterproofing is next, especially if you know that there is deep water to cross during the journey ahead.

Wading Plugs

All Land Rovers, Defenders, Classic Range Rovers and Discoverys have either one or two wading plugs to be fitted. Every one of the above has a threaded hole at the lowest part of the clutch ball housing. This hole should be left open for all normal on-road driving conditions.

The reason for having this hole in the first place is to allow any oil to escape that may be trapped in the bell housing coming through from either a poor crankshaft seal to the front or a poor gearbox primary shaft seal to the rear. Also, should the clutch slave cylinder fail, hydraulic fluid may be dumped into the bell housing.

Index [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]

(c)Goodwinch Limited 2006