Thread: Budget Family 4WD

Originally Posted by No.3

Was about to mention the same as Flyblown - electronics are not friends with water and these vehicles can handle a splash but really dislike immersion. Something as simple as water getting into a loom plug can bring up a diagnostic alert which makes the ECU think it's rooted and raise the index finger at you. It's something that can be expensive to track down and fix - but worse than that you can end up stuck in the wops with a pissed off wife and screaming kids. That ain't fun... I'm having a pesky electronic gremlin with a Ranger at the moment, it would appear from the datalogging so far to be related to an injection component not dumping pressure out of the fuel rail quickly enough but I haven't been using the thing enough on long trips to generate the fault and confirm it.

On from that, the softroaders are OK for dry work but even 'flash' vehicles like the VW 4wd's have had issues with water in their looms. I would not take them over their rated wading depth and even then I would hesitate about it.

...And that's part of the reason a Nissan Safari worth 6K 3 years ago is now selling for 25K!!!