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1998 wading

captainfire576

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Year, Model & Trim Level
1998 Ford Explorer 4.0L
Hi, I have recently bought a 1998 Ford Explorer (stop giggling).

I have mainly got it so I don't get stuck in the snow and to sleep inn the back. I not going to do serious off roading, but seeing as rains about 300 days a year here, I will end up driving through flood water. So I was wondering what is the maximum wading depth I can expect to get a way with in my unmodified Explorer? I have heard "To the bottom of the hubs" but my old Corsa was better than that! In the manual it does mention that you may have to change the oil in the diffs and transfer box if they get submerged. I am not going to get inn to extending the breathers and all that as I won't be doing it that often. I am also well aware that water kills cars.

Can anybody help? Thanks.
 



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I've had mine in about 3' for a short time. As long as you don't suck water through the intake, you should be fine. Check the weather stripping around your doors though. Lol.
 






3 feet? The intake is quite high. If that is the limiting factor, the wading depth would be awesome!
 






Air intake is at headlight height, so your diff and transmission vents are what you should worry about. I've been in over 2' of water quite a few times and my diff oil still looked pretty good when changed, but if I was expecting regular floods I'd extend the diff and transmission breathers. At the simplest it's just some hose and clamps, so honestly, it's too easy and cheap to NOT do it if you see that much rain.
 






Are there instructions posted on this website for doing it or can you point me in the right direction?
 












Are there instructions posted on this website for doing it or can you point me in the right direction?

Never seen an actual howto... but you might want to look at this thread and ask about the kit used by glenn_a. It looks clean.
 












You bought a 1998 Explorer? Why would you expect that anyone on this forum would be giggling? Apart from the fact that Americans don't, as a rule, giggle.

Your maximum wading height will be as high as the breather tubes are on your diffs, transmission and transfer case.

Which should be about the top of your wheel height.

But you should actually get under your car and see if a) the breather tubes are connected b) the tubes don't have any cracks in them because if you can't ascertain a & b then don't blame anybody here if you bugger up your drive train.

It's not really that hard to to put longer tubes on and the benefit is so great if you expect to go deep wading even once.

Don't forget your engine cooling fan will try to chew your radiator if it dips in the water.
 






Saw this old thread and thought I would put in my 2p. Flooding up here with significant ice (Canada). 18 inches or so of water but 4 to 6 inches of broken ice in it so ice breaker and boat all in one. Really slow so as not to destroy anything and about a mile of wading. Check engine light comes on but no change in running of vehicle. Check engine light did not go away so pull out the obd II reader and get code P0196 Engine oil temperature. The long wade flash cooled the oil and the system thought the sensor was buggered. Cleared the code and all is fine now. Interesting "feature" though. This was on my 5th Explorer, an 07 but probably similar symptoms will occur on earlier models.
 






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