Anyone who’s spent time with me out on the trails already knows that I like to push my equipment hard, so when my ECU housing became compromised by water I shouldn’t have been surprised. In the end, it served as a well-needed wake-up call.
The main reason behind purchasing a 200 Series Land Cruiser was due to Toyota’s reputation for reliability and the Land Cruiser’s reputation for being able to consistently take a beating and make it back home. I figured that if it’s good enough for the UN to do transportation duty in some of the most hostile places in the world, then it wouldn’t miss a beat on my never ending hunt for maple creemee’s.
Living around the DC area, “bro trucks” and other built 4×4’s that never see dirt are common place, and can mostly be seen living out their lives as glorified commuter cars. For me, that just wasn’t going to happen. I’ve always been a firm believer in utilizing my equipment for it’s intended uses and continuously trying to challenge myself in everything that I do. So when I’m presented with an obstacle or challenge I’m the type of guy that has a hard time saying no, and I usually don’t.
Fortunately I’ve always been able to get by and I attribute that to two main factors. Firstly the 200 Series Land Cruiser is a friggin tank forgiving beast; she soaks up the punishment and really makes driving off road almost as easy as navigating a parking lot. Secondly I’ve just been lucky, and I mean winning the lottery lucky. Hell, during the Vermont Overland Trophy I was essentially high centered with only one wheel on the ground and I still managed to get off the obstacle.
So on a fateful Saturday morning after I had loaded up my truck for a weekend of wheeling in West Virginia, my luck had run out. I was greeted by an epilepsy-inducing flash of dash lights usually known only in the Land Rover world. Please excuse the photo quality – at the time lighting and composition were not my focus!
The cause of the codes was eventually tracked down to a malfunctioning ECU. At some point the ECU housing was compromised from “too much good living” and allowed water to get in. Long story short electricity and water don’t get along, and I was lucky to have been stranded in my garage and not out on the trial.
Everything’s been fixed now but I have to admit that Ben was right, he’s always told me to take better care of my truck and to stop taking so many risks. I dodged a bullet on this one and I’ll be sure to take better care of my truck and the trails (and not be this guy).
Got me there, sometimes you have to go all in but I’m glad we ended up going another route.
Ha! Kind of like you wanting winch up and roll down a power line into some old ladies yard. That would have been a bad choice.