I avoid mud puddles. Mainly do to effort to remove mud before it makes rust babies. But there is an inexplainable draw for boys to mud puddles. I leave it now to the Jeep crews that wants to ride around with no visibility due to mud on every window and their bass box thumping. I’ll crack a beer, sit on bonnet and watch…. I’ve broken and cleaned enough in my day
You are not alone. I had my learning experience back around '92-'93 with a built up Nissan Pathfinder (don't laugh, it was a pretty capable rig). I made it through, and for some stupid reason thought I'd turn around and go back through, but I got stuck this time. Fried the engine computer (under the passenger seat), lost all the carpeting, and damaged many interior parts.
Had to rent a tow dolly and have a buddy tow it 150 miles home to my mechanic. Used ECU and she cranked up and I was off..
A month or two later the clutch went out. Turns out the pressure plate fingers rusted and eventually broke off, my mechanic at the time said he'd never seen that before (fun) and he and the Nissan parts guy I knew started calling it the 'Swamp Buggy'..
But that wasn't the end. About the same time I realized it was down on power (there wasn't much to begin with in an '89 Pathfinder), and had been burning a lot of oil. Eventually had to rebuild the engine a few months later. Mechanic said the pistons just fell out of the bores after he removed the crank (again, said he's never seen that), so obviously I ingested some nice fine silt as well)..
So yeah, I stay away from mud puddles now..
(Not to mention I hate the clean-up)
