How to Destroy a Brand New Jeep Wrangler in the Mud

The footage shows the vehicle, a 2014 Wrangler Rubicon, plowing right into a massive section of muddy terrain. At first, it seems like he’s carrying just enough speed to allow the vehicle to get through to the other side, but once the front wheels reach a puddle that’s much deeper than it seemed, the Wrangler gets stuck.

Despite the driver appearing to know his way around an offroading course (he feeds the Jeep just the right revs), the vehicle remains trapped in the mud. Still, attempting to go though such rugged terrain without wearing a snorkel and special offroad tires does mean your courage weighs more than your intelligence.

We can see plenty of steam coming out of the engine compartment, but this wasn’t an issue, as the cause was the water reaching the hot parts of the engine compartment.

We’re forced to trust the Youtube info here and it seems that this Rubicon was killed in the ordeal. To be more specific, its engine was destroyed due to the dreaded hydrolocking. In case you want to know more about the devastating effects water can have when entering your engine, you can check out our hydrolocking article.

The footage stops before we can see the engine dying, but it appears that the engine was left running while the Wrangler was being towed out of the water, with water entering the combustion chamber and causing terminal damage.

We recall a somewhat similar case taking place back in 2010, when Jeep recommended driver to avoid water fording unless depth is known to be less than 19 inches (48.2 cm). Of course, that referred to slow speed offroading, as increasing the velocity means you’re basically begging for the water to reach the air intake.

Oh well, at least the Wrangler will be back in action once it gets a heart transplant.