Hi guys. I've been lurking for quite a while now but I've finally had come across an issue I actually need to post about.

I bought a 2011 Tacoma new about a year and a half ago, and I've taken it off road a LOT. However now that the new has worn off slightly, I'm looking to go farther and harder. My question is, after going through deep water, thoroughly coating EVERYTHING in mud, sand, dirt, etc, if I plan on keeping my rig until its completely used up (300k+ miles?) and I'd like to replace the bare minimum of parts, what and how deep do I need to wash? I've heard everything from removing and cleaning wheel bearings and replacing diff oil after mudding to some people saying just give it a light wash. What do you guys do?

 

Depends on how deep in water you go, if your ip too your headlights then yea change the diff oil, along with bearings , just clean everything rally, inside of the frame, underneath, and in the engine bay

 

I recently rolled over 280K on my '90 with A LOT of wheeling!! I've had it up to the windshield in water (needed to get pulled out of that one) and about a million times before in water/mud/beach creeks up to the head light level.
They make a kit for your diff vent, it's just a little piece of curly plastic tubing that replaces the little stock cap and gets hung up under the bed, I'm actually not sure if it was a kit of a DIY project I saw on this site. But it's pretty easy to measure the vent tube & buy a piece of rubber hose that size & then hang it up under the bed, but an upside down U in it so nothing can fall in.
After that I didn't get water in my diff housing any more.
I've never cleaned out/replaced the wheel bearings after wheeling, and I've only had one of the front ones go bad @~195K I went ahead and replaced both front ones at that time just to be safe. Other than that no problems.
If you end up swamping it tho, take out the seats and carpet and clean EVERYTHING with bleach to keep from getting mildew.