layifioren

Hello all, newbie here. I just bought a 1999 4runner Limited Edition with 172K miles last week from a dealer. I bought it relatively cheap because the dealer just wanted to wholesale it without fixing all the little quirks. Overall it seem like the prior owner took decent car of it.


So, 2 days ago I came back from a trip after driving about 6 hours. For some reason, after vehicle had cooled down, I decided to check the coolant reservoir and it was Vanilla milky like. Not strawberry milky but vanilla milky. I checked my oil and it was perfect. No signs of antifreeze or water mixed. I checked my transmission fluid and it was perfect also. The vehicle did not overheat throughout the trip and now I'm stunned. Do I have a blown head gasket? I am about to flush the system a few times and see what happens but has this ever happened to anyone out there? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

trx125

Looks like the auto tranny cooler in the radiator cracked and has infected your cooling system. Seems to be a common problem on the late 90's 3rd gen 4runners and 1st Tacoma's with auto tranny. Flush the entire cooling system with clean water, have vehicle running, heater on high, open the drain cock on the bottom of radiator slightly and run water into the radiator with a hose slowly, do this until the water in the radiator and coming out of the drain is clean. Let the car cool down and run a pressure test on the cooling system, this will let you know if you have a head gasket/cooling problem or just need a new radiator. The standard procedure seems to be to replace the radiator and add a bigger tranny cooler and bypass the radiator all together. Just google the problem there are many detailed write-ups on this subject.

Arnezie

I would think if that was it then he would not have good normal looking trans fluid.

trx125

Could if it's only small crack and there is more pressure on the tranny cooler side.

Arnezie

I agree if he has pink gunk but white?