DSN46

Okay,

Can anyone tell me what the deal is with the OE tranny coolers blowing open inside the radiator? The Runners that it has happened to have all been around the 100,000 to 130,000 miles mark. I know there are threads on here of people with 250,000 miles without this problem.. so what gives?

After the last month or so of reading these threads, I'm all on pins and needles waiting for it to happen to me!!

Should all of us who have 100,000 to 130,000 miles just go out and buy new radiators so we know we are good for another 7 to 10 years? Should I run out and unhook my tranny lines from my radiator RIGHT NOW and just run my Hayden 679 alone?? I'm not joking about this folks... I cant afford this kind of crap going on right now in my life (new baby boy, moving to Florida, etc).

Thanks for any thoughts on this.

James

Nismo Convert

I would do the swap to a standalone tranny cooler asap, 150 bucks now, or 1000 later is pretty easy to justify, www.absoluteradiator.com has great service, and pretty good prices as well.

DSN46

I've got a Hayden 679 auxiliary cooler inline with the OEM one now... do you think the 679 is enough by itself?

Thanks,

James

Nismo Convert

I have no clue, I only own and have only owned Manual cars, something 6"x10"x1" should be good, not sure of the size of the particular one you have.

the_4runnin'_beast

Having used to work (and friends currently working) at a radiator supply warehouse, I will say... Change the radiator every 50k miles! =). Really you shouldn't be that worried about it. It may happen, but there is a better chance it won't. I've never had it happen to me on my '89 with over 500k miles on it.

ARB1977

It all has to do with how lucky you are. Some break and some dont. Some trucks last 250K+ and some break at 10 miles.

whitemarlin

mine blew out at 70,000 miles (five years, three weeks old)

mkgarrison5

i still dont think this is a "common" problem.. but as mile get tacked on it may or may not reveal to be a serious issue.. my tacoma 02 has 98k miles and she is fine so far. i do check my fluids atleast once a week though.

DSN46

I suppose it is easy to get all paranoid when you belong to a forum like this. We are all anal about our Runners so we notice every little thing and ask others about it. We are a very small sample of 4Runner owners in the world, so I guess since I can't really find any info about this particular problem outside of this forum, I should quit worrying.

But then again.......


Thanks,

James

Mason Dixon

I'm concerned about this too, I've had a hayden 1679 sitting around awhile and need to get it on, has anyone here bypassed the stock cooler? What are your results?

mt_goat

https://www.yotatech.com/50637548-post9.html

My 97 BMW 328i came from the factory with an external tranny cooler in front of the radiator. No internal radiator cooler. I'd say the biggest concern should be installing it in a way that gets forced air flow across the cooler. Don't just stick somewhere with dead air and keep in mind there may be times (like bumper to bumper traffic) when there isn't any air flow without a fan. Also its nice to get a cooler with a bypass for when its cold.

954rrmike

Hi guys , this is my first post on this awesome site. I did the tundra brake upgrade that I found on here and now I am concerned about bypassing this cooler. Is the cooler you recomend mt goat all that you are running and did you install it above the bumper in front of your rad? Those coolers seem to be a good product for a resionable price.

Thanks Mike
99 4 runner ltd

mt_goat

Yep just the one cooler now, I had it in front of the radiator at first (actually I had 2, then I ran one) and it worked great there but I've moved it now to behind the skid plate to help get more cool air flow to my radiator. It's a little in the danger zone there offroad but my skid plate is 1/4" steel plate and I reinforced it with some angle iron. Since I moved it to behind the skid plate I added a fan to cool it, with a Hayden 3647 controller set to come on at 180 F and a manual off switch for deep water crossings. Before just the radiator fan was cooling it. Both ways gave me nice cool temps for the tranny. As I said before 205 F is the hottest I've seen the ATF so far and that was on a 100 F day after a long drive. I haven't towed anything yet and I do have a IPT valvebody modification to my tranny because of my supercharger. I mention the valvebody mod because it does help the tranny run cooler with increased flow to the cooler and quicker shifts.




You can get the same cooler on ebay for a better deal.

954rrmike

Has anyone else bypassed their cooler yet to a external one? I don't want this to happen to me. Have these issues happened on a rig other than a 99?

Thanks Mike

SPDGG

This has probably been brought up before, but found this while searching for this topic:

http://www.hboss.net/4runner/tranny-cooler-install.htm

Have a good one.

954rrmike

That is not a bad write up, but he is not bypassing the oe cooler. I think there is alot of guys on here wondering if we will be safe running a good size external cooler without a fan hooked to it. Any info would be great.

Thanks Mike

DSN46

Thats what I am wondering myself.

James

KZN185W

iTrader: (1)

Dale,

I have the TRD Aux ATF cooler and is currently setup such that the ATF goes through the stock rad cooler then to the TRD cooler. I'm thinking of bypassing the stock cooler and adding another TRD ATF cooler. would that be enough to protect the tranny during 110 deg F (40 deg C) and heavy traffic?

Thanks.

mt_goat

I think so if at least one of them is getting forced air (fan). Heavy traffic means stopped or moving very slow, so a fan is a must. Either in front of the radiator fan or with a seperate little fan mounted directly on it. I've found that the motorcycle radiator fans work great for these ATF coolers and you can find used ones pretty cheap on ebay (I got one for about $10 once). If you go that route look for the fans with a little bracket/guard that goes all the way around the fan blades as that makes installing them easy. Here's a couple I got off ebay:


When I ran 2 coolers directly in front of the radiator it was over-kill and I removed one of them. Just running one in front of the radiator (rad cooler bypassed) was plenty of cooling even for 100+ degree days in city traffic. Of course your results may vary, I'd recommend a trans temp gauge to know for sure.

My biggest worry about bypassing the rad cooler is over-cooling in the winter, and those TRD coolers don't have a built-in bypass passage like these do:
http://www.importperformancetrans.com/coolers.shtml

KZN185W

iTrader: (1)

Thanks Dale.

I currently have the TRD cooler up front and would like to install the 2nd one beside it. I guess the engine fan can take care of it (Did I understand your reply correctly?).

There's no winter here in the Philippines.

Thanks again Dale!