pineapple

Early February my daughter-inlaw along w/ her 3 yr old daughter and 1 yr old son drove her was about 4 blocks from their home (in Chicago) when the temp guage pegged! She called her husband (my son) and he told her to pull off the road and shut it down. She walked home carrying my grandson and gently dragging my crying granddaughter through the blowing snow! My son attempted go top off the radiator but got "very little" coolant in. When the vehicle was home, he pulled the upper rad hose and was greeted w/ the strawberry milkshake which is pictured below. When he called me (I'm in a rural area that was experiencing wind, snow & cold=drifts which my 89 toy p.u. 4x4 w/ 22re and 360k+ easily managed) I automatically thought HGs. It wasn't. The radiator/transmission cooler failed and allowed tranny fluid to mix w/ the coolant. This might save some of you from automatically thinking milkshake=blown HGs and tearing into the engine unnecessarily.

pineapple

I forgot to mention that the above was a 99 4 Runner w/ the 3.4 bit I would imagine that the problem would apply to other vehicles also.

mt_goat

Yeah getting to be a common problem in this section, I know the older section was very used to chocolate milkshakes, over here they get strawberry.

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/s...r-fail-196362/

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/b...cooler-126953/

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/s...low-up-189342/

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/s...g-crap-160648/

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/r...-fluid-116812/

ScottyC

iTrader: (1)

Replace radiator. Then flush the motor and tranny. The A/T fluid and coolant is mixing in the radiator.

pineapple

Thank you 'goat for the links. I never realized that this THIS problem existed. I guess I'll be replacing the rad in my wife's truck when I replace her TB and h20 pump.

pineapple

Thanks ScottyC, it's done.

aowRS

This is exactly why I installed a new Toyota radiator a few months ago. At 180,000 miles (at that time), I felt the trannly cooler/radiator was a ticking time bomb.

I'm now at 190,000+ and feel a certain sense of protection from that $180 purchase...


Andreas