So, imagine you let some friends borrow your car, and when you're in bed, sleeping a good sleep, one of them calls and says, "Hey, we were driving your car, and as soon as we got out of the parking lot, there was a loud noise, and something fell out.

I said, "OK, I'll be down there in a little while", with hundreds of scenarios running through my mind.

Ran down to my car, and twenty feet away I see a puddle of antifreeze spreading across the asphalt like blood in a murder scene. The fan exploded, I mean every fin is sheared off, even a chunk of the middle hub is gone, and it punched 3-4 good sized holes in the radiator. I could put my pinky in one of them. The insulation was shredded, but nothing else was damaged. I think the fan clutch is OK too, it wasn't locked up.

Sigh...of course the fan couldn't have just taken itself out...It had to take down a much more expensive part along with it.

Any particularities involved with changing out a 2 gen 4Runner radiator? I guess I'll be dumping fluid all over the parking lot...If it's not all gone already haha...

 

man that sux...

it's a pretty straight forward job; drain it (even though most may be already gone), disconnect the upper and lower hoses, and since the fan's not there you can probably leave the shroud on the rad, just unbolt the rad with the 4 bolts on it, and lift it out.

when putting it all back together, I'd recommend getting new hoses too, cuz the fan shrapnel may have punctured a pin hole in one that you can't see

 

Ouch! I feel for you. It's even worse when you weren't the one driving it.

Changing out a 2nd gen radiator is really easy. I did mine from drain to fill in a couple of hours. Good luck.

Andy

 

wow that sucks, this is the reason why the only person who drives my truck is me.
anyway, no nothin complicated really, just put back together the way it fell out,
the hardest part is going to be paying for the radiator, oh and dont forget to drain your anti freeze when taking the old one out.

 

if there are any hoses that are just hanging after you put in the new radiator, you have definatley done something wrong by the way.

 

the same problem just happened to my friends ford( minus the friends drivingg it part) sorry to hear it. good luck fixing it

 

Ha, the shroud is totally gone. It was another casualty, I just forgot to mention it. Hmmm...Does that really need to be replaced? Will a new one come with it...?

 

Yeah I'm thinking this is the end of people borrowing my car. Besides, everytime I get it back it's with some b****ing about how it doesn't take hills well.

I don't know why people expect an 18 year old vehicle to go 55 miles per hour up mountain grades 7000 above sea level. It's not a freakin' sports car. It's an old truck.

 

Nah, the shround would be seperate. You may be able to find one in a scrap yard, but if it was doing fine before (not overhearting or anything), then I wouldn't bother putting one back on. I'd recomment getting a hold of one because it will help keep air moving through the rad better, but the rad is just the rad in the box, the shroud bolts to it...

you could always spend a little extra cash after putting in a new rad and get rid of the fan clutch all together and put in an electric fan

that's my plans for the future N E way...

 

yeah my shroud isnt on my trail rig and the rad fin are kinda rotting.. so im gonna get a new rad and do a tarus fan!!!

just finished the brake lines today and i am a clutch , cv axle and a peice of rubber hose to fix a small portion of gas line away from getting back on the trail!!!!!!!

 

Really easy to do. I did it mostly one handed after my accident. Go to a Toyota junk yard and pull on out of a truck.

 

Agreed with the old truck part said above.
It isn't a sports car, its a dependable truck. Plan ahead rather than complain. If someone complains about my truck, I tell them its okay I will drive it from now on.
But, for the most part everyone loves my 4runner.

 

Is it a V6 or 4cyl?

 

It's a V6. The 3.slow.

 

You know, I think what happened is that when I got it worked on a few months ago, the guys who put it back together might have left a bolt of the fan shroud and it fell into the fan.

I bet that's why the shroud is completely gone ans why every single blade is broken off the fan.

 

My friends 3.0 4Runner recently grenaded the fan. It took out, ready for this? The fan shroud, washer fluid tank, battery, resonator (for air intake). . The radiator was not damaged.

 

It could have been worse, thats for sure.

 

You do need the fan shroud, its purpose is so the fan draws air through the radiator for better cooling, with out it your truck will run hotter.

 

Holy crap...As long as I don't find more damage I guess I'll count myself lucky.

 

Sometimes on the V6 the fan bracket fails and takes everything with it. That's the housing that looks like a waterpump but really is just a bearing in a cast housing that supports the fan. You might check it to see if the housing is cracked or broken.