Pretty curious...

How many coolant hoses are there in 97 4R SR5 Auto (or in general for any 4R)?

Among them, how many needs to be replaced at what miles/years interval?

If they needs to be all replaced at certain years/miles, why doesn't owners manual (service manual) include them as regular maintenance items such as replace timing belt etc at every 5k miles etc.....?

In general (for any auto), can we know whether certain hose needs to be replaced by examining visually or so? or hose rupture is something no one can predict like timing belt............

Thank you

 

Well it depends on if you have the rear seat heater or not. But ball park I think there is about 10-12 coolant hoses.

My runner has 230K miles on it and I've randomly replaced 3 hoses and they all looked perfectly fine. So I don't think hoses are a "scheduled" sevrice item.

Most of the automotive hoses Toyota has used since the mid-90s are really good hoses and if you keep the cooling system chemistry in proper order then they will last ALONG time.

Also if you do get the urge to replace them all, you better be a good contortionist because some of those heater hoses by the firewire are a nightmare to replace.

 

I just found that the metal lines going to my rear seat heater are corroded and I am losing a little coolant every day. I haven't had any success finding the part numbers for the two lines (one to and one from the rear heater).

I have a '99 SR5 with about 150K. I would suggest checking these lines if you have rear heat and you suspect that a hose may be leaking.

I would suspect that these two parts are available since they are bent metal lines. I haven't been able to locate part numbers for them at this point.

 

where are the back heater lines located?

I replace my coolant hoses about 30k miles. It may be premature but living in the desert takes a tole on things.

 

They exit they engine compartment on the passenger side then go back along the frame and up into the bottom of the 4runner under the rear passenger seat.

Where they enter under the rear passenger seat they are surrounded by a metal protective cover.

 

3ykGL

I order the parts from toyota of Richardson and replaced them. About $70. You are correct about being a contortionist on this one. It took some manipulating, but I got them in and the problem if fixed.

 

On a '99, it's "Water Pipe Sub-assembly" Part # 87248-35060. This appears to have been replaced by 87248-35061.Linky: ToyotaPartsZone, $75 and change.

Edit: Ooops, didn't see your last post....

 

In case anyone else runs across this thread when looking to replace the rear heater lines, I thought I would post my findings. I have a '96 4Runner and the 87248-35061 part number only seemed to be for 2000 and newer 3rd gen 4Runners. After doing a lot of research, I found the following:

1995.11-1998.07 part # 87248-35050
1998.07-1999.11 part # 87248-35060
1999.12-xxxx.xx part # 87248-35061

I called a dealership and was able to confirm that the newest part number (87248-35061) works for all 3rd gen 4Runners. My guess is that due to issues with rusting out, Toyota made some changes to the line and changed the part number. The list price is $109.80, but you can find it as low as ~$86 online if you want to stay stock and not bypass the rear heater.

I found www.villagetoyotaparts.com website to be very helpful as it has product images and part numbers for everything, similar to what you see on the computers at a dealership.

 

My friend's '98 started losing coolant quite rapidly a few years ago. After some investigation, we found that the hard lines leading to the rear seat heater were leaking in numerous places. Since he never used the rear heater, we bypassed the entire system by inserting a nicely-bent section of brake line between the supply & return lines at the firewall. If I remember correctly, these lines are right where the rear seat switching valve is. Works perfectly to this day.


Andreas