Hey all,

It's been a few months since I have been here. I've finally located what I believe to be an excellent 4runner. Clean car fax, drives great, practically no rust, good maintenance, and I have looked at all the trouble spots.

My main concern is the radiator. Truck is an 02 limited and has 137k miles on it, and before I pull the trigger I am going to pull the transmission dipstick and also look at the coolant.

Is there anything else to look at so to avoid the pink milkshake?

Finally, for the price of $100-150 should I go ahead and just replace the radiator as soon as I get the truck.

Glad to be here. (mods, please move if this is in the wrong place).

thanks,

Matt

 

OK Welcome......What leads you to believe the Rad is bad? I would say the oil filler cap inside would be milky if there was a problem.

 

Nothing makes me think it is bad, the truck is in excellent condition. Just reading horror stories so trying to be on the safe side. (reading what to look for when buying a 3rd gen, so I'd rather be safe than sorry)

Oil filler cap...you mean for the transmission right? Sorry for the newbie questions.

thanks Teuf!

 

Throw on an external trans cooler and bypass the stock one and that will eliminate your risk of milkshake

 

.....of the strawberry flavor. Coolant (or enough accumulated moisture in oil from short runs) mixing with oil yields the creamy chocolate gunk under the oil fill cap.

 

I'm going to put an external cooler on it to be safe. I will research the best models. thanks all!

 

Most go with B&M 70268 or TruCool 4544.

 

thanks, looks like I'll be ordering one of those up shortly, and getting some real brackets. The mods are just starting!

 

Oil filler cap.......