Sorry All,

I tried searching but my dial up connection I found is soo slow. I've found a couple but they don't really answer my question. So..

00 4runner 220,000km 5spd.
Normally my wife drives it and she is away for a week so I can't talk to her, however last night.. notice the heat climbing. pulled over.. no fluid in overflow. Luckly had another car with me so got some fluid, once it cooled, pulled the rad cap off.. empty... more or less, put about 3/4 of a jug of coolant (50/50 mix) which included the overflow aout 3/4 full.

next stop.. 1 hour.. went through some fluid in the overflow, rad still good.
topped off with remaining 1/4 of the jug.

Upnorth about 1.5 hours.. overflow now down to about 1/4.

I have no idea if the vehicle overheated before with the wife driving. (I had it last weekend and it was fine, but it was raining hard the whole way home)

Up at a cottage with not many tools looked at the oil looks clean no milky residue, oil cap same.. looks ok.. no obvious leaks in rad, hoses etc.

I've got a call into the mechanic that does my major stuff. I'm hoping I can get some more coolant to make the 2hr drive home to the mechanic.

Any advice.
I'm assuming I need coolant not just water,
I guess there is an issue with driving it home and contaminating the oil but is it ok if I get an oil change Monday with the overall figuring out what is wrong. (assuming it is likely a HG?)
Are there any places prone to leak? other than major component like block or HG?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Tom

 

coolant leaking into trans through cooler in radiator?

 

No, its a 5speed. Good thought.

 

water is fine as long as it ain't gonna freeze


you haz rear heater ? the feed tubes to that are common things
to leak around this time

nothing else is really known to leak for no good reason. rear heater
tubes corrode in salty environments if you like to platz snowbanks like I do

 

Keep an eye around your thermostat and water pump for leaks. Those ones can be tough to see sometimes.

 

I was always told to use distilled water instead of reg. water. Don't know if it makes a difference though.

 

regular water is just fine as long as it is above freezing out, it actually has better cooling properties anyway (though it may boil faster when overheating and disappear quicker, not sure)

 

Great imput guys.. Rear heater was like that on my 92.. but I think the rear heat is now from the fan under passenger seat.\

I'll put some water in it for now.. I've taken a couple of looks around, bottom hoses, bottom of rad.. no evident leaks.

I'll crawl uder and take a closer look

 

Yeah, the heat under the passenger seat comes from a fan blowing across coolant in the 3rd gens, so it can still leak there

 

use regular water in a temporary scenario. hell use pond water.

but if you use water continually there is risk of mineral buildup and cloggage, hence distilled water only for long-term. in emergency, or short term, anything
works.

 

where do you tink the rear heat actually comes from via the fan under the pass seat, spacewarp or sumting ? LOL
u haz rear heater and tubes that feed it

 

i used water when i had a leaky head gasket its fine just make sure itdoesnt freeze sounds like you might have an internally leaking head gasket

 

Are the rear heater lines the ones that are on the passenger side, inside frame side, close to the exhaust pipe?

I had noticed those lines "they look like brake lines" were getting rusty, mentioned it to the service guy at the dealer when I was picking up a new fuel pump, he told me fuel or brake line, which I thought didn't make sense next to exhaust"

Anyway I just crawled under there and they are wet.. so likely the source of the leak. I'll see if I can figure out a way to cap it off until I can get back to civilization and replace the line.

If someone could just confirm that these are the coolant lines... I'll trace it back but it is always great getting a confirmation from you guys.

The lines run to about the passenger seat where they are covered by a boot.

My question next week will be .. how do I replace them. anyone have experience with this?

Thanks again everyone.. (And here I thought that fan just blew hot air from the floor of the front.. lol.. ) probablyl shouldn't admit to that...

Thanks everyone.

Tom

 

well, your brakes run on the other side, to the rear axle where they split to left/right, your fuel is also on the other side (DS) by frame. My guess is that those are your coolant, especially if they are two similar ones, they sound familiar from when I was looking around on my truck a week ago or so. Should be easy to trace somewhere

 

update.

I just bypassed the two lines going to the rear heater, (used the existing hose and basically routed it to itself.

Topped up the overflow tank to a line I made last night on the tank.. and I'm going to go to town and see if that was the problem.

The lines did look wet and very rusty right at the bend where the exhaust and lines go from the firewall to under the floor.

One question.. there is a pipe/fitting type thing coming out of the firewall with no hose.. I'm assuming this is for the air conditioner as I didn't find any other hoses or possible receiving fittings. (never noticed the pipe before but then I guess I wasn't looking)

Can anyone confirm this is a fitting for the air conditioning? Please...

thanks
Tom

 

Yes.. noticed the fuel line last week .. didn't follow those two lines up.. should have.. and I should have replaced them earlier... anyway.. hopefully got the problem.

Thanks for your help.

 

cool, get an update once you've determined whether or not this was the problem (hopefully it was, sorta easy fix)

Should be right on AC, not sure though, I've never poked around to verify... turn on AC and see if water comes out

 

thanks eveyone for your help.

After bypassing the rear heat everything seems fine. No loss in fluid, operating temp good.

I've got my fingers crossed that it never heated up enough to do any damage.

BTW.. that pipe out of the AC drips water when AC on. So looks like it is just to wick water from the system.

Thanks again for all your help.. much appreciated.!!

Tom

 

both my runners did the same thing.. i havent hooked either rear heater up because i have no u se for them!!! i just bybassed with the hoses that were on there!

 

wait - people still have dial-up connections?