vmaxjohn

I was shocked the other day when our '92 started to over heat! Upon a quick inspection, there was no coolant visible in the radiator, oh crap. I caught it before the gauge redlined though, and made it home with the heater on, coasting now and then.

Since we've bought it, the block froze partially in Ontario, but ran ok, and thawed out in a garage. Made the trip home trouble free. Once I got it home and checked the coolant, it was half green and half red and only protected down to -7*! WTF?

I was told by the previous owner that the head gaskets and water pump was replaced under warranty at roughly 100k miles by my local dealer, who's now out of business. There's a sticker on the firewall saying as much.

So, I'm left with a couple of explanations:

1., I didn't get the hoses tight enough when I put belts on and new coolant last fall, but I have no leaks on the driveway.

2., I get a 'air-in-the-heater-lines' sound at idle and during slower rpms, making me think the coolant is low. It never really changes much, regardless of coolant level.

3., The jackholes who did the work at the dealer screwed the pooch, and I'm stuck with something that runs but sucks antifreeze, although I have never had a white cloud of sticky fog chasing me around.

Any spiritual advice available out there in 4runner land?

atarinaper

id check that head gasket and head out.... cause it might be forming some milkshake in your engine. Check your oil too, you dont wanna end up like me.

seafarinman

Check your radiator cap. The spring could be weak and not holding the pressure in. It happened with my friend's Heep ZJ yesterday.:pat:

Robinhood150

I'm afraid you should take a look at the headgaskets . I had a rough idle and the gurgling sound in the heat core, but no white clouds. Do the usual, check for a milky substance under the oil cap. If that doesn't show anything then have a shop do a block test. They test the antifreeze to see if there are combustion contaminants.

vmaxjohn

Everything checks out though. When the over heating happened, there was definately pressure at the cap, and the oil still looks clean. Thanks Amsoil!

Anyway, I'm puzzled with it. So what do I do? Load up the gear and head for the woods, what breaks was weak, I figure.

I think I will give Toyota a call and see what kind of warranty is on the service the jackholes did, it's not many miles ago!

AgRunner06

I was told that they should warranty the work at any dealer. I think the warranty is for 1yr/12K on the HG work. I hope everything works out ok.

Good Luck

vmaxjohn

Thanks! I'll be giving someone a hard time this week.

How much does a used 96+ 3.4 go for?hehe

doink

sorry, no advice here, but im amazed that you use the word jackhole too!! i use it and my friends dont know what to do with themselves...good luck though on your runner situation

TOR

If your coolant is red and green this can only mean one thing. You have after market coolant and Toyota coolant in it. This is not a good thing! First off I work in Toyota of Richardson's part department in Texas and we see this all the time. The two together will cause a chemical reaction that will eat away at your seals and could cause, over time, the two to decipitate with no mechanical explanation. Long story short, do a complete radiator flush and then fill with only Toyota Antifreeze. It should be the only red coolant you can find on the market. I can get it to you for $20.04 for both gallons plus shipping. Let me know.

Todd

vmaxjohn

That's great Todd! I have one full gallon of red stuff I bought for my truck, but never had to open it.

When I did the belts and coolant change on the 4runner, my only option was using Prestone. I pulled the bottom hose and drained everything as good as I could, and the coolant still checks out as I mixed it. I needed protection down past 40below!

I'm about to call my closest Toyota dealer and see what they can do for me.

Thanks for all the help!

Brown

Prestone now makes a red antifreeze as well-- don't know what the product name is. And Texaco has been making Dex-Cool for a long time. It's red as well. I just did a complete flush of my system (actually several flushes because it was so nasty). I used water only to flush it, and then replaced with 50/50 of Dex-Cool and water. I used the same antifreeze on my old Toyota as well. I haven't had any problems with Dex-Cool.

BTW, what's "decipitate" mean?

Cebby

Webster's Dictionary doesn't know either (nor do I)...

Brown

How often do you have to add coolant? If it takes a long time to go down, you may have leaks at the heater hoses inside the engine compartment. Also, I'm not sure if the V6 is the same way, but on my 22re I have a coolant hose going to the throttle body. You may want to check for leaks there as well. A slow leak (one that doesn't show up on the driveway) over an extended period of time could be causing your coolant loss. If there are no signs of leakage into the combustion chamber or crankcase, it's got to be going somewhere!

As for the overheating-- did you check to see if the thermostat was opening? That may need to be replaced as well.

Good luck.

TOR

Ok, I should have corrected my statement about the Toyota coolant being the only red on the market. It is ONE of the only red coolants on the market. As for "decipitate", it means to slowly fade or disappear. As for when it should be changed, we recommend a change with our coolant every 30k. The other thing I would check if you haven't already is your water pump. These are notorius for leaking after 75K but you never know it until you change your timing belt or do other internal work. My heavy line guys have told me the water pump is ofter culprit in timing belts breaking prematurely. Due to the corrosive chemicals in the coolant. Let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Todd

runningman

some of the 4runners have green coolant and you shouldn't switch, my '95 does and when i talked to the dealer they said it needs the green and not the red so check before you switch.

TOR

Interesting I asked my back counter guys and two of the technicians here and all said the color doesn't make a difference. One of the heavy line guys here seems to think you have a head gasket going out if it isn't the coolant issue though.

PirateFins

FYI there is a class action lawsuit against GM and the makers of Dex-Cool. It causes a reaction with rubber gaskets and also some metal cooling system pieces (radiator fins, etc..) and can cause pre-mature failure of the components, basicaly causes them to melt. My father is a participant in the lawsuit, he has a GMC Jimmy that the Dex-Cool ate away his intake gasket and caused alot of problems simmilar to a head gasket failure.
Just to let you know.
Brad

Brown

Ahhhhh! Dissipate!

Got it, I've been trying to figure that out for the last 2 hours!:pat:

I was thinking....

"decapitate"

"precipitate" (chemical term)

"de-capacitate".. which is a word I made up to fit the sentence.

Whew! I feel better now. My small brain can go back to mindlessly surfing Yotatech.

Brown

Really? You got any more info on this?

Brown

Brad,
I started to do some research on this topic. So far, I've come up with allegations to this fact that you state in your post, but no testing facts. I also saw where the lawsuit has been filed. However, I also read statements here that the problem is not the coolant, but the material for the gasket and possible contamination to the cooling system.

It looks like a lot of people on ConsumerAffairs.com are having the same problems as your father. Some of it looks to be the way the cooling system was designed, esp. the radiator cap.

Texaco's site has good info on the coolant.

By my own admission, you can't believe everything you read on the internet, but this is what I've come up with so far-- some for and some against Dex-cool.

I will definitely stay tuned, though, as I don't want any of this to happen to my truck. Thanks for alerting me to the lawsuit.