Been reading and searching for hours. There are no posts that cover this. Please help!

A week ago my inlet transmission oil line on my radiator and had to get a new radiator. I bought a third-party radiator, a thermostat and seal from Napa, radiator coolant from Toyota and the Dextron III oil.

I have everything together and burped it a bunch.

My temperature gauge gets to normal (about 8 o'clock on the dash) and after some driving starts to go higher. I have never seen the gauge higher than 8 o'clock. The check engine light was on for maybe an hour and after burping again went away and has not come back on.

It gets near the red zone and if I blast the heat it goes back to normal in less than 10 seconds. What also works is if it gets near the red zone I stomp on it and it drops to normal after4 or 5 seconds.

I had to solder a new wire connector on to the temp gauge that sits on the upper radiator connector but I think this isn't the problem.

New radiator is holding pressure and seems to work fine.

Why would flooring it cool it down? Turning heat on sounds like heater core or AC related. The motor oil does seem to get really hot and wondering if it's the oil coolant radiator? Any ideas? It will idle and very gradually the gauge rises - but takes over ten minutes..

On the highway it gets near red and I blast heat for 6 seconds and it's back to normal. Takes another 3 or 4 minutes for the temp to get high again. Ready to take her in and see what they say.

 

Also, I noticed that both radiators were about the same temp - warm but not incredibly hot.

 

Mine does this sometimes too... my guy said it was in the cluster, because he stuck a gauge in the radiator to see if it was getting hot and it wasn't...curious if you learn anything other than me....subscribed

 

Both radiators? Please clarify. Is the new radiator the same size, style as the old one? Is the radiator hose collapsing? When you burped it, did you have it so the rad cap is at the highest point i.e. pointed up hill or on jack stands?

Suppose the t-stat you put in may not be opening properly. You can suspend it in a pan of water with a dial thermometer and see if it opens at the marked temperature.

What coolant to water mix are you using? Somewhere around 60/40 to 50/50 coolant to water?

 

I would get an oem tstat first and install it with the jiggle valve in the 6 o'clock position. If that doesnt work my thought is that your water pump may be going bad.

 

Yea if the temp is "wondering" that much i would verify it in the engine compartment with a temp lazer or "gun." Check around thermostat, hoses, coolant passages, radiator, even cylinder and see if the temperature is and or bellow 220. If so then you have a faulty temp sensor and or instrument cluster gauge.

However if in fact it is running hot it seems like a water pump problem and or a blockage.

Fell radiator hoses... both hot? One far "cooler" than the other?

 

When burping the rad cap is at the highest point. I didn't have to lift the front. I pushed the upper rad hose down and squeezed it a few times with the heater cranked and got a few bubbles out.

Mix is about 50/50 with the Toy extended life.


On the thermostat I thought the jiggle valve was supposed to be at 12 o'clock? That's where the factory one was when I removed it.

When I say BOTH radiators I mean the engine oil cooler that looks like a radiator that sits directly in front of the actual engine coolant radiator. The new radiator is an exact copy of the original in every way.

The lower hose is cooler and the upper hose gets pretty hot.

I can feel pressure in the system when it's been running. The hoses never feel "full" of water though. Are they supposed to be?

QUESTION: if the thermostat wasn't seated properly what would the symptoms be? How would it act?

 

Here's the radiator I used: LINK

I NEVER use parts from Autozone or AdvancedAuto - Napa maybe.

 

Jiggle valve down. Been confirmed here.

 

I assume you're joking. What is a Jiggle valve?

 

Wait - long day. Jiggle valve on thermostat. Got it.

 

My $.02.... Get the front end up as high as possible, and burp her some more! These rigs can be difficult to get all the air out, in some cases, I have actually had to run the rig for 30min with the rad cap off, and heater on full blast. Dont forget the rear heater too ;-)

 

I'm going to give that a shot

 

I'd suspect the Jiggle valve too. Make sure the jiggle valve is at 6 o'clock it made 15 degrees of difference in operating temp on mine when I installed it at 12.

 

OP appears to have the 2.7L engine, not the 3.4L....the FSM specifies +/- 15 deg of 12 o'clock position:
http://www.ncttora.com/fsm/2003/Repa.../ther/inst.pdf

It is true that the FSM calls for 6 o'clock on the 3.4L 5vz-fe and several have experienced lower temps in the 6 position vs. the 12 position on the 3.4L.

 

I could swear I read one of the Toyota manuals for replacing thermostat on a 2.7l to place the jiggle at 12. Should I ignore that and give the 6 o'clock position a shot?

 

It wouldnt hurt.

 

The link is in post 15 above that shows 12. You could try 6 as a comparison.

 

Just found out what it was. Combo of 2 things - bad fan clutch and faulty new napa thermostat. Done and done.

 

Cool! I hate it when the new t-stat is bad out of the box.