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Well, it's not what I intended but I've driven the truck to work today at about 5* F. I had not planned to drive it on winter roads to keep the salt off.
Wife's car had a dead battery since it's been so cold for so long, so she took my daily driver and I took the truck.
Aside from the currently under-performing heater, no problems with the old 4runner!
Lol, the heaters in these do indeed underperform
i hadn't planned to drive mine this winter either, my wife and I have been carpooling, but i drove it 45 minutes to work in -5F the other day... Truck didn't get above 60-65F inside, and every time i braked i got 45 degree air from the back washing up over me
Today was -15F, my wife's 05 escape had ice on the INSIDE of the windows the whole 45 minute drive!
Lol, the heaters in these do indeed underperform
i hadn't planned to drive mine this winter either, my wife and I have been carpooling, but i drove it 45 minutes to work in -5F the other day... Truck didn't get above 60-65F inside, and every time i braked i got 45 degree air from the back washing up over me
Today was -15F, my wife's 05 escape had ice on the INSIDE of the windows the whole 45 minute drive!
Yikes! you are definitely getting it worse than us!
At lunch I left the office to go buy a new battery for the wife's Honda CRV. Had to go to two parts stores because O'reillys was sold out.
I stuck some cardboard in blocking 2/3 of the radiator on the 4runner and that raised the temp up a bit. Now the gauge points about 1/3 from bottom instead of 1/4.
I remember doing the same on my old 4runner back in the 1990's. Still think my heater core is not flowing well but it's too cold to mess with it.
Yikes! you are definitely getting it worse than us!
At lunch I left the office to go buy a new battery for the wife's Honda CRV. Had to go to two parts stores because O'reillys was sold out.
I stuck some cardboard in blocking 2/3 of the radiator on the 4runner and that raised the temp up a bit. Now the gauge points about 1/3 from bottom instead of 1/4.
I remember doing the same on my old 4runner back in the 1990's. Still think my heater core is not flowing well but it's too cold to mess with it.
What thermostat do you have? Mine always points right at the halfway point, even at -5F. I know my heater core is fine, I had it cleaned and pressure checked less than a year ago. I think the issue is just the tiny heater meant for a truck cab that's stuck in an SUV with 4x the volume of air and double the window area.
Unless you're lucky enough to have a rear center console heater option, I'm pretty sure these things will never get toasty in single digit temps. It's good enough though, and extra motivation to not drive it on salt.
What thermostat do you have? Mine always points right at the halfway point, even at -5F. I know my heater core is fine, I had it cleaned and pressure checked less than a year ago. I think the issue is just the tiny heater meant for a truck cab that's stuck in an SUV with 4x the volume of air and double the window area.
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Absolutely agree on the volume of air calculation.
I put a new 190*F stat in it recently. The one I took out was the same 88*C and the gauge reads the same.
Do you know what yours is?
Absolutely agree on the volume of air calculation.
I put a new 190*F stat in it recently. The one I took out was the same 88*C and the gauge reads the same.
Do you know what yours is?
I don't, but I assumed it was stock
I also cleaned the temp sensors and threads and put on a new radiator cap recently, maybe one of those is a factor?
AFAIK my cooling system is all stock, 22re manual trans
not sure why mine would read 1/2 when yours reads 1/4 , i would think 1/4 means your thermostat isn't even open...
Well, when I put the digi thermometer right on the Tstat housing it reads 190*F so everything is working fine. The turbo 4runners had 195* Tstats. Is yours Turbo?
Could be the sending unit isn't original in mine but I seem to recall my old 1984 4Runner showed the same on the gauge and my old 1980 20R Celica read right in the middle.
With heater on max, my '85 usually stays around 1/3 of the way up on the gauge, with occasional spikes from halfway to 2/3 up. That's with a 5 year old Spectra premium radiator (plastic/aluminum), 5 year old oem gauge sender, a new dual-valve t-stat, water pump and fan clutch, no rear heater. Maybe the radiator needs replacing soon, but appears to do it's job on +100° days on the highway.
I've got it on good word these gauges were never very accurate out of the factory and are probably worse with as old as they are now.
I'd bet with a group of 22re's running together, you'd find gauge variations, even if they were all infrared measured at the same exact temps. My 2¢ anyway.
Yea, 30 year old parts on well used trucks and who knows who replaced what part with what over the years.
Out of curiosity, do you have the SR5 gauges or single dlx gauge? I have the single. Could be a difference in the circuit there.
mine runs with the indicator at the halfway point. same basic truck as yours, efi, 5-spd, no back seat heater. it was -19* this morning, but it still eventually climbed to the middle.
that, and it does keep the front area warm, not hot.
I've also got a very basic dlx 4Runner. An a/c system that doesn't blow cold anymore was it's only dealer option. Speedo, fuel and temp gauge only. I wired in a Sunpro tach next to the gauge cluster.
Warm outside, raining and the snow is melting rapidly. Tomorrow I hope to take advantage of the thaw, get in there and have a hard look at the heater core and backflush it with the garden hose. Will report my findings.
Last edited by Melrose 4r; Jan 12, 2018 at 11:42 AM.
Then I got into the heater core flushing project. Drained a bunch of coolant and thankfully the two hoses in and out of the core came off well. I backflushed it with the garden hose and did have
somewhat of a discolored liquid come out but not all that much and it seemed to flow about evenly in each direction afterward so after pumping several gallons of water through it sealed it back up and only struggled a little with one of the hoses leaking. Are these preformed heater hoses still available from Toyota?
I put my laser thermometer on the vent with the blower and heat on high and could watch the temp increase up to 200*F when I held the engine at about 2700 rpm. Then it dropped back to about 166*F when the truck was idling.
The heat seemed adequate for the outside temp of about 37*F at the time. Tough to say if i made any difference. Will have to wait for a much colder day.
After that, I drove the truck around quite a bit because it was a nice sunny day.
Last edited by Melrose 4r; Jul 26, 2020 at 06:11 AM.
Today it's about 18*F outside. I drove the truck around to see if I could tell if the heater core flushing made the heater any more efficient.
what I confirmed is that the flow through the core is greater when the engine is at higher revs. It didn't seem much different than before. Can/do the tubes leading to/from the core ever get clogged or restricted?
I know my truck had head gasket work sometime in the las 10k miles and the antifreeze looks wonderfully clean, so I don't think it's likely they are restricted but anything is possible.
We've had unusually warm temps lately so instead of skiing I got some work in on the truck.l
1) Borrowed a buddy's turn plates and adjusted the positive camber out of the front end. After I had installed the lift blocks I was never happy with the way it looked. Realigned Toe by eyeball and test drove on the 50 mile commute to the office today.
It feels good and is tracking straight.
2) Unbolted the Trail Boss steering damper to test its operation. The piston feels great but discovered a deformed sleeve and worn bushing at the centerlink. Obviously it's been moving around. Beat the sleeve back into shape and reversed the bushing and bolted it back up. Feels like it's working better.
3) Dug into the bodywork to see just how much bondo is in there. Good news, not any worse than I thought. Bad news, I bought a patch panel of Ebay and I don't think I will use it so back on Ebay it will go.
Photo of the deformed sleeve/bushing. Can barely see it.
Photo of the body rust hole and what was under the plastic trim.
Last edited by Melrose 4r; Feb 21, 2018 at 04:04 PM.
I am now thinking I am going to use one of the Wolf Steel repair wheel arch panels to repair this.
Called Rancho Cordova Toyota recycling but they won't ship me full panel
Called Yotayard and they would, but the one available is not much better than what's on the truck
Contacted Toyota parts deal for a full factory quarter that showed available on the website but turned out no longer available.
The driver's side is much better and may not require any patching so fiberglass fenders are off the table.
[QUOTE=Melrose 4r;52391338]I am now thinking I am going to use one of the Wolf Steel repair wheel arch panels to repair this.
.[/QUOTE
You will be disappointed by their fit. Just get a driver's front fender and cut your piece from it. Much cheaper. Look on eBay for one with free shipping.
Jan 2, 2018 | 08:51 AM
