Greetings! New here and new to old Toys. A brief intro; We moved to Az from Pa in 05 to escape the ever longer and grayer winters. I've had an 86 Samurai tintop for 5 or 6 years that we use for light offroading and around town running. It's great but too small for when friends come to escape east coast weather. Found this 89 SR5 4Runner with 145K, all stock, 3.0/auto, tranny & t-case reported rebuilt @ 130K. Seemed like an honest straight truck so we bought it. Problem is when we took it on the first 20 mile drive that included some interstate and 2 lane driving the tranny hot light came on and it spit fluid out the overflow vent (I guess). We drained the fluid and dropped the pan. Some sludge on the magnets, the filter didn't look bad. New filter and Mobil 1 and still the same. I got an infared thermometer from work and started checking temps after a 10 mile drive and found that the lines to and from the radiator are both in the 110/120 range when the pan is reading over 200 indicating no flow or low flow to the rad.

1st question: Is it "normal" for the lines or the tube in the rad to get plugged? Or is the problem probably inside the tranny? It seems to work normally.

2nd question: Which line is which?

3rd: What is ECT? The button seems to be broken.

Thanks for any help!

Jeff

 

No it's not normal for the lines to get plugged, I'm not sure which line is which, there's a write up on a transmission oil cooler install on 4x4 wire that might help you figure that out, the ECT is the electronic transmission shift control, it basically just winds out the shifts so it shifts a little harder. That's not an exact technical description but it gives you an idea. I wouldn't use it at all personally. The ECT light should come on in the dash if it's on.