I pulled up in front of my house yesterday and found a nice dripping pool of slime green radiator juice flowing from under my 'runner. I couldn't see where the leak was coming from, but it was behind the engine on the passanger side by the transmission. I got white smoke from coolant dripping onto my exhaust. Man that stuff stinks. Anyway, I let it cool, checked the radiator, and it was still pretty much full, so I just drove it to the local shop near me. They found it was this old soft rotten J shaped hose, but I have no idea where it went to what it does, so if you could take a peek at it and let me know what I'm working with here, I'd happily forget all about this and never speak of it again



with Bic lighter for common scale reference:

 

Rear heater core?

 

I suppose, but I didnt think the heater core was right there next to the engine like that. You sure?

 

no its not the heater hose, I think its called the water by pass hose it is on the back with all the sensors . I dont know what it its for though.

 

here is a pic of where it goes.

 

Oh. I thought you said something about it being above the tranny....
I guess I cant read when im tired sorry

 

thanks! at least I know where it is and what its called... if only I knew what the durn thing did now...

 

It's right there in the FSM screen capture; water bypass outlet hose.

 

That's it; I know it well. The one in my 4Runner had a pinhole leak as well. Real fun to replace.

 

Take the hood off and it's MUCH MUCH MUCH easier! 4 bolts & you can have it off in 2 minutes.

 

It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to just take the plenum off and replace the heater hases as well as the the ones that go to the throttle body. And you can probably find something that will work in the pre-formed hose section of autozone, I don't like overpaying for hoses at the stealership.

 

well, I gave mine to the garage the night before last and got it back yesterday at noon, which is nice. I told the guy to get stealership OEM parts because I don't like re-fixing stupid cheap parts. I had to replace what my mechanic in Los Angeles called a 'micky mouse' radiator and water pump that were total crap the P.O. put on the truck. I only got charged 1 hour of labor, $22 for the hose (ouch, but not that bad in the grand scheme of things) and a jug of coolant.

 

I agree, I had to do that hose on my Runner over the winter, I took the hood off and it was way easier than when I tried it with the hood on.

I used long handle needle nose and it wasn't too bad, especially since the hose was so rotten it kind of disintegrated when I pulled on it. Still cuts your hands up pretty good on the plenum and firewall, but I could do it again (and probably will have to on my pickup soon) in like 20 minutes.

I got the part at the dealer for $15. So $15 and about 45 minutes, not too bad of a job, of course it's in the worst possible place there is on the motor.