Well this should have been a post of joy since I was able to remove the antenna motor and clean it out and get it prepared for the new mask, but turns into a cry for help. As I was getting ready to work on the antenna motor I realized my Runner is leaking a pink fluid from underneath.

I'll start off with and last night where my Runner was close to overheating. I noticed the needle was climbing into the red rather quickly. I pulled over, let it cool off and checked the coolant resivour tank which was dry. I picked up some at the gas station I stopped in at and put some in.

The pics will show you what I found today. Please tell me what it is, how bad it is and what it's going to cost to fix it. HELP ME....

 

is the pink stuff coolant or auto tranny fluid? looks like rusted out transmission cooling lines to me. Could be wrong.

 

it looks like those possibly r the coolant line leading to th rear heater unit

 

Just came to the same conclusion after looking at the FSM - rear heater unit coolant lines.

Either replace the lines to patch up the holes, or bypass it at the rad to stop the leak until it can be fixed and live with no rear heater.

 

That seems like a possibility since those two lines do go up towards the interior in the middle of the truck. How bad is that and would I be able to drive it like that?

How do I bypass it at the rad?

 

Yes, rear heater cooling lines. That would be why you ran out of coolant. Replace them, do a search this is a very common issue.

 

Well thank you to everyone who chimed in and helped. Yes it was the rear coolant lines that were bad. Well $470.00 later she is all better. Damn I need to find a good local mechanic.

 

$470?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!!??!?!?!?!?!?!

What did they do?!

 

holy jebus.thats retarded amout of money for a simple afternoon project.

 

Wow maybe I shouldn't tell you how it was only $470 because they gave me 10% off lol... It was done at the stealership and it was the only item repaired. It was $174 for parts and 3 hours of labor which was $298. I was pist having to pay, but it was much better than what some other mechanic wanted to charge me. I almost did one of these when the shop told me $800!! The stealership didn't seem so bad at that point. Someone find me a good cheap indy shop.

 

Wow $174 is a lot I think I payed somewhere around $90. And took me less than 2 hours to install.

 

87248-35061 Rear Heater Lines ($97.03)
that's what i paid a little over a month ago for mine. a few squirts of PB Blaster to loosen the nuts and some tricky finagling to get the lines out, then the same tricky finagling to get the lines in and it was done. took me a little more than an hour, not counting the time to let the PB work. if i had another person up top helping fish the lines in the engine bay it would have gone even faster. oh, i also changed and bled my cooling system after too, and bought some spray undercoat for the lines so they wouldn't corrode too soon again, although the stock ones lasted 12 years.

i would never go back to the shop that quoted $800, they sound like some shady B-stards.

 

What I want to know is what caused those rear heater lines to rust like that? I live on the gulf coast and get constant salt spray and drive on the beach allot and the heater lines on my 01 runner are still shiny if I wipe the road grime off with a rag.

Also I thought those heater lines running to the rear hear were aluminum tubing which doesn't rust. Were the earlier models steel tubing ??

 

Dumb question on this. Does every 4Runner have those lines or only if you have the rear heater?

 

I just looked at mine and they are pristine after 10 years and 120K in road salt loving northern NJ, just like Rapter (this is why I looked). They look like black anodized aluminum. They could be steel, but that would seem really stupid in a cooling system that is otherwise non-ferrous.

I suppose they could corrode from the inside, if no one ever changed the coolant fluid. This would be bad news for Rapter as the rest of the system would be compromised.

 

Someone stick a magnet to them. That would tell you boatloads. Based on that picture, those lines are definitely steel.

$470 is probably list on the parts and the "book hours" on the job is. I would do that job for $100 and pizza, plus parts.

 

I called a couple of dealerships in the area and they both told me that I would have to bring it in so they can look at it to know how much it would cost to fix. They didn't have a book time. All around sucked and now I'm trying to find a good reasonably price indy shop.

I just bought the truck about a month ago. It's previous owners are from the UPPPstate NY area.

 

If you had done a quick search [my posts are in there] you would have been able to do:

1 - quickly bypass the rear heat solely by switching a few hoses around where the rear cooleant lines run from the engine compartment. A 10 minute job max and only undoing a few clamps and reconnecting hoses.

2 - you would have found that you could replace these steel lines with rubber lines in about another 15 minutes when you had the chance.

Glad you got it done but OUCH!!

 

Bump with a link:

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/s...4runner-95352/

 

I just had this happen to me as well. Actually I was changing the transfer case fluid and as I got the bolt off my elbow smacked into this line and broke it with coolant going everywhere, including all over me

I bought some steel tubing and bent it to match the original one which is all rusted out. I plan to paint it in several coats of rust paint which will hopefully prevent it from rusting although it might from the inside anyway.

I'll just keep an eye on it from time to time but really this line seems like such a liability. It's not really protected or tucked away at all.