So we hit the road on another reassignment with the military and before we go I put back on the factory skid plate. The day prior I took it off to get my steering rack bushings put in. We make it about 1 mile and I start hearing a pretty loud popping noise. I feel it occasionally in my brake pedal and accelerator pedal. So I pull over in a parking lot and take off the skid plate to see if that helped matters. I get back on the road and it pops for about 2-3 minutes and goes away.

I drive for another 30-40 miles and now I can hear a gravelly type noise. I immediately pull over at the next exit and discover that I’m leaking engine coolant around the radiator area. Limp it over to a shop nearby and the mechanic thinks it’s coming from the bottom radiator reservoir. The part that is plastic for some odd reason.

So the question is, did my skid plate crack the radiator somehow? I put on a lift about 2-3 weeks ago and haven’t had my skid plate on up until today. No issues at all until the moment I bolted it back on. I put the skid plate spacers in the front. The diagram I had didn’t indicate which bolt area they were suppose to go in.

I’m thinking it might be my water pump too. The popping and gravel noise could have been the bearing wearing and going. Plus it leaked more when the engine was turned off.

Question is, is it possible to do a hasty repair (stop leak) to the water pump to make it home on our trip? I’m got about 700 miles to go

I don’t have any kind of spacers or anything for my stock skid plate. Sorry if that doesn’t help - but are you sure it’s stock?

As long as you didn’t overheat you should be fine, a radiator isn’t supposed to be expensive to replace, though I haven’t done it myself.


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If it's an automatic you should pull the dipstick and make sure the fluid is a nice red color and does not look like a strawberry milkshake.

If the transmission cooler on the bottom of the rad leaked it might cause trouble.

It’s hard to tell where it’s leaking. Gravity is going to pull the leak down to the bottom of the radiator. The mechanic literally licked the fluid and confirmed it was engine coolant. I was laughing internally when he did it. I’m sure it’s some old school thing mechanics used to do.

Spacers on my skid plate are for my lift. When you put in diff drop spacers you also need to drop your skid plate to clear room. I’m wondering if I put the two spacers in the wrong spot. I put them in the front but now wondering if I should have put them in the rear.

The spacers go in the middle. You have 2 bolts that bolt to the rear skid plate and the 3 in the front. The spacers go in the middle in the 2 recessed holes with brackets on them.

I wouldn't use stopleak. I wouldn't drive it until I at least had an idea of what was going on. If it leaking at the bottom of the radiator then the radiator is probably leaking. If it was leaking off the motor somewhere, the leak wouldn't be able to go forward unless it was spraying which would make the leak pretty obvious to spot.

None of your skid plate bolts would damage your radiator.

I don’t think the bolts but perhaps the actual skid plate. All the popping that occurred after I reinstalled tells me something was binding really bad. The only other variable that was new was the back was weighted down for the first time. Not sure how that might connect to the engine coolant leak.

I’m between a rock and a hard place right now. I’m suppose to meeting the moving company to receive my household goods in the next couple of days. My options are:

1) Get a rental car and let the mechanic trouble shoot for several days
2) Get a uhaul F150 with a vehicle dolly and haul it to my new location
3) hire someone to linehaul it back
4) Throw some K Seal in it and limp back to my new spot and then replace water pump.

This sucks man. I'd probably rent the Uhaul truck and tow it. You can deal with it later. It would suck to break down in the middle of nowhere.

^^

I second this. 700 miles with a bad WP is very risky.

How have you verified the WP is bad? By the noise? Exactly how bad is the leak?

I would tow it,
sounds like you have skills,
towing would prob be cheaper than paying the labor to do a radiator, water pump and timing belt
you did not say timing belt, don't know how many miles on yours, but a bad water pump can chew on a timing belt

That’s probably what I’ll do. I’m about to head to the shop it’s at today to see if only the radiator was the cause. If not I’ll just get a rental car and schedule a car hauler to haul it 700 miles.

Maybe the water pump only.

Leaking from the water pump after hot engine is shut off it THE Tell Tale sign of a BAD water pump.

I don't know of a hasty way to fix a water pump other than the Right way. "fix a radiator" stuff can't work because the problem is the water pump isn't working. How can you expect the coolant to circulate????

Like someone else said, either fix it now or rent another vehicle to tow it.

Luck.

Update to thread

Turns out the radiator bottom reservoir (aka plastic piece of sh*t) had bowed causing coolant to leak out. Being on the road and not having tools it set me back about $475 with parts and labor. Not sure how this just magically happened.

Now after that issue I’m having some sort of shuddering issue that occurs sporadically driving around 60-70 mph and then goes away. Happens occasionally when I brake. I can feel it in my brake pedal. Before long every single part in this 4Runner will be replaced.