Hello all,
In typical fashion, whenever I acquire a new make or model of vehicle, I like to join a corresponding forum for help and sense of community. In this instance , I have just bought my first 4runner last week. It's a 2004 Limited 4WD.
I tend to be a blabber-mouth on these types of forums, because I generally spend days ruminating about everything I think about, then it all comes out in a giant stream of consciousness. Mindful of my fellow forum members sanity and not wanting people to hate me, I like to break my posts up in such a fashion that people can skip past my ramblings should they so desire.
Brief synopsis about about myself & cars: feel free to skip ahead
The first forum I ever joined was saabcentral.com in 2004. Since then, and several cars later, I have joined a handful of other forums.
I'm a fairly new Toyota driver. I started out with a 1999 Saab 9-3 as my first vehicle. Since then, I've owned a 2001 Saab 9-5, 2000 Ford Windstar, 1996 GMC Sierra, 1996 Honda Civic, 2005 Mini Cooper, 2015 Honda CR-V (technically a lease), 2005 Highlander and a 2005 Toyota Camry.
I still own the 1996 Sierra, Highlander, and Camry (just bought the Camry 2 weeks ago.)
The most unreliable car was the Mini Cooper, followed by the Saab 9-5, then the Saab 9-3 (but I loved that car anyway, got it to 312,000 miles with a LOT of TLC). The remaining cars, I would not list under unreliable- they were and are all great, the ones I don't own just rusted out due to New England winters.
Back to the important stuff: 4runners
I got what I thought was a great deal on a 2004 4runner V6 last week, for my wife, in a private sale. It seemed almost too good to be true, but because it was located out of state, I just decided the market was different there. It's possible I should have gone with my gut, and decided it couldn't be true.
Pros:
- Not too much rust for New England
- Body clean of rust
- Frame still has lots of black paint remaining
- Transmission seems to shift fine
- AC works
- All the buttons and climate control work
- 4WD works
- (2) new rear tires
- comes with a cool brush guard
- No dents
- New rear shocks
- New radiator
Cons:
- coolant won't stay in the radiator
- Exhaust tip held on by aluminum tape??
- is ugly resonator on the end normal by the way?
- Exhaust vibrates against frame (best guess?)
- (2) front tires are dry rotted
- CV boot torn
- Ball joints looks greasy
- Rear axle is a little crusty looking
- Interior is a bit abused
- Possibly this truck was off-roading a lot
- Scuffs and scratches on paint
- PO cut out the splash shield under radiator when it was replaced
- heat shield under gas tank is decimated by rust
May want to skip this next bit
No. 1 concern here is leaking coolant, which is why its on top. After I completed the sale, the PO texted me and said: "keep an eye on the coolant, I usually have to add some every 6 months". My heart sank to the floor when he sent this so casually. I said okay, and instantly began trying to convince myself there must be a leaky hose somewhere. But, 1 week in, I don't see any leaks. I'm thinking the worst: Head Gasket, am I crazy? I started the obsessive googling, where I got to learn that 2004 and 2005 are known for their cylinder 6 misfire... OH GREAT, I picked one of those years for my first 4runner
.
So here's how it's all gone down:
Day 1: Start truck up, exhaust gases smells fine, no white or blue smoke, but it does seem hotter than typical cars and wetter than I am used to. Wife drives truck to work, loves it to death. By the end of the day she calls me frantically to tell me the Check Engine light, Trac and VSC came on. I tell her I'll run the code at AutoZone. I went back out with her, got gas, light turned off while we were out, so we decided it was the gas cap- her highlander used to do this.
Day 2: Nothing obviously bad happening.
Day 3: 300 mile road trip. On the highway when accelerating, we smell that fateful odor of glycol. We also notice when driving uphill with windows down there is an obnoxious ammonia odor that smells like the cabin was a litter box. Pull over, check coolant. There is coolant all over the place in the engine bay, but it seems to have sprayed out of the vent on the overflow reservoir. I check the reservoir level, its still full, so think maybe it had been overfilled.
Day 4: 300 mile drive home. This time, I let it cool off, check the radiator instead. Reservoir is still full, but when I pull rad cap I can see the fins inside the radiator its so low. I park on a slight incline, turn on the heat, and add coolant until it stops bubbling - it did stop bubbling. I put all the caps back on and go for a 5 minute "spirited" drive. Come home, park it.
Day 5: Check radiator again, reservoir still full, but radiator is very low again- suspecting all the coolant I put in must have spurted back out the overflow again from my 5 minute drive, perhaps due to exhaust gases that only escape failed head gasket at higher RPMs.
Y'all can c'mon back now
I know this is long winded, but here's my summary.
1. I need to get coolant loss looked at by a pro.
2. Said pro should probably pull my plugs, do compression test
3. " " should probably pressure test the cooling system
4. " " should probably see if there's coolant in the cylinder while plugs are out
5. Could this just be a water pump with a broken bearing causing boil over?
6. Could this just be a bad radiator cap?
7. Could this just be a bad thermostat?
New to the Forum
Hello!
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