So my radiator is gone, anything that goes into it falls right out the bottom, nothing to do with the resealed crack at the top. My transmission seems like it's shot as well, no strawberry milkshake, just won't gear. When I got my oil changed last the shop supposedly topped off my fluids, but the atf level was very low, so possible leak I guess? I topped it off but still no dice, and when I try to put it in gear I hear a slight grinding noise. I think it's time to part her out or see if someone wants a project. Just a weird confluence of events with the trans and radiator at the same time.
Can a hole in the radiator tank cause a vacuum leak?
- Thread starter sage2050
- Start date
totally agree
Kanoe
New member
No coincidence. The rad contains a tranny cooler in the bottom tank. The rad likely puked out the atf also.
Let’s consider this thread a warning for others. The rad is a maintenance item just like timing belt or lbjs. In this case delayed maintenance took a 4Runner off the road. Sad. sorry for your situation.
Edit: OP, when adding the ATF, did you put a piece of hose to bypass the tranny cooler in the radiator? Perhaps it is dumping ATF out as fast as you are dumping it in. And how are you running the truck to check ATF levels with a busted radiator? Maybe you should very temporarily loop the coolant hoses to bypass the rad and loop the ATF cooler hoses to bypass the rad. Get some coolant in the engine and get some ATF in the tranny and see what is really going on.
Last edited:
I kept the engine running for only about fifteen minutes to run through these tests (it's been off since it got towed) and kept an eye on the temp gauge the whole time. Never went above the midline. I didn't run a hose when adding the atf but I didn't see/hear it falling out like I did when I tried to fill the radiator. No atf underneath the car either (I did check afterwards).
shadow247
New member
Start with a new radiator, top off the trans fluid, and see where you are at. It's entirely possible you are too low on trans fluid. Anything close to the bottom line there will cause issues. What do you feel when you shift from P to D? You should feel the trans engage. If you don't, then you likely overheated and blew the trans when the engine overheated.
Similar threads
