Car Liquid preference thread!

[Amirocassar]

Hey, was thinking of asking what are some of your preferences for some of the car liquids(meaning brands). Wondering if anybody goes ahead and gets the Toyota coolant, or just get whatever is compatible at the store.

Engine oil preferences?(Not even bothering going synthetic, due to possible leaks)

Coolant preferences?

Brake Fluid preferences?

Power Steering preferences?

Thanks! PS: planning on doing a coolant flush eventually, don't know if the past owner of my vehicle ever did one.

 

[Speedy Gomez]

Engine oil preferences?(Not even bothering going synthetic, due to possible leaks)

Synthetic oil does not cause leaks.

 

[Canuckrz]

Coolant: Toyota Red Coolant, every time.

Engine Oil: 0w30 castrol syntec, mobil one high milage blend, or Valvoline maxlife.

Gear Oil: Redline, or lucas if I'm being lazy/cheap.

PS Fluid: Not really snooty enough to have preference, if I was to go balls out I would use redline atf.

Brake Fluid: Basically same as PS fluid, no real preference, oem or some off the shelf synthetic DOT 4.

 

[Amirocassar]

Synthetic oil does not cause leaks.

Don't get me wrong, I believe in synthetics. But I've heard the 3rd gen 4runners have had many leaks. Have you not had any leaks? I just don't want to take a chance.

 

[Amirocassar]

Synthetic oil does not cause leaks.

BTW, I'll be living in NYC soon, and it obviously gets very cold there. Doesn't synthetic oil become very thin the colder it gets?

 

[zacattack20]

Don't mix the coolant though. You can't mix green and red so be aware of what coolant you have in your truck already. Just saw you are doing a coolant flush so if you're going to go red then make sure you have all of the old coolant flushed out. And power steering fluid uses ATF (transmission fluid) so be aware of that

 

[T4R2014]

Don't listen to that nonsense of synthetic causing leaks. What makes 3rd Gens more prone to leaking than other vehicles? The last 3rd Gen rolled off the line in late 2002. At minimum they are at least 12 years old and the majority have over 100k on them. Seals go bad with time and miles.

I use Pennzoil Platinum for motor oil, Prestone green for coolant(but will likely switch back to red), and Valvoline Maxlife ATF for the transmission and steering.

 

[subiedrewbie]

Don't mix the coolant though. You can't mix green and red so be aware of what coolant you have in your truck already. Just saw you are doing a coolant flush so if you're going to go red then make sure you have all of the old coolant flushed out. And power steering fluid uses ATF (transmission fluid) so be aware of that

Is it bad I swapped the radiator and did toyota red coolant,but the guy before used just reg? I didn't flush so ther parts holding any coolant would be green (although not much left)

I use red coolant
5w30 synthetic mobile one
Oem trans
Haven't changed diff yet since I've owned

 

[zacattack20]

Is it bad I swapped the radiator and did toyota red coolant,but the guy before used just reg? I didn't flush so ther parts holding any coolant would be green (although not much left)

It could possibly eat away at the head gasket. How long ago did you do it? Noticed any problems yet?

 

[subiedrewbie]

It could possibly eat away at the head gasket. How long ago did you do it? Noticed any problems yet?

I did it 2 weeks ago. No issues I've seen

 

[zacattack20]

I did it 2 weeks ago. No issues I've seen

Oh well 2 weeks hasn't been that long to get symptoms. But too late now since it would already be mixed. Hopefully all stays ok.

 

[MtnChick]

BTW, I'll be living in NYC soon, and it obviously gets very cold there. Doesn't synthetic oil become very thin the colder it gets?

It doesn't get very cold in NYC

Seriously though, cars start up a lot easier in sub zero temps with synthetic oil because it doesn't thicken up as much and flows better. Makes a dramatic difference in the winter where I live. It's not that synthetic gets thinner in the cold, it's because dino gets thicker.

 

[Speedy Gomez]

Are you buying the right Coolant / Antifreeze?

 

[subiedrewbie]

Oh well 2 weeks hasn't been that long to get symptoms. But too late now since it would already be mixed. Hopefully all stays ok.

Yeah hopefully. Should I do a full flush now or just leave it?

 

[zacattack20]

Yeah hopefully. Should I do a full flush now or just leave it?

If it was me I would. I'd be a little worried. I'd do quite a few drain and refills with water and run water through the block. And run the heater.

 

[SR5Runner97]

recently acquired a 97. It had the amsoil 25k in there and 10k in before, other than that regular. I didn't know and PO didn't tell me when I bought it. Took it to my grandpas shop and he saw that the underside when I took the skid off, facing it the right side looked like it had an oil leak. I later found his maintenance reports and he replaced seals after switching to synthetic, a couple thousand miles into it. I'm just putting 2 and 2 together. I'm sure other people have difference experiences. I think synthetic has something to do with messing with the seals, but I don't think that everyone has problems.

Also don't want to hijak your thread, but I got a regular oil change with non synthetic, It started it's life at normal, switched to synthetic, then back to regular, would it cause harm going back to synthetic for good?

 

[SR5Runner97]

What kind of gasoline do you guys use? I normally use the regular 87 octane always at chevron.

 

[Speedy Gomez]

What kind of gasoline do you guys use? I normally use the regular 87 octane always at chevron.

I put 89 Unleaded Plus.

 

[TheDurk]

Yeah hopefully. Should I do a full flush now or just leave it?

I doubt that you would have a sludgeing problem from a little of the recent universal green type coolant in with your red. The sludge issue was with the old-style Prestone green but that hasn't been sold for years. What will happen is it will compromise the long-life capability of the Toyota coolant as the anti-corrosion chemistries are antagonistic. So I would not leave it any longer than the 25-30k you would run with any normal cheapo coolant.

If you really want peace-of-mind, take the question to the BobIsTheOilGuy coolant forum, where they live and breathe HOATS, and OATS and ethylene glycol all day long. I think they'll agree with me.

On the other questions:

Toyota Red is best. Zerex Asian was a decent cheaper alternative, but only if you can get a good price, which it seems has been harder to do lately. You can get Toyota Red on Amazon.

Oil: I run SuperTech full synthetic at 6500 OCI. What I save on fluids I splurge on a NAPA premium oversized filter, the NAPA Platinum 41516 with synthetic media. I get Blackstone Labs UOA's every other change and they come back clean. I ran it once to 9000k just for chuckles and it still came back clean and even said I could go longer. But I prefer 6500-7000.

I have run unleaded regular since I brought her home in May of 1999. Never a knock, ping or misfire. Not once in 165k. I see no reason to run anything else without a S/C.

PS: Your favorite ATF. I use SuperTech.
Brake: Your favorite DOT 4. I use SuperTech.

I have a 5-speed. I run Redline MT-90 which is a synthetic GL-4. This is worth paying a premium for.

Diffs/TC: NAPA Synthetic GL-5 75w-90.

These are not performance cars. SuperTech fluids have good reviews on BITOG, give good value and are plenty adequate for the application. A decent change schedule is WAY more important than the label on the jug.

 

[Amirocassar]

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah it has about 172k miles at the moment. Moving up to NYC for college(from Texas). So planning to change the fuel filter, since god know's when that was done. And doing seafoam so I can get some better MPG's. I did read from the Seafoam website that it doesn't HAVE to be changed, however; I will change the oil once in new york since that's a 2k mile drive as it is. And NYC has been getting swarmed with snowstorms. So if synthetic works better in the cold, then I'll do that! Thanks I appreciate it a bunch. And I plan on doing a coolant flush when I do the oil too, going to run some water through it all to clear it all out and of course burp the system with the new coolant. Not sure which type/brand I'll go with, probably will follow the advice of some of you guys.

Appreciate it a bunch!