Do you still have the original radiator on your 4runner

[Gary Blake]

My original lasted 310,000 miles

Finally replaced my original (2000) rad this summer at 310,000 miles. The truck spent it's first five years in Arizona where I bought it and returned to the rust belt.

There were still no operational problems with the rad but it was starting to show some corrosion on the bottom fins, managed to find an OEM Denso (Taiwan) locally and had that put it while the timing belt, water pump and a bunch of other engine work was being done.

I have a 5 speed manual so no worries about the milkshake issue, but I do usually take one annual long mileage trip and try to replace anything that looks like it might fail on the road.

Gary

 

[Boognish_Forever]

I bought mine in Appleton Wisconsin but it spent most of its life in Colorado so its basically rust free. I have it coated with Fluid Film and WD40 now. I only had to remove the trans lines from the radiator and they came off with a slight twist.

I've been reading up on flushing too and I basically have the same conclusion you do on the matter. My fluid was bright red though and the previous owners were on top of proper maintenance. I'll probably just do a dump and fill in the summer when I add the external cooler and filter. Like I said, my original idea was to bypass but given how there are mornings well below zero, we don't have a camper yet to tow and don't have mountains I figured it wasn't critical. My original went 204,xxx miles without a problem and I check my fluids monthly or when I fill up so I think I'll be ok. The radiator is Taiwanese but I think a lot of manufacturing is done there despite it being a small island. I will take a Taiwanese radiator over a Chinese radiator.

I grew up near Green Bay and very familiar with Appleton. I actually bought my 99 4runner limited w/elocker for $6000 in Milwaukee when I was visiting WI a couple years ago. It had 68,000 miles on it and lived half of its time in Florida with the original owner before I bought it. It still had some surface rust on the frame, but nothing to scare me from buying it because I knew what spots to look at and banged around the frame with a hammer and check for any rotting spots. On the west coast Toyota 4Runners and Tacoma’s are ridiculous on how much they hold there value and I wasn’t about to pay $8000 for a 4runner with over 200,000 miles.

The previous owner kept records but being this 4runner sat so much, I decided to do all the fluids, timing belt, water pump etc. I wanted everything to be up to date and felt better knowing everything has been changed. The only thing left that needed to be done was the tranny fluid, but my mechanic told me it didn’t need to be changed.

I found this sticker under the hood. Do you think this means the transmission was serviced at 56,000 miles?

 

[greeney]

Just bought a 2000 4runner with 200 thousand miles. Radiator looks fine to me but reading up on the warnings, I'll keep it in mind to replace before doing any major tripping.

 

[Sportznut]

Sportznut does have a good point on the external, but do you live in a hot climate or pull heavy loads?

I’m steering away from the idea of have an external transmission cooler just because I don’t pull anything more then 800lbs and I don’t live in a hot climate and want my transmission to warm up to a safe operating temperature. I’ll probably wait till spring on replacing my radiator, but you should google in your area if there’s any mechanics that specializes in Toyota’s and possibly get a cheaper quote then $750.

FYI a used transmission plus labor would cost you over $2000 and that’s why we need to change are radiators.


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Boognish - I see it looks like you live in the Portland area?

Back when I had the external transmission cooler installed I lived in Vancouver Washington. Cottman Transmissions in Vancouver did the work. They did a very good job at a very reasonable price.

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[johnbyebye]

After reading about the pink milkshake, replacing the radiator was the first job I did when I bought my 4Runner.

 

[Boognish_Forever]

Boognish - I see it looks like you live in the Portland area?

Back when I had the external transmission cooler installed I lived in Vancouver Washington. Cottman Transmissions in Vancouver did the work. They did a very good job at a very reasonable price.

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Do you remember how much they charged?I’m concerned about it not warming up the transmission in the winter. Especially being I go up in the mountains and Central Oregon.

I’m moving into a new house with a garage next month and will probably change the radiator once I get all moved in.

Another thing I notice is my bottom radiator hose and overflow hose is all white like baby powder. My level in the overflow went down and is in between the empty and full lines when warmed up. I think some radiator fluid is evaporating through the hoses. I’m thinking the white powder is fluid because I pulled the overflow out and dripped some on top of the radiator to see what it does and check it a couple days later and it was white.

 

[redheadmetaldiva]

I have 223,xxx with the original radiator . . . planning on replacing my original timing belt and water pump along with the radiator soon. Just got my new rack delivered so that is going in tomorrow. :happy: