Excessive heat in engine bay - left side, battery toast!

[earthrealm]

Just came back from a 2wk trip and noticed that my truck started sluggishly, a quick glance at my ultraguage shows 10.4volts with engine off and 13.16volts engine on.

i have parked the car for 4 wks sometime ago..n it started at first crank when i got back

opened the hood and observed that the engine bay was excessively hot..especially the left hand side, even the battery/fuse box was hot to touch!

note: i think i have an inpending master cylinder/abs failure....as my abs pump kicks in every 90secs when the car in on park, and the little metal pump by the MC was extremely hot to touch, couldnt leave my hand there for 1 sec.

so my question are.

1. is the MC pump that is responsible for all the heat in the drivers side part of my engine bay?

2. i strongly suspect that the excessive heat in the engine bay is responsible for the premature impending failure of my battery, so i want to fix the cause of the heat before buying and installing another battery.

3. my cooling fan kicks in and coolant temp is always below 90 deg C and needle doesnt go above middle

4. my battery is toyota true start 27f 710 cca with 7yrs waranty, bought the truck used 2yrs ago..so cant tell when the battery was installed

 

[preacher35]

Just came back from a 2wk trip and noticed that my truck started sluggishly, a quick glance at my ultraguage shows 10.4volts with engine off and 13.16volts engine on.

i have parked the car for 4 wks sometime ago..n it started at first crank when i got back

opened the hood and observed that the engine bay was excessively hot..especially the left hand side, even the battery/fuse box was hot to touch!

note: i think i have an inpending master cylinder/abs failure....as my abs pump kicks in every 90secs when the car in on park, and the little metal pump by the MC was extremely hot to touch, couldnt leave my hand there for 1 sec.

so my question are.

1. is the MC pump that is responsible for all the heat in the drivers side part of my engine bay?

2. i strongly suspect that the excessive heat in the engine bay is responsible for the premature impending failure of my battery, so i want to fix the cause of the heat before buying and installing another battery.

3. my cooling fan kicks in and coolant temp is always below 90 deg C and needle doesnt go above middle

4. my battery is toyota true start 27f 710 cca with 7yrs waranty, bought the truck used 2yrs ago..so cant tell when the battery was installed

How many miles do you currently have on the clock? If you do not know when the battery was installed, how do you know it is a "premature failure"? So your cooling system is keeping the water at 194 degrees fahrenheit, thus you do not have a coolant leak and your thermostat is good. How "hot" is it getting on that side of the vehicle? Have you probed it for an accurate temperature? The only thing that I could think would heat up the engine compartment, external of the liquid cooling system, would be an exhaust leak. However, you would hear that. I'm stumped.

 

[earthrealm]

yes!..exhaust leak!.......why didnt i think of that earlier.....have had multiple cracks on my exhaust but near the tip/muffler.......even had the last section rust and break off........though i hv welded same... in my neck of the woods..getting a full replacement exhaust section for the exhaust is almost impossible

will search thoroughly for the leak neak the engine bay then.

@ battery, bought the car used with 116k miles.in sept 2012..i have 129k miles on it now, am assuming all 4th gen 4runners shipped with panasonis oem batteries, which am from what i hear lasts upto 5 to 8yrs.....assuming 5yrs...that brings it to 2010, n from 2010 till now makes it just 4yrs, for a toyota 27f true start battery...a think its a year or two years premature.....

thanks for the exhaust heads up!...

also about the impending MC failure, so there is nothing i can do to halt this?......tried doing the 40 pumps with key off procedure for about 2weeks....no improvement noticed.
just dont like the waiting till the unit fails,....there should be something one can do

 

[earthrealm]

[MENTION=89791]preacher35[/MENTION] [MENTION=66389]BlackWorksInc[/MENTION]
i believe you have extensive knowledge of this MC unit failure......would appreciate any suggestions

 

[preacher35]

[MENTION=89791]preacher35[/MENTION] [MENTION=66389]BlackWorksInc[/MENTION]
i believe you have extensive knowledge of this MC unit failure......would appreciate any suggestions

I wouldn't say that I have "extensive" knowledge about the 4th gen master cylinder, at all. I have rebuilt master cylinders of other vehicles in the past, but never on a Runner. As BlackworksInc relayed to me, the T4R master cylinder is not one that can be rebuilt in the traditional sense as there is no rebuild kit available for it. This is because, apparently, the 4th gen MC is an extremely complex unit. If I am not mistaken, only the OEM unit is available and it is EXTREMELY expensive. We're talking over $1k just for the unit.

http://www.villagetoyotaparts.com/showAssembly.aspx?ukey_assembly=322697&ukey_make=1021&ukey_model=14403&modelYear=2005&ukey_category=19382&ukey_driveLine=6157&ukey_trimLevel=14102

 

[BlackWorksInc]

Unit might be going bad, its hard to tell... I would find a place that can test your alternator and battery real quick, 13.1 volts at idle seems a bit too low in my opinion; could indicate a slowly failing alternator?

I would look for an exhaust leak as that would seem most likely to heat up the entire driver's side engine compartment.

 

[earthrealm]

am reading off the battery voltage from the ultraguage, at highway speeds i get about 13.6 to 13.8v, i think the alternator is ok, will measure directly from the hood to compare though. disonnect from the battery and measure directly the alternator output

from the records a remanned alternator was installed in the car by the previous owner in 2010.

am thinking of buying a used MC unit on ebay costs less than $400, if/when my unit eventually fails.

05 06 07 08 09 Toyota 4Runner ABS Pump Brake Master Cylinder 47050 35030 | eBay

will locate and fix the exhaust leak, and see what happens next

 

[earthrealm]

ok, the battery finally crapped out on me, dropped in a replacement battery, and truck starts fine now....checked the alternator and its charging fine., i got a 660cca, 130rc battery,

but i still notice that my drivers side fender is super hot, hotter than the passenger side fender, my battery, battery +ve and _ve terminal posts, the whole brake module, pumps, reservoir is super hot, temped 75 deg c with my laser thermometer, i definetely think, something is wrong with my truck........could it be the abs motor generating such heat?

 

[chitown40]

All of the items you mentioned could be generating heat, but probably not where it is toasting your battery. Did you check the exhaust manifold on the driver's side. If you have a large enough leak, well, the exhaust gases are much much hotter than what your ABS pump is kicking out.

 

[earthrealm]

yeah, thats exactly what i thought, when i noticed the heat, and prior to that my exhaust rusted and broke at the bend at the rear near the spare tire, which i have fixed...the mechanic has inspected the car on a pit, didnt see any leaks/cracked exhaust manifold......i have also checked too...no show...

n the engine sounds normal too, i seriously thing its exhaust related, but locating the actual problem hasnt been succesful.......it gets so bad that my battery hold down rods are also getting super hot, in addition to the battery terminals.......its really driving me crazy, and i fear the heat will toast my new battery way before its time

 

[earthrealm]

UPDATE: did a 145mile trip, averaging 70mph, the excessive heating issue didnt pop up, funny enough a 30 minute drive in the city, and the drivers side engine bay gets terribly hot.

quick question: the 290 mile trip is enough to fully charge a fresh battery i installed right?...no need to to hook it up to an external charger for a few hours?

 

[M1911]

UPDATE: did a 145mile trip, averaging 70mph, the excessive heating issue didnt pop up, funny enough a 30 minute drive in the city, and the drivers side engine bay gets terribly hot.

quick question: the 290 mile trip is enough to fully charge a fresh battery i installed right?...no need to to hook it up to an external charger for a few hours?

Any chance your left front brake caliper is seized? Put your hand on the wheel after driving. Is the wheel hot to the touch?

 

[preacher35]

UPDATE: did a 145mile trip, averaging 70mph, the excessive heating issue didnt pop up, funny enough a 30 minute drive in the city, and the drivers side engine bay gets terribly hot.

quick question: the 290 mile trip is enough to fully charge a fresh battery i installed right?...no need to to hook it up to an external charger for a few hours?

Yes, that should be plenty to charge a new battery.

 

[earthrealm]

nope, had 16.5mpg avg from my scan guage, i averaged 18.5/19mpg on previous trips .....though just installed goodyear wrangler silent armour, so felt i either had a stuck caliper or the new tires are the cause, so i temped the 4 wheels with the laser non contact thermometer after the trip, and all wheels were ok, front was abt 45deg c, rears a few degrees higher.
even the abs pump n brake system/reservoir was cooler than when i do a 30min drive within the city, guess the pump actuates less on the highway.......

did a little research and poor airflow when driving in the city was the theory, and a few people recommended washing the external fins of the radiator/condenser

 

[earthrealm]

UPDATE:

SO sadly today @ 130200 miles, my brake system/MC failed......just came back from a 20mile round trip during my luch break, car was ok, parked the car...got back to work, 3 hrs later i enter the truck to drive home, as soon as i start the car and engage gear, i hear a high pitched warning sound and all the lights on my dash light up, brakes rare pretty useless, gotta stomp on them with all my might b4 the truck stops.....

i have had the buzzing/pulsing brake pedal issue for 2 yrs now, so i guess it has finally crapped out, dont have the $$$$$s for a new MC/brake system, so i intend to pick a used unit from ebay, and go from there...........need to figure out how to manually bleed the brakes after swapping out the bad unit [MENTION=66389]BlackWorksInc[/MENTION] i guess anyone with a similar pulsing brake issue, shoud prep for the day it craps out