Head Gasket? Water Pump? Baffled...

S

scrbear11

New member
I posted once before, but trying again to see if I can get some more advice...

2004 SR5 V6, 156k miles on it.

Car idles rough on start up (shakes) for about 30 seconds. Then idles normally. When starting up there is a water sound from behind the dash. Check engine light and VSC lights are on.

Mechanic has replaced the parts that it was throwing the code for- always something different. Fuel injector (did need to be replaced), Cylinder, and fuel pressure regulator (needed to be replaced). I had my mechanic check the head gasket for leaks after reading about the common head gasket problem with 4th Gen's, he said there were no leaks. The car ran GREAT for about 5 days after the fuel pressure regulator was changed. Then it idled rough and the check engine light came on.

Once the rough idle is over the car drives fine. It has not overheated, or gotten hot at all. My boyfriend noticed the coolant was a little low, so he added some coolant to it.

I'm dreading having to take it to Toyota... any ideas?
 
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scrbear11 said:
I posted once before, but trying again to see if I can get some more advice...

2004 SR5 V6, 156k miles on it.

Car idles rough on start up (shakes) for about 30 seconds. Then idles normally. When starting up there is a water sound from behind the dash. Check engine light and VSC lights are on.

Mechanic has replaced the parts that it was throwing the code for- always something different. Fuel injector (did need to be replaced), Cylinder, and fuel pressure regulator (needed to be replaced). I had my mechanic check the head gasket for leaks after reading about the common head gasket problem with 4th Gen's, he said there were no leaks. The car ran GREAT for about 5 days after the fuel pressure regulator was changed. Then it idled rough and the check engine light came on.

Once the rough idle is over the car drives fine. It has not overheated, or gotten hot at all. My boyfriend noticed the coolant was a little low, so he added some coolant to it.

I'm dreading having to take it to Toyota... any ideas?
Click to expand...

sounds like a head gasket to me if it's eating coolant. How did the mechanic "check" it?
 
Not exactly car literate... he said he put something through it that would change color if there was a leak???

I have been avoiding driving it, but will be down to one car later this week... Safe to drive?
 
hearno said:
best bet to check. the litmus strips or whatever don't seem too reliable to me.
Click to expand...

yeah i don't buy it either. I'd take it to a different shop and ask for those two tests to confirm head gasket failure. I wouldn't trust the first guy to replace a head gasket if he can't diagnose one properly
 
Pull the plugs on cyl 5 and 6, I believe that's where the gasket typically likes to let go (likely the last cyl cooled). If you are getting some water in there, they will probably be cleaner than the rest as the water steam cleans them.

But it definitely sounds like a HG job to me. The leaks can be really hard to track down, and it isn't always the "combustion gasses in the coolant" failure mode. Sometimes they leak when heating up, sometimes cooling down, sometimes when really hot, sometimes only when cold. Depends on how everything moves as it heats up and expands and if stuff got warped.


I'd also check the weep hole on the water pump for leakage just to be sure.
 
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