Liklihood of pink milkshake actually happening

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Mudlovr

New member
Hey everyone, I have a 1998 4 runner with 150,000 miles on the clock. It has the original radiator and with the many postings about the pink milkshake causing transmission death I am worried about the radiator failing, mixing the fluids, and causing major problems.

My question is how often do these failures actually happen? I see postings by many people who have had it happen, but how common is it really on 4 runners with over 150k miles? I don't tow, live in Virginia where the climate isn't too extreme, and drive the 4 runner like a granny to get good fuel economy - so how much risk am I really running if I don't replace the radiator or get an external tranny cooler? Thank you for your opinions!
 
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Personally I couldn't tell ya BUT I'd go ahead and replace the radiator and lines just to be safe- better to spend a couple hundred now vs a couple thousand later.
 
Sorry for not doing an exhaustive search before posting - I just found a post from a few months back on this topic. However, it gets more into whether this is a pandemic etc. and quibbling a bit on the details. I don't tow so I don't really need a external tranny cooler and was thinking about getting a new radiator, but have been quoted around 500 bucks for the part and the labor - so I'm exploring whether to go that route or not.
 
I'd say your still at high risk considering a radiator has a lifespan of about 100-150k. Which for most cars means it could start to leak or crack at that point. In our runners it means pink milkshake. It's just like the lower ball joint issue. No one likes to pay for repairs let alone on stuff that isn't even broken yet but what they want less then that is to pay for the damages they can cause. Every runner is different and its all up to you but id do it for the ease of mind it would bring.
 
Unfortunately, factors such as how you drive and the temp where you live don't really play into whether you'll suffer a failure or not. It's one of those things that when it's time, it's time, and it should just be changed as preventative maintenance. Spend a little now, or a lot later.
 
It isn't imminent that it'll happen to you, but yeah I agree with everyone else that you should change your radiator or bypass to be on the safe side. It more commonly happens after 100k miles and you are at a higher risk with 150k. Considering the cost of replacing a transmission, a little preventative maintenance now is well worth it.
 
As you approach 100,000 miles the best/safest way to look at this is:

It's not "If" but "When" will this happen....
 
ALBPM said:
As you approach 100,000 miles the best/safest way to look at this is:

It's not "If" but "When" will this happen....
Click to expand...

Well if your gonna be like that then yeah, everything will fail, but your "when" could be at 679,000 miles. A problem can be considered common among vehicles even if only 5% of them suffer from it, and thats a low rate.

So back to the OP, i see many 4runners off the forum that don't have this issue at all, but with that said, if your truck gets plagued with it, it doesnt matter whether one out of every 2 trucks will suffer this, or whether 1 out of 100,000 trucks will suffer from it, cause either way your still f*cked.
 
I think it is entirely dependent on how well you keep up the maintenance.

You might not ever get a pink milkshake if you regularly flush your radiator and use a 60-40 mix of Toyota Red (60) and Distilled water (40).
Not sure what the bottom of the inside of my radiator looks like but the top looks virtually brand new and I have 160xxx miles on it.

Previous Owner obviously took very good care of it, plus they put on an external trans cooler anyway, which is the best idea.
Just add the external cooler and you never have to worry about it then replace the radiator when it needs to be without the worry of destroying your trans.
 
Mudlovr said:
Sorry for not doing an exhaustive search before posting - I just found a post from a few months back on this topic. However, it gets more into whether this is a pandemic etc. and quibbling a bit on the details. I don't tow so I don't really need a external tranny cooler and was thinking about getting a new radiator, but have been quoted around 500 bucks for the part and the labor - so I'm exploring whether to go that route or not.
Click to expand...

An external tranny cooler will prevent this and should be less than $300 installed. The cooler itself is only about $60 and not that difficult to install yourself if you want to go that route. That's about the cheapest insurance you can buy.
 
At the time of my trans cooler I had the mechanical know-how of a fairly well trained chimp. It took me ABOUT an hour, and 45 minutes of that hour was installing the temp gauge.
 
The energy you're going to put into this thread, researching it, you could have probably worked and got the 120 bucks to replace it. Just saying.

Radiators are 100k service as far as I am concerned & the car guys I know. I follow the recommended intervals though, for the most part.
 
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