New '99 SR5 Owner - maintenance questions

[3ngineer]

I just picked up a '99 SR5 from another forum member here with 178k miles. This is my first 4Runner, and I'm pretty new to working on cars. I have some pending maintenance I'm planning to have done:

1. Replace TB/WP
2. Replace left inner axle (existing leak from axle boot)
3. Replace rear drums

There's a few other things I'm unsure if I need to do:

4. Flush transmission (using engine to flush existing fluid in 1 qt increments). I checked the transmission fluid last night when the car was cold, the fluid level was a little high, but color was still a decently light shade of pink. Should I flush just in case? Or even drop the pan to replace seal and check for metal on magnets? Does it hurt to have a little too much ATF in the system?
5. Truck came with ICON suspensions/coils front & rear. Rear has piggyback reservoir. What do I need to check/maintain here?
6. Coolant is adequately filled, though it's a clear fluid not the Toyota Red. Should I flush and replace with Toyota Red?
7. What is this shaft called, and what could have caused the black area around it? Does anything need to be replaced? (I don't think this is the left inner axle, but maybe it is??)

Anything else I should do??

Thanks so much guys!

 

[phattyduck]

There's a few other things I'm unsure if I need to do:

4. Flush transmission (using engine to flush existing fluid in 1 qt increments). I checked the transmission fluid last night when the car was cold, the fluid level was a little high, but color was still a decently light shade of pink. Should I flush just in case? Or even drop the pan to replace seal and check for metal on magnets? Does it hurt to have a little too much ATF in the system?
5. Truck came with ICON suspensions/coils front & rear. Rear has piggyback reservoir. What do I need to check/maintain here?
6. Coolant is adequately filled, though it's a clear fluid not the Toyota Red. Should I flush and replace with Toyota Red?
7. What is this shaft called, and what could have caused the black area around it? Does anything need to be replaced? (I don't think this is the left inner axle, but maybe it is??)

Here are my thoughts:

4. Just do a drain and refill on the trans. It'll be easier to do and if the fluid is still bright red/pink you don't need a full flush. Trans fluid level needs to be checked with the engine running and the trans in Park. It should also be checked when the trans is fully hot (at least 10+ miles of driving, more in the winter) but a quick check when cold can help you know if it is at least close to correct. Make sure you use the correct marks on the dipstick for cold vs. hot.
5. If the suspension handles well, and the shocks aren't leaking, no maintenance needed with the shocks.
6. It sounds like you have plain water in there (did you check in the radiator or just look at the overflow bottle?). You'll want to get that changed to coolant soon to avoid internal corrosion of the engine.
7. That's your rear driveshaft. The black stuff is grease that has slung off the u-joints - and its normal. When greasing the driveshaft, some comes out and will sling off on to the truck body when driving (it actually means your truck was maintained!). If you aren't getting vibrations at highway speed, its fine.

-Charlie

 

[3ngineer]

Responses in red.. Thanks, Charlie.

Here are my thoughts:

4. Just do a drain and refill on the trans. It'll be easier to do and if the fluid is still bright red/pink you don't need a full flush. Trans fluid level needs to be checked with the engine running and the trans in Park. It should also be checked when the trans is fully hot (at least 10+ miles of driving, more in the winter) but a quick check when cold can help you know if it is at least close to correct. Make sure you use the correct marks on the dipstick for cold vs. hot.
5. If the suspension handles well, and the shocks aren't leaking, no maintenance needed with the shocks.How would I check for leaks?
6. It sounds like you have plain water in there (did you check in the radiator or just look at the overflow bottle?). You'll want to get that changed to coolant soon to avoid internal corrosion of the engine. Just checked the overflow bottle, not the radiator. Does that mean water is in the radiator? I forgot to mention the radiator was bypassed with an external Hayden tranny cooler. So maybe it's ok?
7. That's your rear driveshaft. The black stuff is grease that has slung off the u-joints - and its normal. When greasing the driveshaft, some comes out and will sling off on to the truck body when driving (it actually means your truck was maintained!). If you aren't getting vibrations at highway speed, its fine.Cool! For some reason I recall this shaft being towards the middle, not the back. I wouldn't have guessed that to be the rear driveshaft on my own!

-Charlie

 

[WVhillbilly]

4. Flush transmission (using engine to flush existing fluid in 1 qt increments). I checked the transmission fluid last night when the car was cold, the fluid level was a little high, but color was still a decently light shade of pink. Should I flush just in case? Or even drop the pan to replace seal and check for metal on magnets? Does it hurt to have a little too much ATF in the system?

5. Order new transmission.


If the fluid looks ok, drain and refill.

I've seen more than one perfectly working, high mileage transmission ruined by flushing it.

 

[3ngineer]

5. Order new transmission.


If the fluid looks ok, drain and refill.

I've seen more than one perfectly working, high mileage transmission ruined by flushing it.

How did they flush it? Did they connect the tranny to a pump/machine? Or rely on the engine to flush the ATF?

 

[WVhillbilly]

Hooked to a machine.
It's a good way to sell someone a new transmission if you are low on morals.

 

[3ngineer]

Hooked to a machine.
It's a good way to sell someone a new transmission if you are low on morals.

Yeah, no kidding.

 

[ToyotaBrah]

Congrats on the purchase.


Drain and refill the trans would be my approach as well. This is what I did with my '01 when I first bought it. The fluid that came out on the first drain/fill was espresso brown, which gave me insight that the transmission was ignored for servicing.

I filled it with fluid, then drove for sometime, then did another drain/refill. I did a drain/refill several times. Each time I did it, the fluid incrementally started to shift from shades of brown to cherry red, the correct color of automatic trans fluid.

By this method, I didn't shock the system much like a flush would. You'll hear people that will say nothing has happened to their transmission from a flush, but then you will also come across many who report the transmission shifting strange after a flush, or worse, just cooked. Just play it safe and do the drain/refill. The only con I see from the drain/fill method is you won't get all of the old fluid out at once. Most of the fluid is in the torque converter which doesn't drain when you remove the drain plug. This is why a series of draining and refilling is necessary to completely refresh the fluid.


Before you go and commit to new drums, consider returning the current drums on your truck at your local machine shop or parts store (in the scenario you have factory Toy drums). The factory drums on our trucks are built better than aftermarket and really shouldn't need to be replaced unless they are below minimum thickness.

 

[3ngineer]

[MENTION=112124]ToyotaBrah[/MENTION] Thanks for the tip on the drain and refill! How many gallons did you end up going through, and which ATF did you use?

 

[Trojan4x4]

On my 99' SR5 drain and fill was about 5.5qt if I remember correctly. It seems like different years have different fill and drain. Drain the old TF into a bottle and pour the same amount in of new TF. That should be a good starting point. It does have a small copper washer on the pan so make sure you have something similar. I've used Redline D4 atf for 10k miles so far and no complaints.

ATF flushes are OK (only way ur TF will fail in my opinion is if it's full of friction material before flush). However they tend to be inaccurate with the amount of fluid it pumps out/pumps in. Plus it really depends on the skill and dillegence level of the mechanic (source : worked in a shop).


I do have agree on the drums...try to machine OEM drums if you can. I've purched aftermarket twice and they were warped, had to machine them at my shop.

I would also suggest you check your diff and trans fluids, as well as replace PCV valve and grommet.

Checking ball joints and state of radiator transmission cooler will be beneficial as well.

 

[phattyduck]

Responses in red.. Thanks, Charlie.

6. It sounds like you have plain water in there (did you check in the radiator or just look at the overflow bottle?). You'll want to get that changed to coolant soon to avoid internal corrosion of the engine. Just checked the overflow bottle, not the radiator. Does that mean water is in the radiator? I forgot to mention the radiator was bypassed with an external Hayden tranny cooler. So maybe it's ok?

You are confusing a few things here.

- Coolant in the radiator should be 50/50 coolant/water (or 100% 'pre-mixed'). If the overflow was a bit low and water was added, that is just fine. You'll need to check what is in the radiator (when the engine is cold!) to see what is really in there. The level of coolant in the overflow tank should change between when the engine is hot and cold, but not much at all over time - so it should be the same each time you check when the engine is cold.
- An external cooler for the transmission fluid is fine. The bottom of the radiator has an extra heat exchanger that cools the transmission fluid, but those fluids (coolant and trans fluid) should never mix. An external cooler instead of that heat exchanger or in addition to it isn't related to the engine coolant in the radiator.

As for the driveshafts/axles - you have two driveshafts and four axles. The driveshafts go 'front to back' in the truck, one from the front differential to the transfer case, one from the rear differential to the transfer case. The front driveshaft is basically under the driver, the rear driveshaft you have already seen. Axles connect each wheel to the differentials. In the rear, they are inside the tubes that go from the differential to the wheels. In the front, they are known as "CV axles" because each axle has two CV (constant velocity) joints each - you can find those by looking under the front of the truck and finding the rubber bellows that connect to the center of the wheels.

I found a pretty good beginners guide here: https://www.artofmanliness.com/2016/09/06/gearhead-101-how-part-time-four-wheel-drive-works/

-Charlie

 

[ToyotaBrah]

[MENTION=112124]ToyotaBrah[/MENTION] Thanks for the tip on the drain and refill! How many gallons did you end up going through, and which ATF did you use?

All of my drain and refills added up, I ended up going through a total of 3 gallons of Valvoline Dex/Merc conventional ATF. Each time I did this job, I replaced the drain plug washer.

 

[amalik]

7. That's your rear driveshaft. The black stuff is grease that has slung off the u-joints - and its normal. When greasing the driveshaft, some comes out and will sling off on to the truck body when driving (it actually means your truck was maintained!). If you aren't getting vibrations at highway speed, its fine.
-Charlie

Charlie,

How can you distinguish between your point above and a rear pinion seal leak? I would imagine the seal leaking and slinging oil around is similar to what you described above, or at least I thought so when I had a really bad rear pinion seal leak.

 

[phattyduck]

Charlie,

How can you distinguish between your point above and a rear pinion seal leak? I would imagine the seal leaking and slinging oil around is similar to what you described above, or at least I thought so when I had a really bad rear pinion seal leak.

A pinion seal leak (or transfer case output seal leak) would be gear oil (not thick and sticky like u-joint grease) and leaks down on the non-moving part that it leaking. So, it would drip down the back of the transfer case or down the differential.

-Charlie

 

[3ngineer]

Thanks for the explanation [MENTION=139000]phattyduck[/MENTION]. I understand now after learning of the second HXer on the bottom of the radiator. I checked the coolant in the radiator, it's a light yellow color fluid that's slightly thicker than water (not original toyota red). I plan to replace this with original toyota red coolant. Since the lower tranny HXer was bypassed already with the external cooler, is a flush still necessary?

I'll read through that 4WD link. Thanks again!

 

[phattyduck]

Since you have non-Toyota coolant in there (the Yellow stuff is normally an 'Universal' type) - it would be best to do a drain, fill with all distilled water, do a heat/cool cycle then swap to Toyota Red. Otherwise, there might be gelling problems when the new/old coolant mixes.

For the flush - I assume you are asking about trans fluid? If the fluid looks good, just do a (or a few) drain and refill cycles. No need for any special flush procedure unless you really want to do it. Whether or not the transmission heat exchanger is bypassed has no bearing on your choice there.

-Charlie

 

[3ngineer]

Since you have non-Toyota coolant in there (the Yellow stuff is normally an 'Universal' type) - it would be best to do a drain, fill with all distilled water, do a heat/cool cycle then swap to Toyota Red. Otherwise, there might be gelling problems when the new/old coolant mixes.

For the flush - I assume you are asking about trans fluid? If the fluid looks good, just do a (or a few) drain and refill cycles. No need for any special flush procedure unless you really want to do it. Whether or not the transmission heat exchanger is bypassed has no bearing on your choice there.

-Charlie

I was asking about a coolant flush actually, but what I really meant was multiple drain/fills since I wasn't planning on doing a pressurized coolant "flush".

I purchased the aircabinman TB/WP complete kit from eBay and will pay a local mechanic for the install. Since the heat/cool cycle can take a while, would it be OK if I drained the existing coolant out, put in distilled water, then drove it to the mechanic like that? They're 10 miles away...

 

[phattyduck]

I was asking about a coolant flush actually, but what I really meant was multiple drain/fills since I wasn't planning on doing a pressurized coolant "flush".

I purchased the aircabinman TB/WP complete kit from eBay and will pay a local mechanic for the install. Since the heat/cool cycle can take a while, would it be OK if I drained the existing coolant out, put in distilled water, then drove it to the mechanic like that? They're 10 miles away...

There's really no such thing as a 'pressurized coolant flush'. Just draining from the bottom of the radiator will get maybe 80% of the coolant out. The rest will be left in the heater core(s) and the bottom bit of the block. The 10 mile drive is perfect for a full warm-up cycle of the coolant. Your engine oil and transmission fluid aren't even up to full temp after a 10 mile drive...

I have run straight water for up to a few weeks... (It actually cools better than coolant, just freezes at a higher temp and boils at a lower temp and allows/causes corrosion if left in there)

-Charlie

 

[3ngineer]

There's really no such thing as a 'pressurized coolant flush'. Just draining from the bottom of the radiator will get maybe 80% of the coolant out. The rest will be left in the heater core(s) and the bottom bit of the block. The 10 mile drive is perfect for a full warm-up cycle of the coolant. Your engine oil and transmission fluid aren't even up to full temp after a 10 mile drive...

I have run straight water for up to a few weeks... (It actually cools better than coolant, just freezes at a higher temp and boils at a lower temp and allows/causes corrosion if left in there)

-Charlie

Ok, I'll plan to drain and fill my coolant with distilled water before my drive to the mechanic for the TB/WP/coolant refill job. :thumb3:

Hopefully the two previous owners used proper coolant mixtures to avoid engine corrosion. Anyway easy to check for internal engine corrosion aside from opening the thing up? I'm guessing if the engine was internally corroded I would see chunks in the coolant after I drain it..

Mike

 

[sakoluvr]

https://youtu.be/1OpEONvxs2o


oh, and don't forget to check the spare for air. :yield: Couldn't help myself. One of my favorite episodes! :madgrin: