New radiator needed?

[diaz7412]

Hey guys so I'll add some background about my truck. But I was wondering if I should replace my radiator, it has 163k miles and the previous owner was not sure about the radiator being replaced. At what mileage is a new radiator needed? Anyone have any suggestions on companies or stores?

I purchased this vehicle almost two weeks ago, I've been driving it daily to school and other places in northern California. This past weekend i tested the 4x4 for the first time, and I absolutely cannot wait to get out there and explore some more. Here's a few photos, I also uploaded a video to my YouTube page

https://youtu.be/H5NPwVbnwdk

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[octanejunkie]

Replace your radiator when:
-any damage or leaks exist
-the color of the rad is brown, or lighter (original is black)
-thin, horizontal hairline cracks are visible

 

[TravThePro]

I don't believe you should swap the radiator unless:
-You see a lot of grime near the cap (this one can still be fixed)
-The liquid is brownish which means there is either rust and there could be lots of chunks in it or the tranny fluid is mixing with the radiator fluid which makes it more milky looking(change asap)
-The fins look completely trashed
-The radiator leaks or has cracks

Let me know if you have any other questions or want tips with building it.

 

[cblock406]

I would not replace it just for the sake of replacing it. I just replaced mine at 185k because I was doing the timing belt and water pump. It is one of those "while you're in there things" I swapped because it was cheap and it had to be taken out anyway.

I haven't had any mechanical failures but that is how a lot of the maintenance items on mine have come to be replaced.

 

[tvpierce]

With all due respect, I can't disagree more strongly with the three replies saying not to replace the radiator as preventive maintenance.

The transmission cooler in the radiator on these vehicles is notorious for failing, which can be catastrophic to the tranny.

My rule of thumb is to replace the radiator after 10 years. If you don't know if the PO replaced it, you're overdue. It's $110 for a Denso unit delivered to your door. It's money well spent, IMHO.

 

[alumarine]

If it's an auto and you're not sure if it's been replaced,
I'd replace it.

pink milkshake

 

[diaz7412]

I don't believe you should swap the radiator unless:
-You see a lot of grime near the cap (this one can still be fixed)
-The liquid is brownish which means there is either rust and there could be lots of chunks in it or the tranny fluid is mixing with the radiator fluid which makes it more milky looking(change asap)
-The fins look completely trashed
-The radiator leaks or has cracks

Let me know if you have any other questions or want tips with building it.

Thank you, yeah I'm just trying to avoid the pink milkshake automatic transmission failure. Is there any maintenance you would do just for the sake of doing?

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[cblock406]

With all due respect, I can't disagree more strongly with the three replies saying not to replace the radiator as preventive maintenance.

The transmission cooler in the radiator on these vehicles is notorious for failing, which can be catastrophic to the tranny.

My rule of thumb is to replace the radiator after 10 years. If you don't know if the PO replaced it, you're overdue. It's $110 for a Denso unit delivered to your door. It's money well spent, IMHO.

With all due respect, if he doesn't know when the radiator was replaced, he probably doesn't know when much else if any maintenance has been done. Would I only replace only the radiator willy nilly just for the hell of it, absolutely not.

What I would do is take the time to assess what other things the vehicle needs as far as preventative maintenance and get the vehicle up to snuff. I didn't say he absolutely should not replace it, but I would make it part of a larger plan to do when I'm tearing into other parts of the truck.

 

[TravThePro]

Thank you, yeah I'm just trying to avoid the pink milkshake automatic transmission failure. Is there any maintenance you would do just for the sake of doing?

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Option 1) First thing you could do is run down to the store and buy:
-2 bottles of Prestone Radiator Flush and Cleaner
-7 Gallons of Distilled water (or 5 if you buy predilluted antifreeze)
-1 Gallon of Concentrated Antifreeze OEM Toyota red or the Prestone Concentrate (Just make sure you don't mix 2 kinds of antifreeze) or 2 Gallons of pre-dilluted Antifreeze (adding about a quart of the Distilled water, this won't matter since you're in CA)

Syphon enough of the radiator fluid (catch it if you can so as not to pollute) to pour an entire bottle of the radiator flush in. Take it for some decent drives (make sure you also run the heater on both the front and rear) and you should also keep it in their running it for 2-5 days with the first batch of prestone (Try not to run it for longer than a week) Do a full blown flush of the radiator. Fill the entire Radiator with 2 Gallons of the distilled water and pour one of the radiator flushes in between the 2 gallons and run it for another day or two and flush it again. Pour another 2.3 gallons of the distilled in and run the vehicle for 15 mins in a spirited drive to clean the rest of the system out. This is the final flush and you then pour in your mixed or pre-dilluted antifreeze up to the 2.3 gallons they take. Another important step that most people miss is pouring a little bit of the radiator flush into the overflow to then pull it out, empty it and fill it with completely fresh liquid when you're onto the final step.
Look to see how much crap you get coming out of your first batch and this will give you an idea of how much corrosion is going on in their. If it comes up pretty clear you're probably fine and doing the rest of the flush steps without much worry. (You can still run the 2nd option once you flush and this is permanent prevention to the strawberry milkshake but that is your call really) But if it comes out with a lot of solid material I would recommend doing a radiator swap regardless of what you do in the future.

Option 2) Since you're in California (and I'm also assuming you bought it from someone else in California) I would guess it's something that would be more likely to happen in hotter environments as corrosion and heat seem to be hand in hand on this one. To guarantee this never happens you can run what's called an external transmission cooler, these are also a much better option for guys who do haul a trailer and long periods of rock crawling. With me not switching over I've had my transmission light (this means the tranny fluid is overheating)come on several times both crawling and pulling a trailer when the temp is only 70-80 F. I haven't done this one myself due to my lack of funds and time but will be getting to it fairly shortly.

Option 3) Bite the bullet and do what a lot of people who refuse to modify anything do, buying a new radiator. Honestly I don't think they're that hard to replace and they aren't super expensive ($150-300) but the eventual problem of corrosion of lines will come back up if you don't do frequent enough radiator flushes. (2-3 year intervals is what I recommend to keep everything fresh)

 

[TravThePro]

Thank you, yeah I'm just trying to avoid the pink milkshake automatic transmission failure. Is there any maintenance you would do just for the sake of doing?

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I completely blew the other part off so here is some other maintenance you should do no matter what:
-Oil change
-Check the air filter and replace if needed
-Grease your drive lines
-Spark plugs (make sure you dialectic grease all of the wires while you're at it, I ruined all of my wires when I went to do my spark plugs so it's a good idea to get a set of them before you start pulling the plugs)
-Top off the Power Steering + brake fluid

Things that would be helpful to check:
-Call the guy and ask him about timing belt and water pump and check your timing and serpentine belts for any signs of burning or cracking
-Check the color of your tranny fluid off the dip stick several times(There are many online resources for testing this one)
-Test your fan and fan shroud to make sure they engage and actually pull air
-Check your fuel filter to make sure it's not clogged at all
-Test all of your ball joints, CVs, and bushings
-Front brake pads and disks
-Test for vacuum leaks along the rubber sections of the intake with something like carb cleaner for starting fluid to see if the idle changes if you spray it anywhere on the rubber sections.

Other maintenance that isn't required but could be helpful to do:
-Replace both diffs fluids
-Grease your sunroof (if you have one)
-Run fuel system cleaner (I recommend the B12 Chemtool pour in with a full tank of gas, you will also get worse gas mileage with this for one tank)
-Tighten up the throttle cable to take play out (Nice for offroading)
-Full blown brake bleed and fluid flush
-Listen for any continuous noises when you are idled or driving on a flat road

And finally if you don't know much of anything about cars it's good to learn most of what I'm telling you to check out. If you refuse to work on vehicles just take it in to a trusted mechanic and have them do a thorough check on it.

 

[jgue467]

Option 1) ....

...

OP - when you do option 1 for either a radiator flush or replacement (ya gotta flush the rest of the system), once you've got your flush stuff in the system don't forget to turn the heater on for a while to let that system run the flushing agent through it. Also turn on the back heater to let that system get flushed out too. There now I feel better.... :cowboy:

 

[TravThePro]

OP - when you do option 1 for either a radiator flush or replacement (ya gotta flush the rest of the system), once you've got your flush stuff in the system don't forget to turn the heater on for a while to let that system run the flushing agent through it. Also turn on the back heater to let that system get flushed out too. There now I feel better.... :cowboy:

Right on, appreciate the pointer. I tend to always forget one thing thinking about 100 more.. I'll fix it really quick (even though he's a Californian and probably won't be using that heater anytime soon haha)

 

[animator]

I've got over 230k daily-driven miles and still have the original radiator. I have bypassed the stock transmission cooler and run a remote one, so no worry about a pink milkshake...

 

[theesotericone]

Option 3) Bite the bullet and do what a lot of people who refuse to modify anything do, buying a new radiator.

Umm, my trucks heavily modified and I still put in a new rad when I got it. I also hooked up a trans cooler in series. The new rad is cheap insurance against a possible failure. Using a trans cooler in series with a new rad is the best of both worlds. My trans temps are really low.

Is a new rad needed? No. Is it cheap insurance? Yes.

 

[TravThePro]

Umm, my trucks heavily modified and I still put in a new rad when I got it. I also hooked up a trans cooler in series. The new rad is cheap insurance against a possible failure. Using a trans cooler in series with a new rad is the best of both worlds. My trans temps are really low.

Is a new rad needed? No. Is it cheap insurance? Yes.

I can agree with you bud, he's a new owner and seems to be a little on the younger side like I am, so $$$ doesn't exactly come very easy.

I also detailed a couple of things in the post as to when you should replace the radiator, he's also not had any problems with heat with offroading so far. So with all the tips hopefully his radiator is good to go.

Best option is defenitely #2 and #3 combined but money constraint can only make #1 or #1 and #2 possible. Thanks for the reply!

 

[theesotericone]

I can agree with you bud, he's a new owner and seems to be a little on the younger side like I am, so $$$ doesn't exactly come very easy.

This is gonna sound funny but my rad was a "Used-Like New" one I purchased from Amazon. The Spectre CU Premium 1998. It was 67 bucks delivered to my door. I fully expected it to be beat to shit but it survived multiple shippings just fine. I don't recommend doing this with something like a rad but Amazon is super easy to deal with and I like to gamble. lol

 

[TravThePro]

This is gonna sound funny but my rad was a "Used-Like New" one I purchased from Amazon. The Spectre CU Premium 1998. It was 67 bucks delivered to my door. I fully expected it to be beat to shit but it survived multiple shippings just fine. I don't recommend doing this with something like a rad but Amazon is super easy to deal with and I like to gamble. lol

Dang! I need to buy some of your luck, I've gambled with the like new on amazon a couple of times and only been disappointed once. I've also had 2 radiators shipped from amazon that were damaged (Brand New).... Also this site(T4R) refuses to let me post a new forum for some reason, do you have any advice with that?

 

[mtbtim]

Regardless of the Pink Milkshake scare, many people will replace the radiator as preventative maintenance. Do radiators crack and develop leaks? Of course they do. If you take trips out into what we affectionately call Bum F*ck Egypt, a radiator failure means you're not getting out. Yeah, I know, lots of things can fail and you can't prevent every unforeseen mechanical failure. I chose to replace mine because I do visit BFE fairly regularly.

OP, your radiator could last you for the life of your rig or it could fail tomorrow. I chose some extra insurance like was mentioned above.

 

[octanejunkie]

Regardless of the Pink Milkshake scare, many people will replace the radiator as preventative maintenance. Do radiators crack and develop leaks? Of course they do. If you take trips out into what we affectionately call Bum F*ck Egypt, a radiator failure means you're not getting out. Yeah, I know, lots of things can fail and you can't prevent every unforeseen mechanical failure. I chose to replace mine because I do visit BFE fairly regularly.

OP, your radiator could last you for the life of your rig or it could fail tomorrow. I chose some extra insurance like was mentioned above.

:iagree:
I think there are some definite signs that you want to replace a radiator, regardless of the vehicle, and while you're at it, throw a timing belt and water pump and tensioner and belts and hoses and thermostat and radiator cap and lower ball joints on there too and save yourself from reading 132 more posts about what to fix or replace on a new to you used 4runner with an unknown service history

Insurance ain't cheap when you don't have the right kind, ya gotta cover yo self LOL

 

[theesotericone]

Regardless of the Pink Milkshake scare, many people will replace the radiator as preventative maintenance. Do radiators crack and develop leaks? Of course they do.

Exactly Tim. That's the reason I used the word failure and not pink milkshake. Ever towed out a 5 speed with a blown rad? I have. lol