Pink milkshake or something else?

[4RunnerCF]

Hi all,

I'm new here and my knowledge of cars is sort of limited to basic maintenance. The other day I started my 2002 4Runner SR5 and noticed a large amount of an oil substance collecting in the drive way under the front driver side. Upon further inspection I found out that whatever it was was leaking from the coolant reservior which now contained the normal orange coolant and some type of oil floating on top of it which was overflowing out, into the engine compartment and onto my driveway.

I googled the symptoms and learned that it could be few different things: cracked block, head or blown head gasket or a radiator/tranny cooler issue in 3rd gen 4runners that leads to something awful called the pink milkshake.

Of course, to know for sure what the issue actually is, I need to be able to figure out if it is ATF or oil from the engine that leaked into my coolant. So, long story short: what is the best way to figure this out? With my limited knowledge I can't tell ATF apart from motor oil by looking at it.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Chris

 

[badattitude]

the ATF is Red and oil is Brown but after mixing with coolant it's harder to tell. Did you say your coolant is orange? Most 4runners have red coolant.

Is the spillage foamy?

 

[4RunnerCF]

Hi,

Yup the coolant is orange but my radiator has a tag that says it can take red or orange. The spill was dark redish brown and was not foamy.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[badattitude]

not foamy probally means the radiator/trans cooler didn't fail. Still, not a good situation you have. Have you checked the oil dipstick? Is the oil level good? Any white residue on the oil dipstick?

I'm not a mecanic but did have the strawberry milkshake last year. My coolant overflow was full of foamy pink liquid from the ATF and coolant mixing. I believe the pink milkshake was more of an issue with the eairler Gen 3 4Rs. IIRC I haven;t seen too many 2002 with the trans cooler fail, yet.

I wonder if motor oil is getting into your coolant system? Hope some other folks can provide some input as well.

Also, thinking...do you have the original radiator or is it a replacement/non OEM radiator?

If it was me, I'd pressure test the cooling system and flush and fill with Toyota red coolant. Then keep my fingers crossed.

 

[4RunnerCF]

I did check the oil dipstick and it was a little bit low. No white residue on it that I could see. Also, that oil looked much cleaner than whatever is leaking into the coolant. Is it possible that the pink foam is only present after driving around with this problem? Or does coolant and ATF instantly foam up upon coming in contact with one another? Luckily I noticed the spillage before driving anywhere.

I don't think there was a problem prior to me starting it yesterday because I had driven it three hours straight the night before with no signs of overheating. The next morning I spent some time under the truck fixing an unrelated problem saw no sign any fluid leak until starting it thereafter.

Definitely not looking forward to the cost of whatever this problem is.

Thanks,

Chris

 

[4RunnerCF]

Also, as far as I can tell it is the factory radiator. The truck has just over 105k miles on it.