Pink Milkshake survivor stories

[4gunner01]

1 year post milkshake

Experienced the good ole pink milkshake 11 months ago. Since then I’ve put close to 15k miles on the dash. The 4Runner has been shifting nice and smooth since flush and rad change.

Immediately after noticing the spew coming out of my radiator cap, 4Runner went in limp mode so could not drive it. Had it towed to Amco where they replaced the radiator and performed a manual atf flush. After getting car back from them I drove it home and checked the atf fluid and it looked cloudy - hinting at there still being coolant in trans. The following day I performed a manual flush (draining pan and pumping fluid out of line going to radiator) all in all I probably ran around 30 qts of new atf fluid it. About once a month I check the atf fluid. Fortunately it’s staying pink with no stink. I believe I will not have any further problems with the trans unless the cooler in radiator fails again. For reference the it’s a 2001 SR5 4Runner - 285,000 miles.

Ok, so I had the dreaded pink milkshake. Searched this forum and found lots of advice on how to flush, and lots of opinions on either side on the effectiveness of a flush. I thought it would be helpful if we had a thread that captured some information on outcomes after experiencing the pink milkshake failure.

So, if you had the pink milkshake, please reply to this thread with your experience AFTER doing a flush.

Please include in your post:

Flush method used: (power flush, manual flush, pan drain only)
Approx how may quarts or gallons you used in the initial repair:
If you re-flushed after initial flush, at what mileage interval(s) did you re-flush:
If your trains is still working please state the approx miles accumulated since flushing:
If your trains failed, please state approx miles after flush:

I hope this thread will help accumulate some data on best practices and real data on flush effectiveness.

 

[brillo_76]

I know of one confirmed pink milkshake the owner passed away, so not sure if it's still going. The 2nd one I think my one Tetanus1 had that happen as well. I think this because the overflow tank tubes were swelled along with My radiator main hoses.. I never seen those hoses swell before in the past. As the previous owner did say he put 2 radiators in it as the one failed and the aftermarket junk he put in failed as well.

Anyways, if I am correct. The transmission has close to 100k on it since the event occurred. Still shifting good and about 11k away from 300k with the engine never opened up. Granted, it could use the valve cover gaskets...

Sent from my SM-A536V using Tapatalk

 

[4gunner01]

I had the dreaded pink milkshake around 1 year ago and did all the prescribed things found in these forums.
I have since put around 12k miles on the car since without any problems. I think the key thing is to flush the hell out of the transmission.

 

[BeckyM]

I definitely agree with that- flush the transmission as much as possible. I have well over 50k on mine since, including a 9000+ mile roadtrip, and it’s still going strong.