Hi there everyone. New to this forum with a story to tell (long story) so grab a beer and sit back and relax. Last week a friend of my sister inlaws 1999 4r lost the tranny radiator cooler. The first thing she did was have it towed to a shop where the guy told her there's water in the tranny and atf in the engine. The second thing she did was go to a Toyota dealer and buy a new rave4. She called me and asked if I wanted it. Free, I said sure, she had it flat bedded to my house. First thing I did was drain all the atf I could via the pan plug. Picked up a new radiator, jumpered the pressure and return lines with one of the hoses and ran 7 gallons of new atf through it. Draining it everytime after running it through the gears and blowing air through the lines. I talked to a guy I know that works at a Toyota dealership and he told me if I caught it that quick there's a good chance that the tranny will be ok. So don't let anyone tell you if you have this happen, your tranny is shot,it's not. Also, he said that when this happens it's because the wrong coolant was used. I have a 2000 SR5 with a 3.4 and 180K on the clock, but I change the coolant every 2 years and use the red stuff and never had a problem. Next, While running it I detected an oil leak at the filter. My Toyota guy said it's the gasket between the filter bracket and the block. I looked it over, and sure enough that's where it's coming from. I asked him how the hell do I get at that bracket? It's buried under the exhaust manifold. I can barely get the oil filter off. He told me what they do is remove the exhaust manifold to easily get to it, but if I wanted to fight it and get my hands torn to shreds, go for it.
He also told me chances are the manifold's cracked anyway and I would have to replace it. Sure enough, it was, cracked in two. His feeling is that when the manifold cracks, even with the heat shield, hot gases blow right onto the oil filter bracket and disintegrate that gasket. So anywho, that's where I am right now, and actually he was right, it's not that hard to take the manifold off. The EGR studs are a PITA to get off using an E7 socket, but other than that, not too bad and it exposes the oil filter bracket and oil cooler hoses to easily get them off. Now I'm kinda thinking about either a stock manifold or a header. Only thing is I have to make sure if it's CARB compliant because I live in the republic of kalifornia. So that's my story so far, and I'll let you know how this works out in the end. Hope this helps anyone that thinks their tranny is toast just because it got some water in it, Jump on it right away, and do what I did, and you will probably be O.K.
He also told me chances are the manifold's cracked anyway and I would have to replace it. Sure enough, it was, cracked in two. His feeling is that when the manifold cracks, even with the heat shield, hot gases blow right onto the oil filter bracket and disintegrate that gasket. So anywho, that's where I am right now, and actually he was right, it's not that hard to take the manifold off. The EGR studs are a PITA to get off using an E7 socket, but other than that, not too bad and it exposes the oil filter bracket and oil cooler hoses to easily get them off. Now I'm kinda thinking about either a stock manifold or a header. Only thing is I have to make sure if it's CARB compliant because I live in the republic of kalifornia. So that's my story so far, and I'll let you know how this works out in the end. Hope this helps anyone that thinks their tranny is toast just because it got some water in it, Jump on it right away, and do what I did, and you will probably be O.K.
