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Coolant leak - 5vze

Changed thermostat, fan clutch and belts today.

Temp stayed almost exactly at 190 on the same route that hit 207 last time. Hit 193 for a moment at a stop light before hitting highway.

Ambient temperature is about 10 degrees below what it was last time.

Dash gauge still reads higher than my other 3.4’s. Have a new temp sending unit, but not going to bother with it.
 
Rather than start a new thread, I figure i'd keep all of my POS issues in this one.

Doublecab front doors. The handles seem to stop working unless grabbing from the farthest rear part of the handle. Been an issue on the passenger side since I've owned it, now it's on the driver's as well.

Replaced handles with aftermarket and then factory... seems to end up in the same situation.

Since it sometimes seems to happen from the inside handle (passenger side), I'm assuming there's something less than kosher in the latch mechanism or rods...

Any one have ideas?

ALSO... anyone happen to know how to reprogram the DRL's and automatic door locks, by chance?
 
The only water pump I've ever seen leak prematurely was an OEM pump from the dealer on my 22RET, and I've done hundreds.

#1 cause of water pumps failing earlier is a piece of sealant getting caught up in the shaft/seal. A lot of these had the pump glued one, while Aisin supplies them with a nice gasket. If when you cleaned the old shit off of the block, a piece of sealant made it's way down one of the coolant passages and then worked it's way back out into the pump, that could do it. I always shove some wadded up electrical tape "plugs" into the block before I get to cleaning the gasket surface....they're easy to yank back out, won't tear, won't leave shit behind.
 
Rather than start a new thread, I figure i'd keep all of my POS issues in this one.

Doublecab front doors. The handles seem to stop working unless grabbing from the farthest rear part of the handle. Been an issue on the passenger side since I've owned it, now it's on the driver's as well.

Replaced handles with aftermarket and then factory... seems to end up in the same situation.

Since it sometimes seems to happen from the inside handle (passenger side), I'm assuming there's something less than kosher in the latch mechanism or rods...

Any one have ideas?

ALSO... anyone happen to know how to reprogram the DRL's and automatic door locks, by chance?
Lube (or just clean) the latch mechanism and re-bend the actuator rods to shorten them to the right length again.

No
 
Lube (or just clean) the latch mechanism and re-bend the actuator rods to shorten them to the right length again.

No

So... this turned into a much more involve fix than I anticipated, but... it's fixed.
actuator rods were bent on the slider - probably because they have been receiving a lot of pressure... but that wasn't the issue. Ended up pulling a lock out of the door and staring at it for a bit. Cleaning, lubing, manually actuating (I just realized how y'all will interpret that... :flipoff2:). The problem, in my case, is the lock itself. The lock mechanism itself is coated with something that feels like a powder coad/plasti-dip hybrid (circled in RED in the pic). It's thick.. and it seems to break down and get sticky, perhaps from use of lubricants in the past.

pulled the two screws (circled in green) and drilled out the rivots (blue) to pop the case open. lifted the lock out (watch out for the spring) and spent a few minutes pealing the rest of the coating off. First side took an hour total, second 20 minutes. Put it all back together, sans coating, tacked the rivets, lubricated everything and they work great. Boss said "they work like new," so it's a win.






Now on to the next issue with this thing...
on startup, I get a belt squeal and the Power steering will hesitate (almost ratchet) turning stop to stop. Fluid is full and very clean, belt is tight. I once lost all powerstering for a moment after power washing the lower engine bay. Any ideas?
 

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The only water pump I've ever seen leak prematurely was an OEM pump from the dealer on my 22RET, and I've done hundreds.

#1 cause of water pumps failing earlier is a piece of sealant getting caught up in the shaft/seal. A lot of these had the pump glued one, while Aisin supplies them with a nice gasket. If when you cleaned the old shit off of the block, a piece of sealant made it's way down one of the coolant passages and then worked it's way back out into the pump, that could do it. I always shove some wadded up electrical tape "plugs" into the block before I get to cleaning the gasket surface....they're easy to yank back out, won't tear, won't leave shit behind.

checked the water levels today (probably put 150 miles on it). completely full, overflow is right at 1/2 full, temps are stable... so hopefully it's no longer an issue.
 
Changed thermostat, fan clutch and belts today.

Temp stayed almost exactly at 190 on the same route that hit 207 last time. Hit 193 for a moment at a stop light before hitting highway.

Ambient temperature is about 10 degrees below what it was last time.

Dash gauge still reads higher than my other 3.4’s. Have a new temp sending unit, but not going to bother with it.


Out of curiosity, when you installed the thermostat. Which spot did you put the jiggle valve?

I've been looking at the procedure for doing the timing belt on my 2000 4runner with the 3.4l.

And have seen it at 12 or 6 o'clock. Currently my understanding is 6 o'clock is correct.

My 4runner Currently runs up around 200°.
 
Out of curiosity, when you installed the thermostat. Which spot did you put the jiggle valve?

I've been looking at the procedure for doing the timing belt on my 2000 4runner with the 3.4l.

And have seen it at 12 or 6 o'clock. Currently my understanding is 6 o'clock is correct.

My 4runner Currently runs up around 200°.

Installed at 6 o’clock based on some interwebs snooping. Didn’t think to check where the jiggle valve was on the one I removed, unfortunately.

So far, gauge seems consistent. Wish I could run a scangauge full time, but this truck gets the ABS light interference issue and dead batteries even with the “correct” cable from scangauge…
 
Installed at 6 o’clock based on some interwebs snooping. Didn’t think to check where the jiggle valve was on the one I removed, unfortunately.

So far, gauge seems consistent. Wish I could run a scangauge full time, but this truck gets the ABS light interference issue and dead batteries even with the “correct” cable from scangauge…

I have one of the cts edges in my 4runner. Probably why I had a dead battery a couple weeks ago🙄.


Works good enough for trouble codes. And engine info. I'll just remember to drive it more often. To keep the battery charged. It was a life saver diagnosing my bad ecm.
 
Out of curiosity, when you installed the thermostat. Which spot did you put the jiggle valve?

I've been looking at the procedure for doing the timing belt on my 2000 4runner with the 3.4l.

And have seen it at 12 or 6 o'clock. Currently my understanding is 6 o'clock is correct.

My 4runner Currently runs up around 200°.
To confirm 6 o'clock it correct and counter intuitive But per the FSM is correct.
 
This truck is bugging me...

For a number of years, I'd get a belt squeal at start... new belts, proper tension, even belt conditioner... still same.

After I corrected the cooling issues, i had two instances where I'd lose PS at start up. One with the typical "jitter" when turning... And today... Weird squealing under hood at start (it's been -1 here... hasn't been started since thursday)... And no PS. Nada.

Said F-it and drove it to TSC anyway. About 2-3 miles in, started getting PS back. Was in TSC ~10 minutes... squeal at start. and can get squeal @ full lock.

Pump or rack or something else? Fluid is full and clean. Rack is, IIRC, original w/ 168k miles.
 
This truck is bugging me...

For a number of years, I'd get a belt squeal at start... new belts, proper tension, even belt conditioner... still same.

After I corrected the cooling issues, i had two instances where I'd lose PS at start up. One with the typical "jitter" when turning... And today... Weird squealing under hood at start (it's been -1 here... hasn't been started since thursday)... And no PS. Nada.

Said F-it and drove it to TSC anyway. About 2-3 miles in, started getting PS back. Was in TSC ~10 minutes... squeal at start. and can get squeal @ full lock.

Pump or rack or something else? Fluid is full and clean. Rack is, IIRC, original w/ 168k miles.
Edit: also theres a screen in the reservoir that gets clogged to I believe? Which sounds more like your issue

In my search of info on my 3rd gen 4runner.

I've read the lower ball joints, or tie rods can wear out and cause binding. Putting to much stress on the rack and pump. And that the jittering is either caused by the lbj, tie rods or a bad rack.

I have most of the maintenance records on my 4runner. And I know all that has been replaced on mine. Though my rack does leak a little, and the bushing for the mount is shot, but the steering works great. So the hell with it.


I'm working on a misfire issue. Pretty sure it's time for injectors. With 276k miles, I'm not surprised.
 
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I'm working on a misfire issue. Pretty sure it's time for injectors. With 276k miles, I'm not surprised.
On injectors I know a good shop, we've sent three sets all right in the window your at, and they have all come back perfect. Just a thought.

They do a pre test and a post test and send a printout.
And the turn around is great.


 
On injectors I know a good shop, we've sent three sets all right in the window your at, and they have all come back perfect. Just a thought.

They do a pre test and a post test and send a printout.
And the turn around is great.


Thanks, bookmarked them for a later date. The best price I've found on new oem injectors is just under $600 from yotashop. Which is a bit hard to swallow at the moment. Might find another used set to send off. I'll figure that out after the beginning of the new year.


I'm curious to hear what ends up being the issue here.
 
Thanks, bookmarked them for a later date. The best price I've found on new oem injectors is just under $600 from yotashop. Which is a bit hard to swallow at the moment. Might find another used set to send off. I'll figure that out after the beginning of the new year.


I'm curious to hear what ends up being the issue here.
you will like these guys, I have had no complaints, my black truck, new motor 280K had injectors wit a zero spray pattern, came back in factory specs, the sons in line 6 same shitty pattern, came back factory specs, and my 22re, same.

And they are like $75 per injector. well worth the money.

Turn around is like a week also.
 
Edit: also theres a screen in the reservoir that gets clogged to I believe? Which sounds more like your issue

In my search of info on my 3rd gen 4runner.

I've read the lower ball joints, or tie rods can wear out and cause binding. Putting to much stress on the rack and pump. And that the jittering is either caused by the lbj, tie rods or a bad rack.

I have most of the maintenance records on my 4runner. And I know all that has been replaced on mine. Though my rack does leak a little, and the bushing for the mount is shot, but the steering works great. So the hell with it.


I'm working on a misfire issue. Pretty sure it's time for injectors. With 276k miles, I'm not surprised.


I think you may be correct on the screen. Watched a Timmy the Toolman video on cleaning the screen yesterday. It’s on this weeks to do.

LBJ’s only have about 35k on them, so hoping they are still good.
 
I think you may be correct on the screen. Watched a Timmy the Toolman video on cleaning the screen yesterday. It’s on this weeks to do.

LBJ’s only have about 35k on them, so hoping they are still good.
What brand of ball joints did you use?

I've cut open nearly every aftermarket LBJ for these trucks to compare their construction and they're all shit with the exception of the OEM joints. Moog uses a sintered gusher bearing that the metal ball rides in, (the real) Sankai 555 uses simply a steel ball running in a steel housing, all of the cheaper aftermarkets use a split POM (delrin) liner that's designed to accept a load in the opposite direction and will wear/fail very prematurely....and most of them come with bolts that are too short and non-hardened hollow dowels rather than the correct hardened hollow dowels.

The OEM uses a 2 piece liner...with a solid graphite impregnated POM (Delrin) on the loaded side and a polyurethane plug on the the unloaded side so the ball stud can be installed through the liner from the bottom, rather than using expansion slits and forcing the ball stud into the liner from the top. This is important because in this application the ball stud is trying to get pulled out of the housing, rather than pushed into the housing. WIth the load being applied in the this direction, the slit style liners will deflect and material will cold flow into the voids created by the slits, resulting in a loose fit and metal to metal contact in short order, which will VERY QUICKLY result in total separation.

With the toyota design, there's no place for material to go so it says where it is, and just about never wears out until the boots rot and contamination is able to enter the joint and cause corrosion on the ballstud which abrades the liner and causes the same thing, but that usually take about 250K miles
 
On injectors I know a good shop, we've sent three sets all right in the window your at, and they have all come back perfect. Just a thought.

They do a pre test and a post test and send a printout.
And the turn around is great.



I had these guys do 22re injectors back in the 90's... or at least I'm pretty sure it was these guys... awesome service. Prices were a bit different.
 
What brand of ball joints did you use?

I've cut open nearly every aftermarket LBJ for these trucks to compare their construction and they're all shit with the exception of the OEM joints. Moog uses a sintered gusher bearing that the metal ball rides in, (the real) Sankai 555 uses simply a steel ball running in a steel housing, all of the cheaper aftermarkets use a split POM (delrin) liner that's designed to accept a load in the opposite direction and will wear/fail very prematurely....and most of them come with bolts that are too short and non-hardened hollow dowels rather than the correct hardened hollow dowels.

The OEM uses a 2 piece liner...with a solid graphite impregnated POM (Delrin) on the loaded side and a polyurethane plug on the the unloaded side so the ball stud can be installed through the liner from the bottom, rather than using expansion slits and forcing the ball stud into the liner from the top. This is important because in this application the ball stud is trying to get pulled out of the housing, rather than pushed into the housing. WIth the load being applied in the this direction, the slit style liners will deflect and material will cold flow into the voids created by the slits, resulting in a loose fit and metal to metal contact in short order, which will VERY QUICKLY result in total separation.

With the toyota design, there's no place for material to go so it says where it is, and just about never wears out until the boots rot and contamination is able to enter the joint and cause corrosion on the ballstud which abrades the liner and causes the same thing, but that usually take about 250K miles

I didn't do it... PO did. But I'm relatively certain they are factory toyota. He was pretty meticulous about maintenance items and replaced the entire LCA's when he did ball joints and bushings.
 
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