smassey321

I just did the Rock Auto Denso. I am not 100% sure it is the same as the OEM one but it was good enough for my picky self. Minor differences I saw include:

The Denso did not have the OEM foam stuck to the edges to block air on the sides. I removed most of it and pushed it into the gaps.

The lower hose connection fitting is plastic. The oem one was metal. No big deal as the upper is plastic on both.

The overflow hose connector is on the other side of the filler neck. No big deal. Just had to cut off a few inches of no longer needed overflow hose.

The denso has a hose fitting on the bleeder valve on the top hose fitting assembly. The OEM valve screw just lets coolant leak out around the threads.

jooksing82

How hard was the self replacement? Any pics or tips... or procedures....

thomas1

One tip is you do not have to remove the air conditioning condenser radiator...Also the funny button tab on the front of the hood lock is removeable allowing the hood lock support bar to be moved aside..

rns

My 1st post in the forum but straight to the point...

Exactly the same differences I noticed. No problem with them.

Did you notice that the bottom and top aluminum edges of Denso are in two pieces? Cutting line about 1/6 of the witdh opposite sides top and bottom.
I guess this could affect the ability to handle twisting shaking better than solid edges as in oem.

Those lower radiator attachment bolts were real pain. Especially the right hand side which has more plastic covering the access from the lower grill area. I ended up opening it from engine side. Had to be careful as the lower inventer cooler hose was in the way. The right bolt was also much more rusty. You really need good 12mm key for it, I almost ruined it with worn key.
Right one:

Left one:


Quite nasty leakage:

wildta

Do you think it's worth getting some foam tape to block the side edges?

SkiMe

I used a hot glue stick to re-attach the foam pieces to my new radiator. Same radiator as mentioned above. I got mine off of Amazon and the coolant from the Toyota dealer. If you need it quickly, Napa also carries the same one.


https://www.clublexus.com/forums/hyb...-radiator.html

maximizese

It seems a leaky radiator is fairly common around 90K miles. Ours started leaking on the passenger side end tank at 90K and we replaced it with a $100 Denso radiator I bought off eBay. My mechanic changed it at 130K miles when we had the timing belt changed. Labor for the radiator was $60 and labor for the timing belt was $150. Adding in parts was another $300, so $510 wasn't bad at all. It was much less than the $2,400 a Lexus dealership wanted to change.

theory816

So my 07 rx400h had a radiator leak at 109k miles.

If anyone knows why this happens please give an explanation. Is it due to not changing out the coolant enough or just hardware failure?

Anyways, I replaced that sucker myself and took me almost two days because of mechanical inexperience, and also not having the correct tools can make things so much harder.

I can say now that I can replace the radiator now in under two hours.

I might type up a DIY for the radiator replacement but I dont know whats a good way to document everything without taking the system apart. Unless someone in my area needs their radiator replaced.

If you take it to someone to get it replaced, the radiator itself should only cost you $100 and personally I think $150-200 in labor is about right for the job. Also tell the mechanic that there are two 12mm on the bottom that will need to be removed or the radiator will not come off

With all the heat that is generated in the engine compartment, its amazing that the coolant is able to keep things within safe temps, even then I dont trust it to do its job.

Im also trying to find out how to change the inverter coolant as I know from other threads that inverters tend to explode and leak coolant. Better get on that soon or its gonna be an expensive fix. If anyone knows a DIY for the inverter please link!

smassey321

Start here for the hybrid coolant change. https://www.clublexus.com/forums/hyb...placement.html Basically you drain transmission and hybrid radiator, refill, and then bleed air by hooking a clear tube to the valve on the top of the radiator and running it back back into the tank. Run the engine until you don't see air bubbles. .

The inverters don't explode. The coolant is not even under pressure. Some people get seepage from the seals but it is not going to leave you stranded on the side of the road.

theory816

How come you have to run a line from the bleed valve back into the tank?

smassey321

New coolant comes out with the bubbles so you want to re-capture the coolant. See attached.

davintosh

I took the 2006 RX400h we recently bought to the Toyota dealer today for an oil change & tire rotation, and was shown a crack in the radiator and evidence that it's been weeping for a while. They quoted $800 to replace it, which I figured was the typical dealer hyperinflated price, so I said no thank you, and plan to do the R&R myself. What I'm wondering though is if there are any other things I ought to do while I'm in there. Water pump? Hoses? Thermostat? Anything else?

Also, I read about the lower radiator attachment bolts; are there any other things to watch out for? Any hints or special tips to doing this job? Or better yet, any how-to articles, repair manuals, or videos?

I discovered this site the day after we bought the car, and have been poking around a bit. Lots of great information on these cars. Ours has about 142,000 miles on it, but is in great shape. I hope to keep it that way!

05RX330AWD

I'm actually thinking of this DIY some time in the near future, from the 05 RX330 Repair Manual (should be the same as a RX400h):

smassey321

Check your fan motors. The brushes on mine had worn down to nothing. They were clicking when I spun the fan by hand.

thomas1

Did you have to replace motors or just the brushes