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Nightmare Day happened to me this past Sunday when all I wanted to do was finally do some mods I had laying around and a little bit of maintenance.
So open my hood to check my coolant level and pop my radiator cap off to make sure everything was good and **POP** the spring and Plunger of my radiator cap broke apart, separated, and dropped into the upper water outlet Sub-assembly. It took me about 4.5 hours to remove the complete assembly and radiator and fish out all the parts from the radiator cap and do a complete flush. Fished out parts in the radiator as well as the inlet going from the sub assembly into the block. Almost took apart the water pump as well to triple check.
I did a quick Google search and it seems to be a very common issue yet dangerous issue with our cars. Who knows what damage it would have caused and if it was a shop they would have probably just put a new cap and have the old ones floating around in the car. If it was on the radiator alone, wouldn't have been as worried yet the sub assembly has a passage that goes down to the block. It was an OEM cap so looks like Lexus needs to put out a service warning for this issue or create a replace every XX amount of miles
Just a warning to most, If your OEM radiator cap looks funky, CHANGE IT!
Seeing mine is an earlier built '06 model (Sept '05 factory date), I'll definitely keep this in mind. Definitely not the first time I've read about this happening. This time I'll take it to heart.
Same thing happened to me when i replaced the water pump! Good thing my mechanic buddy noticed and took us extra 1.5 hours to remove the housing to get the broken piece out. We carefully rechecked the pieces and thankfully only ONE piece got into the housing.
I would strongly recommend to gently remove the cap to check (as we noticed the broken piece was somewhat visible when we first notice but was in a hurry and knocked it further down onto the housing). Better yet, just got a replacement if you have an older or high mileage car.
I have anan 06, I just hit 110k in my car but I've never seen a radiator cap split the way it did even on higher mileage cars it was kinda concerning to see that happens. Makes me worried about other potential parts. A radiator cap is $10 bucks but the damage and hours it took to take it out conuldcould have been easily thousands
I am nearing 120k miles. Does anyone have a picture of the broken cap or what to watch out for? Maybe it would be a good idea to replace it just to be safe.
I am nearing 120k miles. Does anyone have a picture of the broken cap or what to watch out for? Maybe it would be a good idea to replace it just to be safe.
Unfortunately I didn't take any picture but I remember the small part that keeping the gasket and spring broke into smaller pieces and it was somewhat nerve wreaking trying to figure out if I got all the piece out.
I think you should be OK by gentle removing the cap; the broken piece(s) might just sit on top of the housing assembly ( that what happened to mine but we did not pay attention and knocked them down to the housing).
I think it is a good idea just to replace it if your car is older and/or have over 100k.
Unfortunately I didn't take any picture but I remember the small part that keeping the gasket and spring broke into smaller pieces and it was somewhat nerve wreaking trying to figure out if I got all the piece out.
I think you should be OK by gentle removing the cap; the broken piece(s) might just sit on top of the housing assembly ( that what happened to mine but we did not pay attention and knocked them down to the housing).
I think it is a good idea just to replace it if your car is older and/or have over 100k.
That is what exactly happened to me. It stuck there and I was like 'WTF? what kinda of radiator cap is this' Til I realized what happened
but it looks like this (not my pic but similar to what there is. It is missing a center plunger
not to high jack the thread, but..... does anyone know if i have a bad leak here? this isnt supposed to be normal right? i recently had my waterpump replaced at the dealer and pretty sure a coolant needs to be involved or refilled or something. should i go back and tell them to fix it for free since they did my pump?
sorry for the back pic i took it at night, will take a better one tomorrow morning.
I have an 06 IS350 at 103k miles and my radiator cap also fell apart and my reserve reservoir cap also has dried pink coolant around it. Did an oil change and found out my engine bay has pink coolant all over
I have an 06 IS350 at 103k miles and my radiator cap also fell apart and my reserve reservoir cap also has dried pink coolant around it. Did an oil change and found out my engine bay has pink coolant all over
Same thing happened to me. Luckily it happened when the csp for the carbon buildup was being done so dealer took care of it.
Same thing happened to me. Luckily it happened when the csp for the carbon buildup was being done so dealer took care of it.
What's csp for carbon buildup?
My car has been perfect, well, until now. Every time I have to take my car in for a recall, I feel like they can potentially mess something else up more than solve whatever the recall issue is because I have no issues. Unfortunately, I cannot renew my annual registration without proof of recall being done.
My car has been perfect, well, until now. Every time I have to take my car in for a recall, I feel like they can potentially mess something else up more than solve whatever the recall issue is because I have no issues. Unfortunately, I cannot renew my annual registration without proof of recall being done.
See here - https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-2nd-gen-2006-2013/655541-is250-carbon-build-up-csp.html
06-24-15, 01:58 PM
Coolant Check turned into Cooling system Teardown
