kphu

iTrader: (8)

Last thursday night my wife said she had no heat in her car (03 gx470). I didn't know what to do so on Friday I did some research at work. On Friday my wife drove the car to work and back. Before she left work I asked her to look at the temp gauge and she never noticed it going over normal temp. On Saturday morning, I checked the radiator and it was practically empty so I drove it 3 miles to a shop to have them diagnose the leak problem. while in front of the shop I noticed antifreeze leaking from the radiator so I drove the truck home without them doing anything. Temp gauge never surpassed the middle.

I drove the truck home with the intention of replacing the radiator but I can't get the part until tomorrow (Monday) so to save time, I drained the radiator and pulled it out. I got less than 1/2 gallon from draining it. The coloring was red and green, which made me think tranny fluid and coolant but it wasn't milky and as I thought about it I recall when i did the 90k service with the help of my bro (former toyo mech) the blocks where never drained so I'm guessing that I absent mindedly mixed green prestone with toyo coolant. Probably the reason my radiator is leaking?

After taking the radiator out, I didn't drain the coolant from the block valves, but I think it would be good to do that just to get an idea of whether or not its empty.

This morning i was thinking i should do a full flush after i replace the radiator, but since it would be impossible to open the valve on one side perhaps a flush isn't the right thing to do.

Not sure if I should do a tranny dump and fill.

Any advice?

kphu

iTrader: (8)

I replaced the radiator this evening, drained what I could and filled with toyo long life coolant. Checked the trany fluid level, it was normal and looked very clean so I didn't bother draining and filling. Let the car ran for 15 mins with the heat fully blasted on high. The heat was nice and toasty. Looks like I lucked out, although it was pretty cold out during the fix 36°F.

cssnms

Did you go with OEM or an aftermarket unit? I decied to go with a Koyorad OEM replacement and it fit like a glove and appears to be of good quality - shoot anything has to be better than the damn oem unit which sprung a leak after 72k miles.

Road Rage

Let me guess, the leak was on the bottom left corner of the radiator? Driver side that is.

cssnms

Good guess - in my case.