Hey guys. My radiator has given up at 104k miles. I came out from costco to a red (pink) puddle yesterday. At first I was worried that it was transmission or power steering. Opening the engine bay, it was immediately apparent that it was coolant. I just replaced my water pump a month ago after it failed. It looks like I should have done them both at the same time.

There doesn't appear to be a diy at all. Does anyone have the service manual or know of anything odd to watch out for? Any torque specs would be fantastic. I can put a DIY together after.

There was a recall for the fan screws in which lexus replaced some radiators. Mine was "checked" but was "fine". Does anyone know if there was a specific one? Or what to look for to see if that caused the failure? Edit: Looking at the recall thread they appear to be on the back of the fan motor housing. Check post 154 in https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...recall-11.html for anyone else looking

Here are pictures of the carnage.

 

Appeared fine or not, I'm surprised they didn't do the fan bolt recall on yours.

Just had mine replaced last week. I guess the top plastic cover was overdue after 8.5 yrs. Luckily, it split a few seconds after I turned off the engine and coolants started spilling. My mechanic friend replaced the entire rad, (which comes with the reservoir), all hoses, 2 pre-mixed long life coolants, and T-stat for less than $8bills. It took a couple days to receive the special order parts so plan to order the parts accordingly.

Best of luck to you!

 

Split top plastic tank its a wonder you didn't see it when you did the pump the radiators are a little pricey I think you can get after market good luck.

 

Just so you know. They didn't replace any radiators unless they broke something during the repair. They replaced either the fan screws or cooling fan assembly.

 

IME they replaced the screws only. My fan motor was 90% toast and 15 months later it was making horrific noises. They replaced my radiator and reservoir, but left the grommet for the reservoir somewhere other than in my car so the reservoir was vibrating needlessly.

The top tank in my Supra failed similarly to the OP. It sprayed coolant all over the intake tube in front of the throttlebody. I bought a PWR radiator to fix the issue, and it has worked flawlessly since.

Removing the radiator appears daunting, but it isn't. The FSM would have you take the entire front off the car, but that isn't necessary either. If you want to bring it by, we can have this done in a couple of hours once it cools off enough to work on it.

 

Thanks for the responses. I had noticed some coolant isfvss, but I thought it was just from where I didn't seat the hose fully the first warm up. I've only had radiators crack around inlets before. Never the entire top. Lol. I'll be more aware for future cars.


Thanks Lance. I really appreciate the offer. Parts are ordered. I'll send you a text once everything is closer to arriving.

 

Anyone else got this leak...I just notice today that mines started leaking from the top. I had the check engine light come on but wasn't sure what it was until I open the front hood and saw coolant marks over the covers. From investigating the radiator it looks like the top is leaking and the bottom is fine as I don't see any puddles underneath. I clean up the mess but when I started the car I hear air coming from the radiator top like air is coming out of it. Probably will bring it in or do it in the backyard.

 

It's a PITA job, but it's not difficult. No need to remove the bumper cover at all, just the upper radiator support, and even that just needs to be moved out of the way, not completely off the car. Do yourself a big favor and leave the cardboard taped to the back of the radiator so when you install it, and when you get the fans in position, you can pull out the cardboard and be sure you don't bend up a bunch of fins. Lexus failed to do this when they did mine and I have a patch of folded over fins. Cam does not because I didn't want this to happen.

Of course that meant something else had to be sacrificed to the automotive repair gods, and IMHO, it was just as bad...

 

not sure if I would tackle this with a technician friend but we shall see...if there was a DIY i would definitely tackle it. right now I'm just waiting to see how low the coolant goes. will try to get some quotes before I make a decision. did they ever release an aluminum radiator or we still with that plastic? the leak is see coming from the metal teeth that is attach to the black plastic in the pictures. speaking to a friend. might take it to the shop to get it done.

 

We did Cam's car in about 3 hours including cool down. Full radiator swap. The difficult part is you will be disconnecting the transmission heat exchanger connections from the bottom tank and you'll be losing some ATF when you do this, so you'll need to adjust the transmission fluid level when you have the radiator swapped out. The problem with that is, it takes a very long time for the gearbox to cool off enough to properly adjust the level.

I think if I were to do this again I would suggest dropping the transmission pan, replacing the filter, and changing about 6 quarts of fluid at the same time. That way the fluid just might be cool enough to make a meaningful level adjustment. Otherwise, just let the car sit over night to fully cool off before doing anything.

Cam got an aftermarket radiator. It was identical to the OEM unit and installed without even the slightest complaint.

 

gonna look at it tomorrow and see...will be doing my rear brakes

 

Where did he purchase the radiator? Just the auto parts store or a website or something? Rock Auto?

 

i purchase the radiator on ebay for 181.92 with cash back.

 

just got done with the install today...total price 560 incl...also wanted to ask about the radiator fan...when I drove it home today, i notice some pink dryed up at the top. worried that the fan is what cause the issue in the first place. not sure when the fan turns on too cool the radiator down.

 

The only way the fan could impact the radiator's seal is if it were out of balance or loose and caused vibration. Plastic tank radiators commonly fail around 120k miles anyway because the plastic gets brittle from the heat.