I was driving 80MPH on the interstate in my Lexus LS430 2005 when I pull off the exit and stopped to make a right turn. The car switched off and I saw steam coming out of the hood. I also noticed the temperature was all the way up to max. I had the car towed home and removed the cover and saw this.



The hose that goes to the overflow was disconnected.. not sure what damage i caused and what to do next. The oil level is just above the minimum mark. I started the car for few seconds and it does not sound normal, some tapping noise and very rough. Any insight and help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Do you have any coolant in the radiator?

 

Unfortunately any errant "noise" when the engine is spinning usually (not always) indicates a needing to rebuild in some fashion. The problem is you wont know exactly what the issue is until its basically completely apart. Which at that point if you had a mechanic do the job, would be cheaper and easier to "fix" by sourcing another engine completely, probably from a junked car with a working engine and associated parts. It's much harder these days to find a place that can properly rebuild a motor. And would be just as expensive, if not more so than buying and installing another used engine.

Take what i say with a grain of salt however, tow it to a trusted mechanic and minimize further damage by not running the engine anymore. They'll have a better idea of what to do in person.

 

No coolant was left in the radiator.
I was going to pick some up from the Toyota dealer today and try adding it.

 

I don't know what your issue is, but I can say that when I bought my car used in 10/16, the next day I poked around under the hood, and was "alarmed" to find no coolant in the reservoir, and NO coolant in the radiator that could be seen. Never came across such a scenario before....so no coolant is not necessarily the end. But my car was always at normal temp. Hope you get this sorted out.

p.s. you can get Asian Zerex (pink) 50/50 at Walmart, for substantially less than the dealer, maybe $11 vs. $26....

 

This afternoon I looked in the radiator and there is some unpleasantly slime like substance (see pictures).
I notice the oil smells burnt.
Also the connection to the overflow reservoir looks funky or did something melt away!
Please help.

Picture 1


Picture 2


Picture 3


Picture 4

 

For sure, you will need a new radiator since the nipple at the filler neck is completely snapped off (see sketch below).


Judging from the residual in the radiator, it appears that at some point, someone tried to repair a leak by adding some stop-leak liquid/substance to the cooling system. I also suspect that the radiator was filled with water (the slime shown on your photos and the spray around the radiator do not have a hint of the characteristic pink color of the Toyota coolant). I would suggest a complete flush of the coolant system, including the heater core. Check out Post #3 on link below...
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...goes-cold.html

And be sure to open the coolant drain valves on the engine block to rid all of the scums. Check out Post #9 on the link below...
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...-and-fill.html

You mentioned that you found no coolant in the radiator, so you have a leak somewhere. Check your motor oil and transmission fluid for signs of coolant/water - look for a milky appearance. If you can confirm that coolant/water did not infiltrate the motor oil and ATF systems, you should retrieve DTC's with a OBDII reader without starting the engine. Most likely, the ECM may have placed the engine in safe-mode when extreme temperature was detected. Resetting the DTC will likely to resolve the "rough" idle.

 

Good advice above, but I'm afraid you need more than a radiator at this point. The sludge looks more like oil/coolant mixture to me. Pull the oil fill cap...what do you see on the cap? Dipstick?

This reality with the rough running and noise when running is not good...if the coolant and oil mixed the bottom end of the engine may be toast if this is the cause of noise. Suspect the rough running is a compromised headgasket (low compression in 1 or more cyl) which allowed coolant into the crankcase mixing with the oil and vice versa thus the radiator sludge.

pics of dipstick and bottom of oil filler cap would be nice. Also bottom of radiator cap too.

 

Thanks for all the great info.
" I would suggest a complete flush of the coolant system, including the heater core." - I have to replace the radiator and the thermostat first. correct? It would be nice to get the car running until I get all the part but I don't think it is possible.
" someone tried to repair a leak by adding some stop-leak liquid/substance to the cooling system" - The Lexus dealer replaced the timing belt and the water pump some time back. Would they have replaced the coolant at that time?

So looking at the dip stick I did not see any milky stuff but it smells of burnt oil. I will double check again.
Don't know exactly how to check the ATF, other than draining some out.
Reset ECM by disconnecting the battery I assume.

 

Thanks for the Input. In the morning I will post the pictures.

 

Before you spend any money I would do a compression check on all cylinders. I'm betting you have blown head gaskets at the very least if you pegged the temp gauge. You also could have warped the heads which will cause increased valvetrain noise. Used engines can be found for around $900.

 

Long story short when I was young, I got ripped off and bought a Volvo V6 that had blown head gaskets, and the seller poured the Bar's Leak stuff in prior to the sale.

I ended up paying $900 for a used motor and tranny, and drove the car for 8 years! So used is not out of the question if necessary.

OP: Out of curiosity, have you had this car long enough to know that nobody poured any stop leak into it?

 

Here are pics

 

Thanks for the all the input.
I have had the car since it had 20K miles and it now has 185K. It was bought from a Lexus dealer.

 

Gotcha, so the Bar's Leak will not be your problem....as I recall (it was a really long time ago), when my head gaskets were gone, everything was milky, incl. peeking down the radiator overflow, and the oil filler cap. That car just reminded me I had a Snap On adapter for the drain plug and don't know where it ever went....

How about this...do you know what color your coolant was when it was normal? Meaning, it's not necessarily pink or red, it could have been switched to green at some point. It's puzzling what the white substance can be...(as I understand it, any coolant used other than pink, merely means that the life of the coolant is of the lower replacement interval, such as if green and pink were mixed, or red and pink)