Hello Everyone,
My very first post but longtime admirer.
One of my best friends is a member on here. He has a 100 series (I believe that is correct) and is a Very Accomplished off roader.
He is the main reason I bought a “cruiser”. Actually, mine is not called a land cruiser. I hope me posting here is OK because early last year I bought a 2009 LX570.
I’m somewhat of a gear head and I always do my own repairs and maintenance. I’ve done the “normal” things one does when not sure what the previous owner(s) did or failed to do. I changed all the fluids (except for the transmission that I plan to do soon).
After reading threads/posts here about possible failure parts of my vehicle, I replaced the water pump, idler pulley, etc. I also replaced the plugs, filters, etc. I have not changed the fuel pump yet (I like to change them at around 100k miles on my vehicles).
Last Friday, my wife and I were at a WalMart prescription drive through and I smelled a whiff of coolant. I looked around to see which car it may be coming from. Turns out that it was me!
I opened the hood and it was all over the passenger side on the engine bay. At first I could not locate a leak and thought it may have just overheated (even though the gauge never rose above normal range) so I filled the reservoir and ordered a new rad cap (even though I had just changed it last year). I drove it around a little and it leaked again. I finally saw a crack on top of the radiator.
I immediately came to this forum and did a search. I then found out it was not a rare occurrence. After talking to my Cruiser buddy, he said the top and bottom of the radiators are plastic and as they age the plastic weakens. He said you can tell by the color of the plastic. He said when it starts turning a brown hue, it is time for replacement.
I immediately went and he was exactly right. My radiator was not black, it was a very dark brown! After doing some research, it seems like they start turning at around 10 years old give it take.
SO, I did some research and narrowed it down to OEM (TRAD), Koyo and Denso. I like Denso products so that is what I ordered off rockauto.
I also purchased a new aisin thermostat (even though I changed it last year) because I thought “what the heck. It will be apart anyway so why not just put a new one in. They are not too expensive anyway”. I also ordered 5 gallons of Beck Henley?sp premixed coolant.
I spent most of today replacing the radiator. The Denso unit looked every bit as good as the OEM.
Hopefully it will give me 10 years of service.
I took the old radiator apart to inspect it. The coolant passages looked like new inside. Absolutely no corrosion of any kind. Impressive! In my over 40 years of wrenching on all kinds of vehicles, I have never seen a radiator that was almost 10 years old look so good inside. This however, in my humble opinion, is where Toyota/Lexus could have spent a few extra bucks and made the top and bottom out of metal as well. I know other manufactures are using radiators now that are similarly constructed but on a vehicle with the reputation the LC has, I was a bit surprised it was constructed like this.
I’m not trying to offend anyone here at all. That is not my intention.
It is just that I LOVE THIS VEHICLE!
I tell everyone that I truly believe the LC/LX may very well be the best overall engineered and assembled vehicle ever offered to the general public! I truly believe that!
Most of my life I’ve worked on the domestics but have also had experience with European (over engineered and a nightmare when they get some age on them) and Asian vehicles. The one thing the “domestics” do better than anyone is; they employ the best “bean counters” in the world. If they can save a nickel and use a plastic push pin instead of a bolt or screw, they will do it! I mean really, on my previous vehicle (Cadillac Sedan), the splash guard underneath was a big plastic tub with mostly push pins holding it in place (and the pins were so cheap that they broke when trying to gently manipulate them apart). This LX has two splash guards that are made out of metal! Now I realize it it an off road type SUV but still, the bolts are larger in diameter than the intake manifold bolts were in my Caddy. Let me emphasize what I just said; the splash guard/skid plate bolts are MUCH LARGER than the crap bolts they put in that Northstar to hold the intake in place. Those intake bolts were so small that they would gall up in the aluminum and snap off easily (ask me how I know).
Sorry to go off in a tangent but does anyone agree with me that this is one area that Toyota should have done a little bit better? Again, not complaining about almost 10 years (and 94K miles) of service but compared to the rest of the vehicle, I would have expected 20 years! Was I expecting too much?
Blessings, Brian
My very first post but longtime admirer.
One of my best friends is a member on here. He has a 100 series (I believe that is correct) and is a Very Accomplished off roader.
He is the main reason I bought a “cruiser”. Actually, mine is not called a land cruiser. I hope me posting here is OK because early last year I bought a 2009 LX570.
I’m somewhat of a gear head and I always do my own repairs and maintenance. I’ve done the “normal” things one does when not sure what the previous owner(s) did or failed to do. I changed all the fluids (except for the transmission that I plan to do soon).
After reading threads/posts here about possible failure parts of my vehicle, I replaced the water pump, idler pulley, etc. I also replaced the plugs, filters, etc. I have not changed the fuel pump yet (I like to change them at around 100k miles on my vehicles).
Last Friday, my wife and I were at a WalMart prescription drive through and I smelled a whiff of coolant. I looked around to see which car it may be coming from. Turns out that it was me!
I opened the hood and it was all over the passenger side on the engine bay. At first I could not locate a leak and thought it may have just overheated (even though the gauge never rose above normal range) so I filled the reservoir and ordered a new rad cap (even though I had just changed it last year). I drove it around a little and it leaked again. I finally saw a crack on top of the radiator.
I immediately came to this forum and did a search. I then found out it was not a rare occurrence. After talking to my Cruiser buddy, he said the top and bottom of the radiators are plastic and as they age the plastic weakens. He said you can tell by the color of the plastic. He said when it starts turning a brown hue, it is time for replacement.
I immediately went and he was exactly right. My radiator was not black, it was a very dark brown! After doing some research, it seems like they start turning at around 10 years old give it take.
SO, I did some research and narrowed it down to OEM (TRAD), Koyo and Denso. I like Denso products so that is what I ordered off rockauto.
I also purchased a new aisin thermostat (even though I changed it last year) because I thought “what the heck. It will be apart anyway so why not just put a new one in. They are not too expensive anyway”. I also ordered 5 gallons of Beck Henley?sp premixed coolant.
I spent most of today replacing the radiator. The Denso unit looked every bit as good as the OEM.
Hopefully it will give me 10 years of service.
I took the old radiator apart to inspect it. The coolant passages looked like new inside. Absolutely no corrosion of any kind. Impressive! In my over 40 years of wrenching on all kinds of vehicles, I have never seen a radiator that was almost 10 years old look so good inside. This however, in my humble opinion, is where Toyota/Lexus could have spent a few extra bucks and made the top and bottom out of metal as well. I know other manufactures are using radiators now that are similarly constructed but on a vehicle with the reputation the LC has, I was a bit surprised it was constructed like this.
I’m not trying to offend anyone here at all. That is not my intention.
It is just that I LOVE THIS VEHICLE!
I tell everyone that I truly believe the LC/LX may very well be the best overall engineered and assembled vehicle ever offered to the general public! I truly believe that!
Most of my life I’ve worked on the domestics but have also had experience with European (over engineered and a nightmare when they get some age on them) and Asian vehicles. The one thing the “domestics” do better than anyone is; they employ the best “bean counters” in the world. If they can save a nickel and use a plastic push pin instead of a bolt or screw, they will do it! I mean really, on my previous vehicle (Cadillac Sedan), the splash guard underneath was a big plastic tub with mostly push pins holding it in place (and the pins were so cheap that they broke when trying to gently manipulate them apart). This LX has two splash guards that are made out of metal! Now I realize it it an off road type SUV but still, the bolts are larger in diameter than the intake manifold bolts were in my Caddy. Let me emphasize what I just said; the splash guard/skid plate bolts are MUCH LARGER than the crap bolts they put in that Northstar to hold the intake in place. Those intake bolts were so small that they would gall up in the aluminum and snap off easily (ask me how I know).
Sorry to go off in a tangent but does anyone agree with me that this is one area that Toyota should have done a little bit better? Again, not complaining about almost 10 years (and 94K miles) of service but compared to the rest of the vehicle, I would have expected 20 years! Was I expecting too much?
Blessings, Brian
