About 3 weeks ago, I brought the LC to a 10-hour road trip with some buddies. No issues/hiccups whatsover. LC drove perfectly.
This weekend, I went on a road trip with my family. And would like to share the LC issues I encountered and maybe you can help stop my wife's constant "sell the LC" bickering (she's not a fan of the LC ever since we got it - she always liked the 2001 4runner we had before).
Prior to my weekend trip, I noticed that the rubber on my rad cap is worned out. https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=110873 post 18. So I ordered one from the toyota dealer. And put it on this Friday night. I did the tests that CJF mentioned on Saturday am prior to the trip. And things seem to be fine.
About 2.5 hours of highway driving, things are still ok. Temp still in the middle. When we are going to the uphill side of the destination area, I noticed I'm am not getting power/accelaration. I just thought maybe it's due to the inclines. But then, the temp gauge started to rise and I immediately pulled over.
Upon opening the hood, the first thing I checked was the overflow bottle. And yes, it was full and overflowing. And the overflow hose from the radiator keeps on dumping out coolant. When the engine is cool enough, we removed the rad cap. And the radiator seems empty. After calling friends and explaining them what happened and what I have done re: radcap, their advise was to refill with distilled water (don't have a source for the coolant) and put back the old cap. Luckily I brought the old cap with me and did not toss it to the garbage. So we started the engine and slowly filled the radiator. The temp gauge did not rise more than the usual middle range. So we put water also in the overflow tank and drove away. There's a gas station about 3 kilometers from where I pulled over and that's my destination in case temp gauge rises again.
But temp gauge did not rise anymore. So drove around the beach resort in very hot outside temps with my AC on but the temp gauge did not move. I also checked the hood every 30-45 minutes and overflow is at normal level. After spending the night/morning on the resort, we drove the LC back the following day - same route, with AC and still the temp gauge never moved. She's now parked and waiting for me to look at her again this weekend. I plan to do a drain/flush/refill of the coolant.
So here are my tech concerns after the long problem introduction:
- was it really a rad cap issue? Did I get a defective new cap?
Or the new cap is so "new" the springs are still hard and hence did not open/close accordingly. So how do I get to replace my old cap? Or keep the old cap on forever?
- I noticed also that my AC is not as cold as before - its just not blowing cool air. Is this AC issue somehow related to the almost overheat situation? Or separate? My wife was swearing inside with the kids because the A/C seems to be just a fancy fan and not an AC. It's a lot colder to keep the windows open. I'll have the A/C check this weekend to see if there's a leak in the evaporator.
- I noticed also then when I turn on the headlights, there is a slight drop in the volt gauge on the dash. And the AC also seems to be affected. When I turn off the lights, the AC seems to be blowing more air. But when I turn them on, the AC sort of slows down. I never noticed this issue before and made me think - aren't the AC and lights wired separately? Or are they getting juice from the same power source? Is this an electrical/alternator/battery issue? Never had a problem with the batteries before. What do I need to check?
I'll bring the LC to an auto electrician this weekend to have them checked
It seems that all of the above problems started when I replaced the old cap with a new cap. And I got flack from everybody that says don't tinker with stuff that is working ok fine. Don't be anal with your LC - if it really is a well-engineered SUV, then it should be better than other 16 year old cars. And looks like they were right? Maybe had I not replace the radcap, then the above will not happen. But then again, what if the old radcap really needs replacing- I have not choice but to replace, right?
As such, maybe you can help as to possible causes of my problems. Are they all related or whether they are independent issues?.
I need to bring the LC back to its "everything is working fine" state so that I can have my wife stop bickering and for me to prove that the LC with proper maintenance/servicing is a really a well-engineered SUV that can be kept for a long long time.
This weekend, I went on a road trip with my family. And would like to share the LC issues I encountered and maybe you can help stop my wife's constant "sell the LC" bickering (she's not a fan of the LC ever since we got it - she always liked the 2001 4runner we had before).
Prior to my weekend trip, I noticed that the rubber on my rad cap is worned out. https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=110873 post 18. So I ordered one from the toyota dealer. And put it on this Friday night. I did the tests that CJF mentioned on Saturday am prior to the trip. And things seem to be fine.
About 2.5 hours of highway driving, things are still ok. Temp still in the middle. When we are going to the uphill side of the destination area, I noticed I'm am not getting power/accelaration. I just thought maybe it's due to the inclines. But then, the temp gauge started to rise and I immediately pulled over.
Upon opening the hood, the first thing I checked was the overflow bottle. And yes, it was full and overflowing. And the overflow hose from the radiator keeps on dumping out coolant. When the engine is cool enough, we removed the rad cap. And the radiator seems empty. After calling friends and explaining them what happened and what I have done re: radcap, their advise was to refill with distilled water (don't have a source for the coolant) and put back the old cap. Luckily I brought the old cap with me and did not toss it to the garbage. So we started the engine and slowly filled the radiator. The temp gauge did not rise more than the usual middle range. So we put water also in the overflow tank and drove away. There's a gas station about 3 kilometers from where I pulled over and that's my destination in case temp gauge rises again.
But temp gauge did not rise anymore. So drove around the beach resort in very hot outside temps with my AC on but the temp gauge did not move. I also checked the hood every 30-45 minutes and overflow is at normal level. After spending the night/morning on the resort, we drove the LC back the following day - same route, with AC and still the temp gauge never moved. She's now parked and waiting for me to look at her again this weekend. I plan to do a drain/flush/refill of the coolant.
So here are my tech concerns after the long problem introduction:
- was it really a rad cap issue? Did I get a defective new cap?
Or the new cap is so "new" the springs are still hard and hence did not open/close accordingly. So how do I get to replace my old cap? Or keep the old cap on forever?
- I noticed also that my AC is not as cold as before - its just not blowing cool air. Is this AC issue somehow related to the almost overheat situation? Or separate? My wife was swearing inside with the kids because the A/C seems to be just a fancy fan and not an AC. It's a lot colder to keep the windows open. I'll have the A/C check this weekend to see if there's a leak in the evaporator.
- I noticed also then when I turn on the headlights, there is a slight drop in the volt gauge on the dash. And the AC also seems to be affected. When I turn off the lights, the AC seems to be blowing more air. But when I turn them on, the AC sort of slows down. I never noticed this issue before and made me think - aren't the AC and lights wired separately? Or are they getting juice from the same power source? Is this an electrical/alternator/battery issue? Never had a problem with the batteries before. What do I need to check?
I'll bring the LC to an auto electrician this weekend to have them checked
It seems that all of the above problems started when I replaced the old cap with a new cap. And I got flack from everybody that says don't tinker with stuff that is working ok fine. Don't be anal with your LC - if it really is a well-engineered SUV, then it should be better than other 16 year old cars. And looks like they were right? Maybe had I not replace the radcap, then the above will not happen. But then again, what if the old radcap really needs replacing- I have not choice but to replace, right?
As such, maybe you can help as to possible causes of my problems. Are they all related or whether they are independent issues?.
I need to bring the LC back to its "everything is working fine" state so that I can have my wife stop bickering and for me to prove that the LC with proper maintenance/servicing is a really a well-engineered SUV that can be kept for a long long time.
