2006 GX 470 overheating (1 Viewer)

[ceylonfj40nut]

My wife’s GX 470 suddenly developed an overheating issue. Never hit the red mark. She did not notice it until the overflow bottle puked on the road when she parked. Had a look, fan clutch was not wobbley. Turned somewhat easily, some resistance. Filled it MrT red coolant and drove it home. Temps stayed mid mark for the most part. Parked at home ran it idle for a while. Temps rose to 3/4 mark. Shut it down. Did not hear the clutch engage and disengage while idling. Thermostat kicks in as top radiator hose gets hot. Did the card board trick by placing a fold piece of cardboard against the fan when idleing and at 2000rpm. Cardboard stopped fan from rotating even though water pump/engine was turning. Leading me to believe the fan clutch is bad.

Anyone encountered this before?

 

[GXO]

Fan clutch indeed. I would also get a radiator wand and make sure the fins are nicely clean.

 

[ceylonfj40nut]

Awesome. Just got the Aisin clutch from amazon $80. Lexus wanted $250 for the same one. I will update on results shortly.

 

[GXO]

If you get it all sorted and still see issues...how long ago did you do the WP and thermostat?

 

[ceylonfj40nut]

50k miles ago. Will go through a process of elimination.

 

[CarolinaGX]

if it does fine while driving with air forced through the radiator and it gets hot while at idle with no air forced through radiator, then I would bet it is the fan clutch.

 

[ceylonfj40nut]

Update. Changed fan clutch. Man those nuts are soft. Stripped two. Needed a chisel and hammer. Chain vise grips to hold pulley.

Still overheated. So went ahead and replaced thermostat and radiator cap. All good.

In hindsight I should have started with the thermostat. Peace of mind though. All new thermostat, fan clutch and cap. Should be good for a while.

 

[HomersCanyonero]

Good point. Start replacing with the easier and cheaper stuff.