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One of the big selling points for me when I bought my used LX was that the dealer had replaced the radiator with OEM less than 1 year prior to my purchase. Well it was leaking when I got it home but I didn’t notice it until just after the 1-year warranty.
It’s complicated by the fact that the body shop was the repair which is a separate ownership from the Toyota dealer next door who did the engine work for the body shop. It’s also 2 years later. I may call the body shop and at least yell at them on the phone. They did work with me to get the TJM bumper rather than OEM as part of the repair. I may just let it go.
I believe it. The dealer here in Lansing uses aftermarket all the time. The Carquest parts truck comes and goes frequently. I caught them having installed Carquest shocks on my 80 and they used all aftermarket filters on my 200. A friend had aftermarket parts on his 4.7 Tundra for the timing belt work. I of course no longer use that dealer. Some dealers will do anything to increase profit and it’s an EXTREMELY rare customer who will notice.
That is not the new version. It will likely have the same issues as the old one. Should be good for 50-80K at least though.
After careful consideration, I choose to repair the leak in my top radiator tank yesterday. The logic was actually simple considering that my LX570 is 12 years old, has 155k on the clock, and was driven only 5k miles last year. I know my decision is not consistent with others on this thread. Please no cancel culture.
Logic? I keep up on the vehicle maintenance and have been periodically monitoring for the inevitable leak for years (and it just started leaking). I can continue to monitor the repair in the same manner. If the repair does not work or subsequently fails, I'll replace the radiator.
I selected a repair method that was previously mentioned in this thread as being a potential. The repair is not a patch. It is literally welding of the engineered polymer used on the radiators. There are several videos available that demonstrate the repair method. This is the one that convinced me to give it a shot (starting a 1:42):
Polyvance Plastic Radiator Repair
I practiced on a plastic bucket to gain some experience. While the plastic on the bucket had a different melting temperature, the practice provided me the confidence to proceed. I followed the process used on the video (including the heat gun pre-heat). It went well; the only things I questioned was when to stop welding. Pleased to share it was a success. It's not pretty, but it is functional. The post maintenance test run was signed off as satisfactory. Here's the before and after:
This was my first time working with a Polyvance product and frankly, I'm impressed. They've got a bunch of other products available for other applications (dashboards, bumpers, broken tabs, etc) that I'll certainly consider the next time I have a plastic related issue. The key is making sure you use the correct welding rod for the material being repaired.
I purchased the product via Amazon (Polyvance Plastic Radiator Tank Repair Kit).
The monitoring has commenced. I'll update this post periodically with the results.
That’s what mine looked like when I glued it. Hasn’t exploded yet. . .
Hard to say. Could be a ticking time bomb, esp since it's still the original. Mine exploded around 110k IIRC.
Have the link handy?
Sorry, 143,000mi after a patch, or total?
