For anyone that replaced the “bracket, fluid coupling” fan bracket (the piece the fan is bolted to) how did you undo / reinstall the bottom right bolt? It’s directly behind the hard lines that are on the driver side of the engine. Pics below, any help would be appreciated. Separately, is that black dirt/sludge on the top right of the fan bracket/bottom of driver’s side engine cause for concern or just dirt on a 7 year old car?
2008-2018 Radiator Failure and Public Service Announcement
- Thread starter jclarke450
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Thank you for your response. I do have the bolts on on the two brackets that hold the lines down, one on the driver (right) side and one towards the top of the engine. Is there another set of bolts/brackets holding those lines down?
Toward the bottom of those lines is another 10mm bolt that holds them to the timing cover. But the AC compressor pulley blocks access to it. I loosened the compressor bolts to slide it over and give access. Someone else loosened the compressor hub bolt and took off the clutch pulley.. but to me it seemed like more to go wrong with me not assembling that correctly.
With the 10mm bolt out the lines will come out far enough to remove the fan bracket bolts.
Edit: note that the compressor bolts are easy to get to through the gap between frame and body in the front driver fender well.
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Does anyone know the specs and part number of the three bolts that hold the thermostat housing to the water pump? The top left bolt broke in half as I was torquing to spec with an obviously crappy torque wrench, luckily I was able to extract. On a related note, does anyone have any good suggestions for a torque wrench?
I took the compressor pully/clutch off. Its not too hard to do but there are one or two spacer washers that are critical for the clutch to work. It would be easy to loose them and not notice if you didn't know there were there as you pull the clutch off the compressor. I considered removing the compressor mounting bolts but that seemed harder to me at the time but I think that may not be really true. Even after the pulley/clutch comes off, getting to that bracket bolt is still not easy.
I believe it is 91551-80835
Diagrams show all three there being the same. If the others are the same length I’d feel comfortable ordering that number.
Also get an in-lb torque wrench and do the math. When these bolts are near the bottom of the range of any torque wrench things get a bit iffy.
I ordered those bolts online and originally they were supposed to be here yesterday but got pushed back to 11/11. I went to all my local Lexus/Toyota dealers and no one has them in stock. I ended up ordering some from a local dealer that could get them 11/2, but I’d love to get the job done this weekend. I found these bolts at an auto parts store, will these work? Or should I wait for the Toyota bolts?
They should work, but will likely have a 13mm head vs the 12 of the stock bolts. Not a huge deal as long as you remember to pack that socket in the event you need to work on it on the side of the road.
I believe the reason for this is toyota uses JIS for its fastener standards, the whatever the standard is commonly used here in America.
Whether you want to try and change out the bolts with the correct ones once you get them, after it’s all together is up to you. Given the rubber coated stainless gasket for the water pump, I’m not sure I would want to risk releasing the clamping force, even partially. If it were an o-ring I’d feel better about it, personally.
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Hey @jbyrd78 , did you ever get around to writing a 'how to" thread for this? I've still got all the parts in my garage and hoping to work on it this weekend.
I've been going through the TSM and trying to determine the order in which to attack the work but struggling with it a bit. Even a high-level game plan would be extremely helpful. The list below is completely hypothetical:
- Remove radiator
- Remove fan clutch
- Remove belt and pulley
- Remove water pump
- Reassemble in reverse order.
If you print the relevant pages from the factory service manual and use them as a checklist, it has the appropriate order of operations as well as the details.
Going from memory, it is something like:
1) drain coolant from radiator and block
2) remove bumper & under trays
3) remove upper hose/lower hose/AT cooler lines (and clamp them off)
4) loosen fan with clutch
5) remove fan shroud/fan&clutch
6) remove radiator and supports
7) remove thermostat
8) remove water pump/hoses/pulley/tensioner
9) Reassemble in reverse order
There has been some debate about whether the bumper needs to come off, but it is so easy to do, I don't see the point in leaving it on (assuming it is stock, not an aftermarket bumper that is mounted in a hard to remove way).
Going from memory, it is something like:
1) drain coolant from radiator and block
2) remove bumper & under trays
3) remove upper hose/lower hose/AT cooler lines (and clamp them off)
4) loosen fan with clutch
5) remove fan shroud/fan&clutch
6) remove radiator and supports
7) remove thermostat
8) remove water pump/hoses/pulley/tensioner
9) Reassemble in reverse order
There has been some debate about whether the bumper needs to come off, but it is so easy to do, I don't see the point in leaving it on (assuming it is stock, not an aftermarket bumper that is mounted in a hard to remove way).
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I’m not sure about other years but on my 13 cruiser there is zero need to remove the bumper. It isn’t particularly difficult, but not nearly as easy as simply putting extensions together and going straight through the lower grille holes. Plus you risk damaging parts pulling the whole thing, as a lot more tabs and screws need to come out. The detents that hold the strip from the headlight to the wheel well wear with use so some don’t like to stay put. Mine does this, and I’ve seen two other rigs with the same thing. Need to disconnect a harness, unhook the front camera (total PITA on mine), clamp the washer fluid line. Two people is better than one to get it back on as well. I know my friend’s 13 LX was the same as far as access to the bolts.
Driver’s side is the same.
Driver’s side is the same.
Quick question: I'm draining the rad right now. Do I need to really drain the block? I did a complete flush last year and those engine block drain plugs are a PITA.
You don't have to but they may drain when you don't want them to. (if you are pulling the water pump or something)
I did find just draining one side was enough as the other was empty after draining the driver side.
The passenger side is pretty easy to get to. I even put a piece of hose on the nipple to make collecting the coolant for reuse easier and cleaner, and even getting the hose in there wasn't too horrible.
Agreed.
All, I've gotten the fan and shroud off and found a leak from the top front of the engine. I'm wondering if it's the valley leak that is mentioned in this thread:
Kind of "Mystery" Coolant leak back of engine - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/kind-of-mystery-coolant-leak-back-of-engine.1004327/
I've posted there as well about it and @bloc has responded (THANK YOU!) there but I'm assuming this thread has a bigger audience so hoping to get some additional ideas on what this leak might be before taking the intake manifold off.
Here's a video showing the coolant down the front of the engine:
Kind of "Mystery" Coolant leak back of engine - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/kind-of-mystery-coolant-leak-back-of-engine.1004327/
I've posted there as well about it and @bloc has responded (THANK YOU!) there but I'm assuming this thread has a bigger audience so hoping to get some additional ideas on what this leak might be before taking the intake manifold off.
Here's a video showing the coolant down the front of the engine:
I have never seen one leak from the front. Are you sure that isn't coming from the water pump?
Usually you will see the valley plate leak at the back of the engine as when the reservoir fills up the wind when driving pushes it to the back of the engine.
I guess if you have a really bad leak and you parked facing a down a steep hill often it could possibly leak forward.
Ok, let the trolling begin. Showing my noob stripes here but I guess the only way to learn is to try, right?
For some reason, I thought the water pump was near the bottom of the engine so when I saw the coolant near the top, I immediately panicked and thought about the valley leak. Once I took everything off I realized that it was indeed the water pump. After repeated slaps to the head, I proceeded to replace it, along with everything else on the list (radiator, fan bracket, fan clutch, tensioner, idler, serpentine belt), and got every buttoned back up. I'll keep an eye on it but I think I'm good to go. Even though I'm thoroughly embarrassed, I'm also feeling very good about myself for getting the job done with the immense help of two other 200 series owners (@TN LX570 and @NHouston ). Altogether, spent about 9 hours on the job but that was partially due to having to move my bumper-mounted air compressor to get to the hole for the radiator and our desire to go slow. Would go significantly faster the second time around, when my buddies need to do theirs.
