Over the past few months, I have noticed the coolant overflow tank in our 2013 LC emptying out about once a month. I looked high and low and wasn't able to find any leaks, but a couple of weeks ago, I finally noticed a pink drip under the truck in the garage.
I got underneath and saw pink veins of dried coolant coming down the side of the transmission housing, and immediately thought about the posts I've read on Mud about the dreaded valley leak. Figured that had to be the culprit.
I decided to take the truck to SD Trux in San Diego. I had read good reviews about their work, and felt good about my decision when I pulled up to see 6-7 Land Cruisers in their lot.
The day after drop off, they sent me this...
Needless to say, there was some work do to. I had them take care of the leak and replace the radiator/hoses/serpentine belt too. My radiator had "the crack" at the top, even though it wasn't leaking from there. Figured I might as well get it done.
I've had it back now for a week, and have driven maybe 200 miles. Everything seems buttoned up rock solid, but i'm definitely a bit surprised / bummed to have had this problem at such low miles. We have babied our cruiser, but have now had rear main seal leaks (twice) and this valley leak. We just hit 85K.
Overall, I think the guys at SD Trux did a great job. Although fixing the leak set me back about $1400 (not including the other stuff), I feel like it was a fair price given how much had to come off the top end to fix it. The mechanic that did the work is one of the owners, and said that fixing these valley leaks is among his least favorite jobs. Having watched a few fixes on YouTube, I can see why.
With this work now in my rear-view mirror, I'm hoping we get a bunch more trouble-free miles out of our legacy rig.
If you're in San Diego County, and need some TLC for your rig, I'd recommend SD Trux. I'm going to have them install the Bilstein 6112 shock/spring setup from AJ USA on our new cruiser, but am going to pause for a bit to give my wallet a break first.
I got underneath and saw pink veins of dried coolant coming down the side of the transmission housing, and immediately thought about the posts I've read on Mud about the dreaded valley leak. Figured that had to be the culprit.
I decided to take the truck to SD Trux in San Diego. I had read good reviews about their work, and felt good about my decision when I pulled up to see 6-7 Land Cruisers in their lot.
The day after drop off, they sent me this...
Needless to say, there was some work do to. I had them take care of the leak and replace the radiator/hoses/serpentine belt too. My radiator had "the crack" at the top, even though it wasn't leaking from there. Figured I might as well get it done.
I've had it back now for a week, and have driven maybe 200 miles. Everything seems buttoned up rock solid, but i'm definitely a bit surprised / bummed to have had this problem at such low miles. We have babied our cruiser, but have now had rear main seal leaks (twice) and this valley leak. We just hit 85K.
Overall, I think the guys at SD Trux did a great job. Although fixing the leak set me back about $1400 (not including the other stuff), I feel like it was a fair price given how much had to come off the top end to fix it. The mechanic that did the work is one of the owners, and said that fixing these valley leaks is among his least favorite jobs. Having watched a few fixes on YouTube, I can see why.
With this work now in my rear-view mirror, I'm hoping we get a bunch more trouble-free miles out of our legacy rig.
If you're in San Diego County, and need some TLC for your rig, I'd recommend SD Trux. I'm going to have them install the Bilstein 6112 shock/spring setup from AJ USA on our new cruiser, but am going to pause for a bit to give my wallet a break first.
