2014 lc200 with coolant valley leak and just replaced radiator

[statop]

I am looking at a 2014 Land Cruiser with 152k miles. I took it to an independent Toyota shop to inspect.

It looks like the radiator cap had blown and the previous owner just recently replaced the radiator. It looks brand new. There are coolant droplets all over the engine bay so it looks like it blew pretty badly.

The coolant valley is also leaking apparently.

The price is around $26.5k in southeast.

No rust. It also has a leaky rear axle seal and possibly blown rear shock. Otherwise car looks clean.

Carfax is clean and it got regular tune ups around every 5-7k miles at a Toyota dealership.

The mechanic told me to not take the deal. He thinks after we fix the coolant valley it may blow a head gasket if it hasnt already done so. He also seemed very hyper about everything and maybe has some bias because he only sees the bad stuff.

He wants me to take it home for a while and see if it overheats and see if it rumbles when startup in morning. It’s a reputable BMW Dealer that has it but they won’t let me take it home for 24h.

What are y’alls thoughts? Is this a good deal or dangerous?

 

[OregonLC]

I'm with your mechanic. I think many enthusiast can minimize a coolant event to 'that's an easy fix'. In reality, the majority of vehicle owners are barely qualified to fuel. What should have been a minor coolant leak isn't detected and results in an overheat event that doesn't express itself fully until several thousand miles later. I realize I'm the outlier position here, but I would not purchase a 200 with a replaced radiator unless I could determine the story, either from the owner or a well documented dealer service log. While the odds are very good that the this truck will survive and have a great life with it's new owner the severity of the risk is quite high. Are you prepared for the potential cost and do you want to live with that concern? Some people are and that's okay. It's just not a gamble for me. I buy Lexus/Toyota so that I don't have those worries.

And FWIW, radiator caps don't 'blow' on these. It's a flaw in the top radiator tank where the part number is stamped, just to the passenger side of the cap.

Also, rear axle bearings on the 200 are an expensive job that few have the equipment to do at home.

 

[Zill]

If the car has signs of a coolant blow out in the past, I would avoid the vehicle.

The 3UR aluminum block does not tolerate heat well without coolant (even for a short period of time), and it’s a sure fire way to have a warped block, which for the most part is not fixable and you are staring down the rabbit hole of a 15-20k engine replacement.

 

[statop]

Ok thanks! I’m going to pass on it.

 

[Zill]

Wise man indeed.

 

[tbisaacs]

Just saying, 96 pages of radiator blow outs

2008-2018 Radiator Failure and Public Service Announcement

Edited by Moderator to change date range in title Curious who else has had a failure of their radiator on their 200 of the 08-10 model years by a crack on the top next to the molded in platform. I got lucky and found mine before it was catastrophic. I notified @TexAZ because I know his truck...

forum.ih8mud.com

It’s so common and doesn’t indicate overheat head gasket issue.

 

[statop]

Is there any semi easy test to determine if it overheated?

 

[OregonLC]

@tbisaacs with those being attentive MUD enthusiasts I would expect them to be caught in a timely manner and fixed before there was long-term damage. Any any of those vehicles I'd be willing to buy. I don't, however, hold the average soccer mom to the same esteem.

Case in point involves Mrs. ORLC (a well above-average soccer mom!). Last winter she met me at our rental house to shovel snow. She was in the 100. Walking up to it I smelled coolant and immediately had her kill the engine. On the 2UZ there's a pressed in plug atop of the throttle body that is prone to dislodge and pump coolant overboard. This had been happening to the tune of about 1.5 gallons. Had I not had the fortune of being there within minutes of it letting go that vehicle was headed for a very bad day as there's no way she would have caught that before it overheated. Perhaps this was a little too close of a call and I'm scarred by this brush with fate, but I think it's a scenario that plays out many times in this world.

To your point, Toyota (at least used to) build tough trucks and I agree that the likelihood of future catastrophic loss is low. But it's not zero. Couple this with the unknowns of a dealer lot and I'd walk every day.

As a side note on this, I think our LX's may be especially prone to this because of the plastic shrouding that covers the afflicted area blanking it off from routine inspection. I pulled off the front plastic on my 2016 to check before completing the transaction as the owner wasn't aware of the potential at all and had never checked.

 

[tbisaacs]

@tbisaacs with those being attentive MUD enthusiasts I would expect them to be caught in a timely manner and fixed before there was long-term damage

Yea I hear you. It’s a gamble for OP, would still hesitate to conclude that radiator flaw is a smoking gun for overheat.

Is there any semi easy test to determine if it overheated?

Block tester kit is a common method to see if HG is leaking

 

[OregonLC]

Is there any semi easy test to determine if it overheated?

It's a scale. At the far right is a seized engine. Unlikely. Somewhere along the path you've gotten things hot enough to shorten the life of those components. Did you shorten the life from 500k miles to 490k miles? Or to 250k miles? Impossible to determine.

If you want to go down the rabbit hole, you can read in this forum about a YouTuber called the Car Care Nut who has some strong (and negative) opinions about the 3UR. His premise is that head gaskets are a huge risk due to gasket erosion. This is often attributed to acidic coolant resulting from poor maintenance. I just wonder how many of these failed head gaskets were accelerated by a high-heat event. Not anything I can proove, but for me it would be a concern. I do completely respect others who disagree.

Edit:
For the point of discussion, this is how small of an area we're talking about (small hole center left). You have an aluminum head on an aluminum block. Start starving that of even coolant flow and combine that with a gasket that is maybe already damaged from acidity and it just seems like a recipe for a bigger problem down the road.

 

[Zill]

I’m just waiting for ryanCA to chime in.

 

[Zill]

There’s always an underlying reason for why an individual dumps a vehicle.

It’s not always the cars fault, but in some cases it is.

Prime case in point, radiator blew, owner decided to not weigh the risk of having a head gasket problem rear its ugly head in the long term and dumped the vehicle.

Don’t be the one to hold the bag when you have the knowledge to prevent it.

There’s many clean 200’s out there which do not have evidence of the radiator blowing up. Why risk it?

 

[ryanCA]

I’m just waiting for ryanCA to chime in.

Too old and too tired to teach the newbies

Anybody smart would search CCNUT …