So last week we went out to cut wood. I drove my Jeep J10 and the wife drove the 80 with the kids. On arriving home we noticed the 80 leaking some nasty brown/orangish fluid. It was coming from the coolant overflow tank. I also noticed that someone had left a hat tied to the front bumper that covered a good portion of the front grill the whole drive home. However, my wife says she never saw the temperature leave the normal range.
So I started to do some research and thought maybe we had a blown HG. I decided to drain the coolant to see what it looked like. It was bad. I remember considering switching from toyota red to green sometime in the past...but couldn't remember if I did. I know mixing the two can cause a similar problem. So just in case, I filled the radiator with distilled water and let the truck come up to operating temperature and drove the truck a little to mix up the fluid. I drained it again and the fluid looked just as bad. I really don't think I mixed the two types. But during the drive I noticed the transmission was shifting a little funny!! So I immediately thought there might be a link and consulted IH8MUD. The motor oil on the dispstick looked fine but when I checked the tranny dipstick it was the same color as the radiator fluid!! And according to you smart folks on IH8MUD, it is possible to leak ATF in the radiator and vice versa.
What is your best guess on what happened? It sounds like it is likely the ATF is leaking into the radiator from the heat exchanger. Do I just start by replacing it? Any tips?
thanks!!
So I started to do some research and thought maybe we had a blown HG. I decided to drain the coolant to see what it looked like. It was bad. I remember considering switching from toyota red to green sometime in the past...but couldn't remember if I did. I know mixing the two can cause a similar problem. So just in case, I filled the radiator with distilled water and let the truck come up to operating temperature and drove the truck a little to mix up the fluid. I drained it again and the fluid looked just as bad. I really don't think I mixed the two types. But during the drive I noticed the transmission was shifting a little funny!! So I immediately thought there might be a link and consulted IH8MUD. The motor oil on the dispstick looked fine but when I checked the tranny dipstick it was the same color as the radiator fluid!! And according to you smart folks on IH8MUD, it is possible to leak ATF in the radiator and vice versa.
What is your best guess on what happened? It sounds like it is likely the ATF is leaking into the radiator from the heat exchanger. Do I just start by replacing it? Any tips?
thanks!!