How bad is this? coolant leak (2 Viewers)

[Novacained]

So I am new to the LC100 club. Bought my 02' LX470 last year (2022) in October with 172k miles. Just looking at the Carfax the previous owner performed all the manufacturer's recommended maintenance on schedule. I drove it around as my daily for a little under 1k miles till I noticed a sweet smell after a drive. After poking around, I figured out it was the water pump and took it to a Toyota mechanic to replace it (pretty normal as the last replacementwas at 90k miles). Everything was fine after that. Fast forward to recently (approx 180k miles), I noticed my coolant reservoir was below the "Low" mark. So I filled it up and also topped off the radiator. I have now driven about 500 miles since then and decided to check my fluids today and the reservoir is almost bone dry... this was concerning to me and also confusing. I had not smelt that sweet smell nor have noticed any coolant puddles. After some poking around I saw what is in the pictures. Im assuming this is where all my coolant has been going. It looks like a wad of bubble gum behind the engine. Is this a really bad sign or a costly repair? Is it something I could do myself (with minimal expertise)? What exactly is going on? Thanks in advance!

 

[excessive]

It looks like it might be the coolant crossover pipe. which you'll progbably have to pull the intake manifold to replace that. this is not all that difficult but it is time consuming.

 

[vipergrhd]

It looks like the pipe is leaking from the manifold, not sure if that is pressed in but you might have to pull intake manifold out.

 

[Dirt J]

Find some info here and here.

YotaMD video too:

 

[OEMGUY0720]

job, just labor intensive to remove the parts but very much doable.

 

[Dirt J]

Looks like a bolt is missing that holds the wiring harness loom on, unless you removed it for the pics.

 

[aging fleet]

I haven't closed this thread out yet, but you'll see a few good pictures of the coolant crossover pipe and can read about what it takes to access it.

I know a lot of '06-'07 owners bypass the SAI system when it starts to go bad, I'm going to try to fix it.

Or I might end up making worse, we'll find out. '98-'05 owners, this is the part where you laugh and say, I told you not to buy an '06 or '07 aging fleet. Well, I didn't listen. I wanted the extra horsepower so now it's time for me to pay the vvti tax. I chose not to bypass the system...

forum.ih8mud.com

Agree with @vipergrhd, it looks like yours is leaking from the pressed in fitting vs. the gasket, but you won't know until you get in there.

 

[vipergrhd]

I would borrow or rent a pressure tester and see where the leak is coming from before you take anything apart.

 

[Novacained]

Thank you all! Awesome info! I'm glad to know whats going on and it doesn't seem as bad as I thought. Unfortunatley, i don't have 6-8 hours to complete the job myself and, to be honest, the patience. Thankfully, i have a very trust worthy toyota mechanic that I've used for years. He will definitely get me fixed up. After reading through the shared threads provided, I will do all the "while you're in there" replacements since the manifold will need to be removed. Been waiting for the original starter to die to replace. Its definitely on its last leg, so I'm gonna go ahead and get that replaced now too along with all the other stuffs. If anyone one has any more suggestions please let me know! The help and knowledge is much appreciated. I absolutely love this community.

 

[suprarx7nut]

Thank you all! Awesome info! I'm glad to know whats going on and it doesn't seem as bad as I thought. Unfortunatley, i don't have 6-8 hours to complete the job myself and, to be honest, the patience. Thankfully, i have a very trust worthy toyota mechanic that I've used for years. He will definitely get me fixed up. After reading through the shared threads provided, I will do all the "while you're in there" replacements since the manifold will need to be removed. Been waiting for the original starter to die to replace. Its definitely on its last leg, so I'm gonna go ahead and get that replaced now too along with all the other stuffs. If anyone one has any more suggestions please let me know! The help and knowledge is much appreciated. I absolutely love this community.

Take it from me (dude in the video that was posted above), you'll want to properly seat the starter contacts yourself on that new starter. I bought a brand new (reman) from Toyota and it's failing now, just a few years later. At least, I'm pretty sure it's the starter. Intermittent starts and sometimes an outright refusal to start even after many attempts.

Agreed with others though, that it looks like a similar location to what I faced. Lots of work to get in there and it involves taking off the intake manifold which isn't *hard*, but it is critical that it's done correctly and with an abundance of caution. A few bits of loose debris/pebbles in the intake and your engine maybe smoked immediately after starting it back up at the end of the job.

 

[Novacained]

Take it from me (dude in the video that was posted above), you'll want to properly seat the starter contacts yourself on that new starter. I bought a brand new (reman) from Toyota and it's failing now, just a few years later. At least, I'm pretty sure it's the starter. Intermittent starts and sometimes an outright refusal to start even after many attempts.

Agreed with others though, that it looks like a similar location to what I faced. Lots of work to get in there and it involves taking off the intake manifold which isn't *hard*, but it is critical that it's done correctly and with an abundance of caution. A few bits of loose debris/pebbles in the intake and your engine maybe smoked immediately after starting it back up at the end of the job.

Thanks for the advice man! Ya thats scary, once I saw that part in the videos of not letting ANYTHING get into the intake I was not gonna do it myself. I'd rather let a licensed Toyota mechanic with business insurance do it, so if they f-up, i have something to fall back on.