Overheating after replacing drive belts (1 Viewer)

[Jon90503]

Long time lurker here, first time posting. I've been reading countless of posts with others with overheating engines but I decided to throw mine into the mix...


Back Story: I have a 1996 land cruiser, IFZE-FE, with almost 256,000 miles now. My dad bought it 13 years ago and I started driving it 3 years ago. It's always been reliable and has never had any overheating issues or any major issues for that matter. We drove it cross country before on I-40 about 10 years ago.

The lady and I started our move from NY to CA 18 days ago (lots of stops in between and just taking our time sightseeing and going to National Parks) Before starting our move from New York to California, I changed the differential fluid, transfer case fluid, oil and filter, spark plugs, spark plug wires, distributor cap and rotor -- all for the first time with the useful information from this community. I'm slowly learning.

I did not do a coolant flush (I will admit it didn't look to be in the best condition), and did not change the transmission fluid. I wanted to get out of NY since I kept delaying the trip so I figured I'd do these things in Cali.

After replacing the spark plugs, I did notice a slightly rough idle when in Drive or Parked. It wasn't too bad and to be honest, didn't think much of it.


Overheating: Land Cruiser has maybe like 500 pounds total of our stuff in it. We didn't tow anything. We had no issues whatsoever with the car going through I-70 and through the Colorado mountains. Once we hit Utah, I checked my drive belts and noticed one of them was looking a little cracked on the inside so I decided to get all 3 replaced because I read that it's a simple job. Honestly, that one belt would of been fine for the rest of the trip but I like to be on the safe side...


Mechanic A (not a real name) replaced the drive belts and did an AC recharge. One of the alternator, water pump belts was smooth and the other one was ribbed. AC belt was smooth. The previous ones were all ribbed and they told me what they put on was what they had available since it's a remote area. We drove away and noise was coming from the AC compressor or belt when the AC was on. I foolishly kept driving. 1.5 hours later going up a steep hill in hot weather, the temperature gauge starts rising. I've never seen it rise before! It's always stayed a tiny bit below the middle of Hot and Cold. I freak out and once it reaches maybe a little below 3/4's (not in the red zone) I pull over and turn off the engine. I hear bubbling noises and open the hood and it's coming from the coolant reservoir/overflow tank. Coolant starts spewing out of it for a good 3 minutes at least. I also noticed some power steering fluid sitting on top of the power steering reservoir, like as though it spilled over due to pressure...

I call Mechanic Shop A and explain the situation. We let the engine cool off and drove back 1.5 hours with no AC. They take a look at it and say everything looks fine. I turn on the car to leave and the AC compressor makes a horrible noise. They tell me to turn on the AC and they notice that the AC compressor is not activating and that it just failed and that's why I was hearing all that noise before: my AC compressor needs to be replaced and my overheating issue was caused by the the AC being on and the failing AC compressor. My past experiences with "hole in the wall" mechanics have not been good. They blame the age of the parts and car and not their work. I'm always skeptical and immediately think that I should never have brought my car to these guys.


I take it to Mechanic B the next day for a second opinion and he's more knowledgeable and not egotistic like the previous mechanic. He gives the belts a look over and notices the AC tension adjustment bolt is broken and is actually making contact with the alternator/water pump belt. So the bolt was literally rubbing against it while the car is on. So this is why AC was not working: the AC belt was loose. He replaced the bolt and tightened the AC belt and AC now works. No more horrendous noise coming from the AC compressor.

He tightens the other two drive belts and tells me that this is probably not going to fix my overheating issue since those two belts aren't very loose. He recommends replacing the thermostat.

We start driving to Nevada and about 2 hours into the trip going up mountains still in Utah (10,000 feet elevation -- we took the scenic route) car starts to overheat again. I watch the gauge go over the halfway mark and I pull over. I hear coolant bubbling. The upper and lower radiator hoses are hot. I also hear my charcoal canister making slight cracking noises and the gas in the gas tank bubbling. I've always had air in the gas tank and I've noticed that it gets worse when it's hot out. I open the gas cap to relieve the pressure and wait for the car to cool down. I check the coolant level and it looks to be topped off but the reservoir was empty so I topped it off knowing I never added coolant to replenish the original coolant loss the day before. Stupid me for not checking it that morning.

We continue driving but now when I slightly see the temp gauge go up, I immediately pull over and let the car cool down for 15-30 minutes. Needless to say it was a long trip to our destination. We ended the day almost at the border of Utah and Nevada.


We decide to drive to the Toyota dealership in St George, Utah, 1.5 hours away. We left early in the morning to avoid the heat and it worked! We drove up some minor hills but got to St George without the temp gauge going up. They can't replicate the temp gauge rising (of course they can't, they're not driving up mountains for 1.5 hours) so they recommend replacing the thermostat and radiator. Radiator is a little over 10 years old but it was costly to replace so I told them to just do a coolant flush, replace the thermostat and radiator cap. They do the job and once I come back to pick up the car, the brake pedal is stiff and won't go down so I had to slam the brake pedal as hard as I could to get it to slowly stop. I start driving and braking and the pedal won't loosen up. I immediately drive up to the service bay and tell them about the brakes. They diagnosed a bad brake booster.. and I got it replaced. We leave to Las Vegas and 45 minutes into the drive, temp gauge starts rising again. I don't let it rise too much so I pull over immediately. The 1.5 hour trip took like 3 hours due to all the pulling over and waiting for the car to cool down. About 5 minutes left to arrive to our destination in Las Vegas, the brake pedal becomes extremely spongy! I have to press all the way down into the firewall to come to a slow stop!

The next day, the brakes work just fine! I take the car to a Toyota dealership in Las Vegas and they tell me it could be air in the brake system due to faulty work by the previous dealer and they will also take a look at the overheating issue. They call me also saying they can't replicate the heating issue. They say the coolant system seems fine based on tests they've done as well as the engine itself. They ask if they can keep the car longer to see if they can find something. I have no hope. It's currently with them. It will be day 2 tomorrow.


My thoughts and potential costly solutions: what a coincidence all this trouble started when I got my drive belts replaced and AC recharged! I'm so confused on how my brakes are failing now as well. I was told by a Toyota dealer in NY before leaving that I needed to replace my rear brakes. The brakes don't make too much noise and it's not constant so I didn't. I've been on this forum and googling nonstop since all this happened over a week ago now. Could the brakes be failing because of a stuck caliper? Could that cause the engine to overheat? Could a faulty ebrake cause the brakes to fail and engine to overheat? I don't ride the brakes either when coming down mountains. Could it be a fuel filter or pump issue? Vapor locking? Water pump? Bad head gasket? The dealers haven't mentioned this to me and I'm going to ask the dealer tomorrow what their thoughts are on that. There's also no residue on the oil on the dipstick. Are the drive belts on incorrectly or loose still? Did the original mechanic mess something up with the pulleys or maybe they took the fan off to remove the belts and reinstalled the fan incorrectly? Would a fan shroud gap be relevant? Fan clutch issue? These are all things I'm going to ask the dealer tomorrow to look at and see what they say but I think my goal is to get it to a Land Cruiser knowledgeable shop in the South Bay of California. I'm thinking about renting a U-Haul truck to tow the land cruiser to get it there. But at the end of the day, I don't understand how the engine is overheating and the brakes are failing after having the drive belts changed. Could one cause the other? Or is it all coincidence and expected given the age of the car and mileage driven so far? Did me not changing the transmission fluid and coolant before the trip cause the engine to overheat? Did I mess something up by driving around with a noisy AC compressor/belt for 1.5 hours? My mind is literally spinning. Any help and guidance would be appreciated.

 

[CharlieS]

I don't see how the brakes and cooling system could be related. I'd break it into two problems and troubleshoot them independently.

The braking system is relatively simple and there are only so many things it can be. Since they replaced the booster, they added another variable, but you can take that into account. Baseline the brakes back to spec, make sure the vacuum line from the manifold to the brake booster is correctly installed and isn't hard/cracked/leaky. And bleeding the lines is a good idea. If you have ABS there are some additional steps you can find here on 'mud.

The belts drive the water pump too, and if you are not pumping coolant, you are going to get suboptimal cooling. I'd only use genuine Toyota belts, and they need to have the tension measured with a gauge to do it correctly. Too many people just wing it, and it can cause problems. It can be done with a cheap Gates Kriket guage ($20 +/-).

Assuming you did the plugs correctly and didn't damage anything ignition related, I'm going to speculate that your rough idle afterwards was a cracked or damaged vacuum line or other hose on top of the engine. There are lots of them, and leaks can cause idle issues.

 

[BILT4ME]

Long time lurker here, first time posting. I've been reading countless of posts with others with overheating engines but I decided to throw mine into the mix...


Back Story: I have a 1996 land cruiser, IFZE-FE, with almost 256,000 miles now. My dad bought it 13 years ago and I started driving it 3 years ago. It's always been reliable and has never had any overheating issues or any major issues for that matter. We drove it cross country before on I-40 about 10 years ago.

The lady and I started our move from NY to CA 18 days ago (lots of stops in between and just taking our time sightseeing and going to National Parks) Before starting our move from New York to California, I changed the differential fluid, transfer case fluid, oil and filter, spark plugs, spark plug wires, distributor cap and rotor -- all for the first time with the useful information from this community. I'm slowly learning.

I did not do a coolant flush (I will admit it didn't look to be in the best condition), and did not change the transmission fluid. I wanted to get out of NY since I kept delaying the trip so I figured I'd do these things in Cali.

After replacing the spark plugs, I did notice a slightly rough idle when in Drive or Parked. It wasn't too bad and to be honest, didn't think much of it.


Overheating: Land Cruiser has maybe like 500 pounds total of our stuff in it. We didn't tow anything. We had no issues whatsoever with the car going through I-70 and through the Colorado mountains. Once we hit Utah, I checked my drive belts and noticed one of them was looking a little cracked on the inside so I decided to get all 3 replaced because I read that it's a simple job. Honestly, that one belt would of been fine for the rest of the trip but I like to be on the safe side...


Mechanic A (not a real name) replaced the drive belts and did an AC recharge. One of the alternator, water pump belts was smooth and the other one was ribbed. AC belt was smooth. The previous ones were all ribbed and they told me what they put on was what they had available since it's a remote area. We drove away and noise was coming from the AC compressor or belt when the AC was on. I foolishly kept driving. 1.5 hours later going up a steep hill in hot weather, the temperature gauge starts rising. I've never seen it rise before! It's always stayed a tiny bit below the middle of Hot and Cold. I freak out and once it reaches maybe a little below 3/4's (not in the red zone) I pull over and turn off the engine. I hear bubbling noises and open the hood and it's coming from the coolant reservoir/overflow tank. Coolant starts spewing out of it for a good 3 minutes at least. I also noticed some power steering fluid sitting on top of the power steering reservoir, like as though it spilled over due to pressure...

I call Mechanic Shop A and explain the situation. We let the engine cool off and drove back 1.5 hours with no AC. They take a look at it and say everything looks fine. I turn on the car to leave and the AC compressor makes a horrible noise. They tell me to turn on the AC and they notice that the AC compressor is not activating and that it just failed and that's why I was hearing all that noise before: my AC compressor needs to be replaced and my overheating issue was caused by the the AC being on and the failing AC compressor. My past experiences with "hole in the wall" mechanics have not been good. They blame the age of the parts and car and not their work. I'm always skeptical and immediately think that I should never have brought my car to these guys.


I take it to Mechanic B the next day for a second opinion and he's more knowledgeable and not egotistic like the previous mechanic. He gives the belts a look over and notices the AC tension adjustment bolt is broken and is actually making contact with the alternator/water pump belt. So the bolt was literally rubbing against it while the car is on. So this is why AC was not working: the AC belt was loose. He replaced the bolt and tightened the AC belt and AC now works. No more horrendous noise coming from the AC compressor.

He tightens the other two drive belts and tells me that this is probably not going to fix my overheating issue since those two belts aren't very loose. He recommends replacing the thermostat.

We start driving to Nevada and about 2 hours into the trip going up mountains still in Utah (10,000 feet elevation -- we took the scenic route) car starts to overheat again. I watch the gauge go over the halfway mark and I pull over. I hear coolant bubbling. The upper and lower radiator hoses are hot. I also hear my charcoal canister making slight cracking noises and the gas in the gas tank bubbling. I've always had air in the gas tank and I've noticed that it gets worse when it's hot out. I open the gas cap to relieve the pressure and wait for the car to cool down. I check the coolant level and it looks to be topped off but the reservoir was empty so I topped it off knowing I never added coolant to replenish the original coolant loss the day before. Stupid me for not checking it that morning.

We continue driving but now when I slightly see the temp gauge go up, I immediately pull over and let the car cool down for 15-30 minutes. Needless to say it was a long trip to our destination. We ended the day almost at the border of Utah and Nevada.


We decide to drive to the Toyota dealership in St George, Utah, 1.5 hours away. We left early in the morning to avoid the heat and it worked! We drove up some minor hills but got to St George without the temp gauge going up. They can't replicate the temp gauge rising (of course they can't, they're not driving up mountains for 1.5 hours) so they recommend replacing the thermostat and radiator. Radiator is a little over 10 years old but it was costly to replace so I told them to just do a coolant flush, replace the thermostat and radiator cap. They do the job and once I come back to pick up the car, the brake pedal is stiff and won't go down so I had to slam the brake pedal as hard as I could to get it to slowly stop. I start driving and braking and the pedal won't loosen up. I immediately drive up to the service bay and tell them about the brakes. They diagnosed a bad brake booster.. and I got it replaced. We leave to Las Vegas and 45 minutes into the drive, temp gauge starts rising again. I don't let it rise too much so I pull over immediately. The 1.5 hour trip took like 3 hours due to all the pulling over and waiting for the car to cool down. About 5 minutes left to arrive to our destination in Las Vegas, the brake pedal becomes extremely spongy! I have to press all the way down into the firewall to come to a slow stop!

The next day, the brakes work just fine! I take the car to a Toyota dealership in Las Vegas and they tell me it could be air in the brake system due to faulty work by the previous dealer and they will also take a look at the overheating issue. They call me also saying they can't replicate the heating issue. They say the coolant system seems fine based on tests they've done as well as the engine itself. They ask if they can keep the car longer to see if they can find something. I have no hope. It's currently with them. It will be day 2 tomorrow.


My thoughts and potential costly solutions: what a coincidence all this trouble started when I got my drive belts replaced and AC recharged! I'm so confused on how my brakes are failing now as well. I was told by a Toyota dealer in NY before leaving that I needed to replace my rear brakes. The brakes don't make too much noise and it's not constant so I didn't. I've been on this forum and googling nonstop since all this happened over a week ago now. Could the brakes be failing because of a stuck caliper? Could that cause the engine to overheat? Could a faulty ebrake cause the brakes to fail and engine to overheat? I don't ride the brakes either when coming down mountains. Could it be a fuel filter or pump issue? Vapor locking? Water pump? Bad head gasket? The dealers haven't mentioned this to me and I'm going to ask the dealer tomorrow what their thoughts are on that. There's also no residue on the oil on the dipstick. Are the drive belts on incorrectly or loose still? Did the original mechanic mess something up with the pulleys or maybe they took the fan off to remove the belts and reinstalled the fan incorrectly? Would a fan shroud gap be relevant? Fan clutch issue? These are all things I'm going to ask the dealer tomorrow to look at and see what they say but I think my goal is to get it to a Land Cruiser knowledgeable shop in the South Bay of California. I'm thinking about renting a U-Haul truck to tow the land cruiser to get it there. But at the end of the day, I don't understand how the engine is overheating and the brakes are failing after having the drive belts changed. Could one cause the other? Or is it all coincidence and expected given the age of the car and mileage driven so far? Did me not changing the transmission fluid and coolant before the trip cause the engine to overheat? Did I mess something up by driving around with a noisy AC compressor/belt for 1.5 hours? My mind is literally spinning. Any help and guidance would be appreciated.

Wow! That's a trip of memories!

You have a lot to unpack here.

1) Engine overheating:
This is most likely a fan clutch issue. These trucks require the fan to be pulling air WHILE MOVING, which is different than most vehicles. Most can rely on the movement and the air being pushed through the radiator enough to cool it. These tend to have a high pressure area in front and thus require a fan to pull air through the engine compartment to keep it cool, PARTICULARLY at elevation. The air at elevation has less mass, so you have to move MORE air to keep it cool.
a) Do not use cogged style belts on these. Use the Toyota belts when possible. If someone put something else on it, especially mis-matched belts, swap them out. These also need to be MUCH tighter than the belts I have had on most other vehicles.
b) Fan Clutch can be rebuilt using a heavier CST silicone oil in the fan clutch. This allows the fan to be engaged at a lower RPM and a lower temp so cooling starts sooner and holds longer.
c) The truck has been only on short trips for about 10 years. Getting a truck out on the road and getting it VERY hot, things tend to start failing, especially when things get really hot.

2) Brakes:
It is possible that your brake booster failed, causing a hard pedal. you may have also overheated your brakes by riding them down the mountain or when you were going places, IDK what your experience is when driving in that sort of terrain. If you overheated your brakes, it will boil the brake fluid and cause bubbles, making the pedal soft, then later it's as if nothing happened.
a) It's possible that due to the extreme under hood temps, the booster gave up. It was doing OK until the whole area got so hot it couldn't handle it ianymore. This can cause a hard pedal. However, a failing master cylinder can cause a soft pedal.
b) If you were riding your brakes, that could cause them to fail, but will not cause your engine to overheat.
c) If you have a caliper sticking, it could cause your engine to overheat IF you are continuing to push the truck, even though it's pulling to one side or you have smoke coming out of one wheel. A caliper would have to stick HARD to actually cause overheating on the engine.

3) Fuel System
Your vapor canister may need attention (replace it) if it's original and it needs to allow the tank to vent. The new fuels (E-10 and E-15) causes the fuel to boil at elevation. This is low priority unless you're planning on living in an area with elevation. By ignoring this, you may crack your fuel tank (where many of them do) because of the pressure / vacuum cycling.

Suggestions:
Start over at the basics.
You have now experienced bad mechanics, good mechanics, and stories of a lot of people's opinions.
Isolate the systems and take one at a time.
Cooling first.
New Toyota belts
Toyota T-Stat
Toyota radiator cap
Possibly a new radiator if the tank is tan (not black) or it's full of crud.
Replace the foam between the radiator and the core support if it has deteriorated

Brakes second.
Check the booster to see if it holds vacuum.
Check the check valve
Do the FSM diagnosis on the booster
Calipers, Hoses, Pads, Rotors (including the LSPV)

Don't get ahead of yourself. Stick to the FACTS when talking to a new shop. Do NOT fill their head with thoughts of Head Gaskets, transmissions, differentials, or you can bet your wallet that will be the next problem.

When you decide on a shop, go with a LC reputable shop. (You can search them on here). If you decide to do this yourself, you can walk it through a system at a time. You did the right thing when driving by stopping and letting it cool down, then starting again. You didn't push the truck to failure. You can pour cool water over the fins of the radiator to bring down the temp. Do NOT open the radiator cap. it's best to leave the engine running and pour water over the radiator so the engine cools down naturally. If you shut it off, it heat soaks and temps spike very high.

Systems are "independent" and must be looked at as such. Typically one system does not cause another to fail (fuel system won't typically cause an engine to overheat) but there are things that can influence it (brakes dragging hard can cause it to overheat, but there are other more prevalent problems and symptoms that show themselves first)

Let us know what questions you have and what you feel you can and are willing to do. We can walk you through this. Your experience here is exactly why many of us do our own work. There are folks out there that represent themselves as professionals that are far from it. They are chasing the $$$ and that's all it's about and they prey on the ignorant.

Hopefully, there will be some other folks that will chime in here and offer clarity to what I have stated as well as their suggestions.
Don't forget, we have no skin in this game and ewe only know what you tell us. We are making the best assumptions we can based on OUR experiences and your info combined.

Good luck!

 

[jpoole]

A dragging brake could contribute to extra load on the engine and running hot. Your fuel mileage will suffer in a situation like this and the wheel(s)/brake(s) that are dragging will generate a good bit of heat in short order. You can do a roll test by putting the 80 in neutral on a slight slope and then seeing if it coasts easily when you let off the brakes. This is a feel thing and if you are unfamiliar with how it should feel you may not be clear on how easily it's rolling, though it can be a useful test if you know how it should behave. Lifting one wheel at a time with the transfer case in neutral can also allow you to spin and test wheels for draggy brakes. An IR gun monitoring disk rotor temps is probably the easiest way to monitor for draggy brakes.

When issues come up it's usually best to go back to the most recent change(s) to narrow in on the possible cause/issue. Given that you now have your own work and then the work of a few different mechanics the water is pretty muddy. A few ideas:

• The slight miss at idle after you changed spark plugs could be due to a vacuum leak that you accidentally caused while working on the engine. The air intake hose that runs from the air filter/maf to the the throttle body for instance can crack if/when it gets hard and old. If you flexed that hose much and it was stiff/old it may have small cracks in it. You can inspect / test this pretty easily and can also patch it easily to get you home where you can buy a new one at your leisure. Use silicone emergency repair tape around any cracked sections for a solid repair. Air leaks, if bad enough, could cause the engine tune to be off and contribute to heat loading but probably isn't where I'd start my looking.
• Another possible cause of a slight miss after repair work could be inconsistent electrical connections. Anything that was flexed and unplugged/re-connected may deserve inspection, cleaning, greasing and the like.
• As long as the belts are tight enough to avoid slipping they shouldn't be causing the engine overheating. Skipping a fluid change is not going to cause overheating like this.
• Was your AC working before the belt change and AC recharge work? When the AC is running the condenser, which is in front of the radiator, gets hot and adds a lot of heat to the air that then flows through your radiator. If you weren't running AC until you saw mech. A and then were running it after then this could add enough heat when climbing hills to overload a cooling system that is marginal. If turning your AC off while on the highway helps you avoid overheating then the ac work could be the change that started the overheating issues.
• The AC will turn off when coolant temps hit 220 degrees. If you haven't experienced that then you may have done a good job of keeping temps under that level

I'll add that the built-in dash temp gauge isn't great and is slow to tell you what's going on. It's way better to run an odb2 sender to torque pro or to add a similar temp gauge so that you know what the actual coolant temps are. You can read up on this and may not be able to get a decent gauge in place while on a road trip but it's worth mentioning. If you can't get a proper coolant temp gauge in place you can buy an infrared thermometer and use it to shoot temps around the engine, radiator, coolant hoses, etc. to learn much more about the temps your engine is hitting, etc.

Although you may have other issues, if I were on a road trip and worrying about engine temps a few things that I would do are:

1. Test, tune and/or replace the fan clutch. This is an important part of the cooling system and can cause overheating when the rest of the system is good. You can typically find new oil pretty easily at hobby shops and a simple stove, pot of water and thermometer are all you need to set temps etc. so you can easily service a fan clutch and top up the oil on a road trip if needed. Search the forum for info on this but many folks run 20k CST oil and I set the small hole to half open at 110 F.
2. Clean the condenser/radiator. Taking a few minutes to make sure that you are getting decent airflow through the condenser and radiator and that they are clean is probably worthwhile. You can spray them in coil cleaner or simple green and let it sit for 20 minutes or so and then gently rinse them out then get the bugs out, straighten folded fins, etc. to improve air flow.
3. Keep water in the truck and potentially also a garden sprayer/similar. Water transfers heat better than anti-freeze so for a few days I wouldn't worry about running mostly water in the cooling system if it comes to that. Don't mix coolant types ever but you can add water as needed to get you home. Distilled is best but tap is ok if it's not too hard. With a spray rig you could mist/spray the grill while you sit on the side of the road with the 80 idling to pretty quickly drop the operating temps. I wouldn't want to run an 80 hot (over 220 F) as it seems like you could increase the risk of HG failure/etc. but if it's getting close to 220 every now and then a misting setup could help you drop temps quickly so that you don't sit on the roadside as long.

Although there are plenty of other topics that may be worth discussing the above should keep you rolling with less risk of doing damage.

If it comes to it remember that you can turn off the AC, turn on the heat and open all of the windows to keep moving. The heater cores will act like additional radiators and help keep engine temps down. AC off will mean that the air hitting the radiator is cooler.

Keep sharing info from the mechs. as there are a lot of other troubleshooting topics that I'm sure folks on the forum can help you with and good luck figuring out what to do and completing your trip.

 

[Devils Paw 80]

The next day, the brakes work just fine! I take the car to a Toyota dealership in Las Vegas and they tell me it could be air in the brake system due to faulty work by the previous dealer and they will also take a look at the overheating issue. They call me also saying they can't replicate the heating issue. They say the coolant system seems fine based on tests they've done as well as the engine itself. They ask if they can keep the car longer to see if they can find something. I have no hope. It's currently with them. It will be day 2 tomorrow.

No hope? I would expect them to be competent enough to discover what the problem is. Sounds like your brakes are OK. MUD members above are pointing at fan clutch as possible overheating culprit. I would call the dealership to make sure they check this out.

FWIW, OEM belts are smooth but ribbed belts work OK too.

 

[CharlieS]

Probably doesn't help that Las Vegas is hotter than the surface of Mercury right now.

 

[FirstToy]

1. check your plug wires, cap rotor and timing. Since you noticed a rough idle after you changed these, that doesn't sound right. Should be better, not worse.
maybe your timing is way off.

2. I have read people running ribbed belts without issue but the 80 has no ribbed belts, so this may cause additional drag? just an idea.

3. With the mountains and high temps in Nevada along with 500lbs of stuff, it maybe exposed a weak cooling system. Lots of reading here for that.
4. sorry, no idea on brakes since you already replaced the booster.

Good luck! update if you fix it

 

[Kernal]

As already mentioned, almost too much to unpack or diagnose online, so many twists and turns, possible errors by mechanics (things that break or new symptoms immediately after the vehicle was worked on), ----.

IMHO the best route at this point is to find a knowledgeable Land Cruiser (80 series) mechanic and let them go over everything. Dont' assume that a dealership knows these vehicles, most don't, they're not going to spend much time diagnosiing the issues, they will want to replace parts and when that doesn't solve the issue IME they will just say "well, it needed to be replaced anyway, and find another part to replace,----" Not saying they won't fix it eventually, just that it may cost you an arm and a leg. Another reason most of us do our own work.

Everything already mentioned above, but I agree, the main things I would do until you find an experienced mechanic is replace the Tstat with an OEM part, ensure you have an OEM radiator cap, and replace the fan clutch as already mentioned. You can save some money by buying an AISIN fan clutch from Rockauto. Unmodified a stock fan clutch IME should work well enough for normal driving.

If the overheating is due to a leaking head gasket then nothing above will fix the issue.

Where are you located now?

 

[mudgudgeon]

Although you may have other issues, if I were on a road trip and worrying about engine temps a few things that I would do are:

1. Test, tune and/or replace the fan clutch. This is an important part of the cooling system and can cause overheating when the rest of the system is good. You can typically find new oil pretty easily at hobby shops and a simple stove, pot of water and thermometer are all you need to set temps etc. so you can easily service a fan clutch and top up the oil on a road trip if needed. Search the forum for info on this but many folks run 20k CST oil and I set the small hole to half open at 110 F.
2. Clean the condenser/radiator. Taking a few minutes to make sure that you are getting decent airflow through the condenser and radiator and that they are clean is probably worthwhile. You can spray them in coil cleaner or simple green and let it sit for 20 minutes or so and then gently rinse them out then get the bugs out, straighten folded fins, etc. to improve air flow.
3. Keep water in the truck and potentially also a garden sprayer/similar. Water transfers heat better than anti-freeze so for a few days I wouldn't worry about running mostly water in the cooling system if it comes to that. Don't mix coolant types ever but you can add water as needed to get you home. Distilled is best but tap is ok if it's not too hard. With a spray rig you could mist/spray the grill while you sit on the side of the road with the 80 idling to pretty quickly drop the operating temps. I wouldn't want to run an 80 hot (over 220 F) as it seems like you could increase the risk of HG failure/etc. but if it's getting close to 220 every now and then a misting setup could help you drop temps quickly so that you don't sit on the roadside as long.

Solid advice right there. Particularly carrying some extra water. A couple of 20 litre water jerry's are cheap insurance at this point. They let you cook things down rapidly, and top off water in the system.

Obviously it's hot where you are, if your cooling system is good, thos temperatures should not be a problem. That's a fairly typical Aussie summer day, and your cruiser should be good running all day in those temps unless you're flogging it mercilessly.

baby it to your destination. Keep your speed down and keep the RPM and engine load down. Park your ass in the slow lane up hills, coast down every hill you can. Drive miss daisy.

Once your home, take your time to find suitable help, or take your time to work through the things detailed above.

 

[LongDuck]

Dude, almost 5 years to First Post... WINNING! And it's a doozey!

Okay, seriously though... Did you call your dad for advice during any of this? If he owned it for 10 years before you started driving it, the conventional advice would be to call your dad, fess up about all of this, and see what he recommends. Dad's everywhere are nodding their heads right now.

Secondly, I think you may have learned about NOT performing maintenance once a trip is underway. I'm betting you could be sitting on a cool California beach right now if you never touched that belt...

The guys above have provided plenty of information to get you going, but recognize that you need to make good decisions from this point forward to avoid spending more time, effort and $$$ than what's needed. Good luck, and take a deep breath, you're one state away from destination!

 

[Jon90503]

Was your AC working before the belt change and AC recharge work? When the AC is running the condenser, which is in front of the radiator, gets hot and adds a lot of heat to the air that then flows through your radiator. If you weren't running AC until you saw mech. A and then were running it after then this could add enough heat when climbing hills to overload a cooling system that is marginal. If turning your AC off while on the highway helps you avoid overheating then the ac work could be the change that started the overheating issues.

Yes, AC was always working. My dad actually recommended getting an AC recharge if the mechanic shop thought I needed it. They did it, so I guess I needed it.

'll add that the built-in dash temp gauge isn't great and is slow to tell you what's going on. It's way better to run an odb2 sender to torque pro or to add a similar temp gauge so that you know what the actual coolant temps are. You can read up on this and may not be able to get a decent gauge in place while on a road trip but it's worth mentioning.

This sounds really cool. I've read a few posts about people doing this. Just need to set aside the time to get this done in Cali. Thank you for the tips!

 

[Jon90503]

Okay, seriously though... Did you call your dad for advice during any of this? If he owned it for 10 years before you started driving it, the conventional advice would be to call your dad, fess up about all of this, and see what he recommends. Dad's everywhere are nodding their heads right now.

Yes, I was always talking to my dad about everything. He was also baffled on how the brakes and car overheating happened almost at the same time. We were both on the same page the whole time: we both thought it was a good idea to replace the thermostat (replaced with OEM - never been replaced under his tenure), radiator cap (OEM) and get a coolant flush at the dealer in St George, Utah. He mentioned that the radiator is about 10 years old and the master cylinder for the brakes was even newer. So that helped me decide what to replace and what not to replace within reason.

Secondly, I think you may have learned about NOT performing maintenance once a trip is underway. I'm betting you could be sitting on a cool California beach right now if you never touched that belt...

Boy, did I learn a lot from these experiences! Thank you for the tips!

 

[Jon90503]

A big thank you to everyone that provided tips and insight!! This morning, I called the Toyota dealership in Las Vegas, where it's been since Friday, and told them to specifically check the fan clutch. He responded saying that the fan clutch works and there's no issues with it. He and the technicians were stumped as to why the engine overheats since the cooling system holds pressure and there's no leaks. They also ruled out handgasket issues and mentioned that the engine is still strong. They did also recommend that I replace my rear brakes just like the Toyota dealer in NY did prior to me leaving. This dealership told me that the rear brake pads were pretty worn. They wanted way too much money for it so I just went ahead and picked up my vehicle and paid the 1 hour diagnostic service fee.

Luckily, my cousin has been good friends with a mechanic for years and he agreed to take a look at my car the same day (today). I told him my experiences and issues and the first thing he checked was the fan clutch. He noticed enough little resistance when spinning the fan with his hand when the car was off after being driven for 15 minutes and he tells me, "Don't ever do what I'm about to do."

He holds the fan and tells my cousin to turn on the engine and the fan was still in his grip! The fan was not moving. He says I have a bad fan clutch. We go over to O'Reilly's and pick up the below fan clutch:
O'Reilly Fan Clutch
After installation, there is massive air flow in the engine bay now! It literally roars, even more so when I drive and accelerate! It was such a drastic difference from the old fan clutch which was library quiet compared to this one. I'm hoping all this air and roaring is normal and not too much?

He also agrees to change the rear brake rotors and brake pads. Last time they were replaced by my dad was about 10 years ago. We picked the following up:
O'Reilly Brake Rotors
Autozone Brake Pads
He took off the right wheel first and the brake pads were literally nonexistent.. almost faded away. In NY, where the car has spent most of our 13 years of owning it, we only used it for short trips - work, grocery shopping, etc. Never noticed any major brake noises and never had any brake issues since replacing them about 10 years ago. Who knows how long I've been driving around like this. He also notices the caliper is seized and the brake line had some damage to it but I should get home safely and he recommends changing my brake lines. The caliper and everything brake related was rusty.

He moves on to the left wheel. The brake pads on the left side were less than 3/4's used. A huge difference from the right side! Caliper was not seized but still rusty.

Also, ever since I've been driving this car, the brake pedal has always been soft. I honestly thought it was normal since I always braked just fine until recently. This mechanic told me that it's definitely not normal and the brake pedal should feel stiffer and not be so spongy. My dad replaced the brake master cylinder at some point so I'm going to give him a call tomorrow and ask him where he got it done and whether the part is OEM (mechanic said it looked remanufactured). This mechanic also told me that usually when you replace the brake booster, you also replace the brake master cylinder and was shocked that the dealers didn't tell me that. I might end up replacing the brake master cylinder in Cali.

The mechanic also took a look at the drive belts and said they had the correct tension. He also mentioned that I should use 10W-30 oil since I have oil leaking from 4 different places - rear main seal included, and because of the high mileage on the engine. The plan has always been to get this engine redone in Southern California. I have a few shops in mind after reading a few posts on this forum.

The plan for tomorrow is to use the Cruiser and drive around Vegas to do some sightseeing. Maybe use it for an hour or so, park it and walk around the strip. I'll have the AC blasting the whole time and I'll be mindful of the temp gauge and brakes. If all goes well, the lady and I will start the drive at 3am this Wednesday to have some relief from the heat as I definitely want to be on the safe side. I'll keep you all updated!

Also, I found the below piece in my battery compartment. The Toyota tech from today told me he found it in the little space above my right headlight and moved it to the battery compartment. I have no idea what it is, and I'm thinking someone took it off and didn't put it back on? Since I've been driving this car for 3 years, I've always cleaned every nook and cranny on this vehicle and I know for a fact that it's not something that's just been sitting there this whole time.

 

[leonard_nemoy]

Yes, I was always talking to my dad about everything. He was also baffled on how the brakes and car overheating happened almost at the same time. We were both on the same page the whole time: we both thought it was a good idea to replace the thermostat (replaced with OEM - never been replaced under his tenure), radiator cap (OEM) and get a coolant flush at the dealer in St George, Utah. He mentioned that the radiator is about 10 years old and the master cylinder for the brakes was even newer. So that helped me decide what to replace and what not to replace within reason.

Boy, did I learn a lot from these experiences! Thank you for the tips!

Take it to proauto care in St george. Do not go to the st george toyota dealer. The owner of proauto is a lifetime master toyota tech and a cruiser fanatic.

Other than that Utah in July will destroy your rig if it isn't sorted. 110+ temps and the steep hills are not easy on your cooling system.


Goodluck

 

[truthdetector]

Also, I found the below piece in my battery compartment. The Toyota tech from today told me he found it in the little space above my right headlight and moved it to the battery compartment. I have no idea what it is, and I'm thinking someone took it off and didn't put it back on? Since I've been driving this car for 3 years, I've always cleaned every nook and cranny on this vehicle and I know for a fact that it's not something that's just been sitting there this whole time.

That bracket mounts on the brake master cylinder. The black-coated clamp is oriented toward the passenger side of the vehicle and holds the throttle cable. It is one of four throttle cable clamps: master cylinder, charcoal canister, cylinder head, and intake boot. Not super-critical, but assume it was there for a reason and eventually re-install it.

 

[jpoole]

Thanks for the update. It seems likely that the 80 will run cool enough the rest of the trip thanks to the new fan clutch. Hopefully you can ease into thinking of other things once you've driven it a bit more and gained confidence that it's staying cool.

I'd still consider picking up an IR temperature gun (they are pretty cheap) and a few jugs of water before setting out and I'd work through the many items listed in this thread, etc. once you land at home. You'll probably want to go with a sturdier fan clutch in the future, etc. but nothing wrong with running that OReilly's unit to get home.

Once you "baseline" your 80 and catch up on all of the deferred maintenance you should be able to drive it anywhere with little to no worries. We take our 80 on many trips short and long with no concerns about it beyond the fuel gauge. Hopefully you'll get your 80 sorted after this trip and have many more, much smoother, trips in the future.

 

[Jon90503]

Take it to proauto care in St george. Do not go to the st george toyota dealer. The owner of proauto is a lifetime master toyota tech and a cruiser fanatic.

Other than that Utah in July will destroy your rig if it isn't sorted. 110+ temps and the steep hills are not easy on your cooling system.


Goodluck

I swear I'll never step foot into a dealer again!

 

[Jon90503]

That bracket mounts on the brake master cylinder. The black-coated clamp is oriented toward the passenger side of the vehicle and holds the throttle cable. It is one of four throttle cable clamps: master cylinder, charcoal canister, cylinder head, and intake boot. Not super-critical, but assume it was there for a reason and eventually re-install it.

Thank you!!

 

[Jon90503]

Thanks for the update. It seems likely that the 80 will run cool enough the rest of the trip thanks to the new fan clutch. Hopefully you can ease into thinking of other things once you've driven it a bit more and gained confidence that it's staying cool.

I'd still consider picking up an IR temperature gun (they are pretty cheap) and a few jugs of water before setting out and I'd work through the many items listed in this thread, etc. once you land at home. You'll probably want to go with a sturdier fan clutch in the future, etc. but nothing wrong with running that OReilly's unit to get home.

Once you "baseline" your 80 and catch up on all of the deferred maintenance you should be able to drive it anywhere with little to no worries. We take our 80 on many trips short and long with no concerns about it beyond the fuel gauge. Hopefully you'll get your 80 sorted after this trip and have many more, much smoother, trips in the future.

I'm thinking about picking up a scanguauge 2 from AutoZone today. We've been lugging around 3 gallons of water, 2 gallons of coolant, 5 quarts of oil, and some extra gas the whole trip. Can't wait to unload all this junk when we get home

Will keep everyone updated as to how the next few days go.

 

[BILT4ME]

I'm thinking about picking up a scanguauge 2 from AutoZone today. We've been lugging around 3 gallons of water, 2 gallons of coolant, 5 quarts of oil, and some extra gas the whole trip. Can't wait to unload all this junk when we get home

Will keep everyone updated as to how the next few days go.

I really like the UltraGauge in mine. It gives me many views of pages to set to what I want to see all the time.

UltraGauge