pink milkshake (1 Viewer)

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Dec 27, 2019
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West Central Indiana
I guess I need to apologize. I am frustrated, to the max, because I want to go out there and fix my new (to me) sequoia up. But it's 10 !@#$%^&*( !! degrees...

In a 4runner forum I learned about the "pink milkshake." That's caused by the radiator leaking antifreeze into the transmission! Kills the trans - dead. Apparently, the original radiator has a brown plastic top and is the most likely to do this. My radiator has that brown plastic top...

OTOH, the truck was dealership maintained - the antifreeze looks like it is brand new, and the truck lived in Naples, Florida before I bought it.

I's like to know what risk I am taking by driving the truck and where is the best place to buy and aluminum radiator for the sequoia?
 
I always thought the pink/strawberry milkshake is unique to the design of the 4Runner with the 3.4L V6 and that the UZ Series V8s don’t share the design or the risk.

That said, the brown top on the radiator is a tell of an old, closer to failure rad.

Replace it with a new radiator from Toyota. If you want insurance against the pink milkshake, add an independent transmission cooler.

Amazon sells an OEM Radiator for $191
 
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Trans cooler leak is not unique to the 4runners but more common in them. I've seen it on a few older Tundras like 2002-2004.
It's not like your trans cooler is guaranteed to leak but I guess it could be good insurance to replace it. I had a 97 4runner for about 10 years and ended up putting a denso off amazon in it for about $120 when it started leaking coolant externally.
 
Pink milkshake comes from the radiator pulling double duty of a cooling the tranny as well as the engine. The transmission lines went to the base of the radiator, the radiator would fail internally and flush coolant into the transmission section causing the pink milkshake. The resolution was to bypass the radiator and run a separate tranny cooler. My sequoia has a separate tranny cooler already. Thought all of them did but maybe not.
 
Pink milkshake comes from the radiator pulling double duty of a cooling the tranny as well as the engine. The transmission lines went to the base of the radiator, the radiator would fail internally and flush coolant into the transmission section causing the pink milkshake. The resolution was to bypass the radiator and run a separate tranny cooler. My sequoia has a separate tranny cooler already. Thought all of them did but maybe not.

You have an auxiliary trans cooler in addition to the one in the radiator. Without the cooler in the radiator the transmission fluid could be too cold in some situations. The later models have a valve that can either redirect fluid back to the trans bypassing the cooler when cold, or direct fluid to the cooler when needed while hot.
 
Edit. Double post somehow
 

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