Hey crew,
So you all may remember that I bought a '00 LX470 out of Pennsylvania and had a scam prepurchase inspection done when I purchased it. That mechanic was full of s***, and I bought a truck for my son that was riddled with problems. Paid $6,000 for it, and have put about $4,000 into it since (not counting the $2,000 tire and wheel package). Now we are facing 2 issues. The radiator we were told has a pinhole in it and thus we are losing fluid. I was told to only fill the radiator with distilled water, and then eventually I will need to replace the radiator. Cost is about $850.00. So I have been filling the radiator up with distilled water here in colorado about 3-5 cups every 2 weeks since last August. When I finally was about to get the radiator replaced the shop said they see no leaks in the radiator, and all they saw was upper radiator hose was leaking pretty bad. They also said NEVER fill a radiator with just distilled water, I need to use the Red Zerex asian mix and of course never mix colors. So I went ahead and put on the radiator hose, filled with red Zerex and noticed the expansion tank had blue fluid in it. I pulled the cap off so that the blue fluid would not get sucked into the radiator now and have been waiting for my hoses here to thaw so I can just force tap water into the expansion tank to force out all the blue fluid before putting the expansion cap with the overflow tube back on. Since that day I have been adding another quart of red zerex every 2 days. Main question here is does that sound normal? like the coolant is just overflowing out of the radiator onto the ground during everyday driving, and since the overflow tube is just sitting in the open down the side of the radiator, that's about how much I should be losing. Thinking once I get the expansion tank cleaned out, and put some Red Zerex in there, we will see no more loss of coolant from the system. Correct thinking here?? please advise.
Now power steering fluid loss was so much that the truck was basically manual steering. Very odd as though turning to the right was much easier than turning to the left. I had the mechanic look at this for a new p/s pump, but again he suggested that though the power steering gaskets showed signs of leakage, certainly not enough to be losing so much fluid. It was so low that the level was below the upper hose inlet The two hoses going into the reservoir are quite soaked looking, but the mechanic suggested the steering rack was probably bad. Well, we had just had the steering rack n pinion replaced the previous year, so we knew that was not the case. I added power steering fluid back up to the max line, took half the bottle to get it there (ATF Dex III). , and since that day the car has been driving like a dream! now a week and a half goes by and I had to add a little more P/S fluid. I'd say about 1.25 oz.'s. Wondering what peoples thought on that amount of fluid loss could be likely attributed to.
I just want to be careful about where my money goes, college is expensive enough!
So you all may remember that I bought a '00 LX470 out of Pennsylvania and had a scam prepurchase inspection done when I purchased it. That mechanic was full of s***, and I bought a truck for my son that was riddled with problems. Paid $6,000 for it, and have put about $4,000 into it since (not counting the $2,000 tire and wheel package). Now we are facing 2 issues. The radiator we were told has a pinhole in it and thus we are losing fluid. I was told to only fill the radiator with distilled water, and then eventually I will need to replace the radiator. Cost is about $850.00. So I have been filling the radiator up with distilled water here in colorado about 3-5 cups every 2 weeks since last August. When I finally was about to get the radiator replaced the shop said they see no leaks in the radiator, and all they saw was upper radiator hose was leaking pretty bad. They also said NEVER fill a radiator with just distilled water, I need to use the Red Zerex asian mix and of course never mix colors. So I went ahead and put on the radiator hose, filled with red Zerex and noticed the expansion tank had blue fluid in it. I pulled the cap off so that the blue fluid would not get sucked into the radiator now and have been waiting for my hoses here to thaw so I can just force tap water into the expansion tank to force out all the blue fluid before putting the expansion cap with the overflow tube back on. Since that day I have been adding another quart of red zerex every 2 days. Main question here is does that sound normal? like the coolant is just overflowing out of the radiator onto the ground during everyday driving, and since the overflow tube is just sitting in the open down the side of the radiator, that's about how much I should be losing. Thinking once I get the expansion tank cleaned out, and put some Red Zerex in there, we will see no more loss of coolant from the system. Correct thinking here?? please advise.
Now power steering fluid loss was so much that the truck was basically manual steering. Very odd as though turning to the right was much easier than turning to the left. I had the mechanic look at this for a new p/s pump, but again he suggested that though the power steering gaskets showed signs of leakage, certainly not enough to be losing so much fluid. It was so low that the level was below the upper hose inlet The two hoses going into the reservoir are quite soaked looking, but the mechanic suggested the steering rack was probably bad. Well, we had just had the steering rack n pinion replaced the previous year, so we knew that was not the case. I added power steering fluid back up to the max line, took half the bottle to get it there (ATF Dex III). , and since that day the car has been driving like a dream! now a week and a half goes by and I had to add a little more P/S fluid. I'd say about 1.25 oz.'s. Wondering what peoples thought on that amount of fluid loss could be likely attributed to.
I just want to be careful about where my money goes, college is expensive enough!
