Saying hello! New cruiser problem and questions...

[afa]

Hello everyone,

I recently picked up a 2001 LC at a great price and I'm overall excited to finally have it. It seems the previous owners neglected the vehicle a bit and I'm overall interested in what I should be replacing and/or looking out for.


Which leads to my experience yesterday...

I drove from my work back home and about 1/2 mile from home noticed the engine sounding a bit different than usual. Luckily I was able to reach my garage and noticed a lot of fluid leaking from the bottom of the LC.

At first I couldn't figure out what it was but after closer inspection realized that it was coolant.

First thing I did was open the hood and noticed the serpentine belt had torn in half and strands of the belt were everywhere.


After the initial shock of coolant leaking everywhere, I noticed that a few strands of the serpentine belt had caught this particular hose (the one that goes into the oil filter) and slashed it.


Long story short I replaced the belt and small hose (although it wasn't a factory made hose) I found one similar in size and length at my local autozone and it fit pretty good. Is this safe? Or more of a temporary fix?

Also picked up 2 gallons of the pentofrost red coolant from autozone and mixed it 50/50. Toyota dealer is too far from me so I had to buy what's available. Also, the LC appeared to already have some sort of red coolant in it.

After flushing the radiator multiple times with distilled water I ended up using only about 1 gallon coolant and one gallon water. Is there something I missed? I thought the capacity for coolant was about 3~4 gallons??

To all the gurus, please let know what you think. I'm happy to be a part of this forum. I've found it so helpful.

 

[tacoduck]

wonder if she over heated... Most likely the water pump.

Screeching noise and then dead vehicle, coolant leaking from the bottom.

good luck. I have an 01 as well.

 

[Sandroad]

Welcome! The cooling system capacity for the '01 will be in your owner's manual. There will have been some coolant in the engine and heater, so take that into account. You'll need to figure out what shredded the S-belt. Stuck tensioner? Stuck idler pulley? The water pump is driven by the T-belt, so that's probably not related. The Autozone hose is fine as a permanent fix so long as it was made for the same purpose and is the right size. I don't like to mix coolant brands, but that's just me. Toyota OEM coolant can be red, so that may be what was in there. Spend some time in the forum FAQs to help figure out what you may want to do to baseline your LC. And if it's been neglected, assume nothing about things like the timing belt and oils and do at least everything in your owner's manual for service. And keep asking questions. Somewhere on this forum someone will know the answer!

 

[2001LC]

Welcome.
Coolant cap. w/rear heater is 16.2qt.
When draining radiator & both block drains, I'll get ~12qt (measure what comes out). I'll triple flush with distilled water (De-Mineralized water) getting near clear on last flush. This leaves 4qt of very diluted (~90% water) coolant in system. Then I add two gallons of Toyota Red 100% and 1 gallon of DM water. I do this every 30K miles or 2 years. I never use anything but Toyota Red, as I too do not like mixing coolant brands. BTW I've seen Toyota Red for sale at CARQUEST, but Toyota dealer gives much better price.
Note: I fill reservoir 3/4 full when refilling system. It draws down after engine cool down. I then check each morning filling only to low line when cold, until that level holds.

Drive Belt needs to be exact fit. That makes OEM the best choice.

Tip if drive belt tension pulley bearing is bad, replace bearing only ~$12 at NAPA. With Idler pulley you must replace pulley with bearing, as nobody has found a good replacement bearing for it. Rockauto has some for ~$20, not OEM but OEM idler's aren't that great anyway.

 

[afa]

Welcome! The cooling system capacity for the '01 will be in your owner's manual. There will have been some coolant in the engine and heater, so take that into account. You'll need to figure out what shredded the S-belt. Stuck tensioner? Stuck idler pulley? The water pump is driven by the T-belt, so that's probably not related. The Autozone hose is fine as a permanent fix so long as it was made for the same purpose and is the right size. I don't like to mix coolant brands, but that's just me. Toyota OEM coolant can be red, so that may be what was in there. Spend some time in the forum FAQs to help figure out what you may want to do to baseline your LC. And if it's been neglected, assume nothing about things like the timing belt and oils and do at least everything in your owner's manual for service. And keep asking questions. Somewhere on this forum someone will know the answer!

From what I saw the belt was just old and cracked. Everything else seemed to be working properly. I will get a Tbelt job done as soon as funds free up as I am 100% sure it wasn't done by the previous owner. Thanks for the advice!

 

[afa]

Welcome.
Coolant cap. w/rear heater is 16.2qt.
When draining radiator & both block drains, I'll get ~12qt (measure what comes out). I'll triple flush with distilled water (De-Mineralized water) getting near clear on last flush. This leaves 4qt of very diluted (~90% water) coolant in system. Then I add two gallons of Toyota Red 100% and 1 gallon of DM water. I do this every 30K miles or 2 years. I never use anything but Toyota Red, as I too do not like mixing coolant brands. BTW I've seen Toyota Red for sale at CARQUEST, but Toyota dealer gives much better price.
Note: I fill reservoir 3/4 full when refilling system. It draws down after engine cool down. I then check each morning filling only to low line when cold, until that level holds.

Drive Belt needs to be exact fit. That makes OEM the best choice.

Tip if drive belt tension pulley bearing is bad, replace bearing only ~$12 at NAPA. With Idler pulley you must replace pulley with bearing, as nobody has found a good replacement bearing for it. Rockauto has some for ~$20, not OEM but OEM idler's aren't that great anyway.

Block drains? Did I miss another place where coolant collects? That might be why I only used about 2 gallons. Can you point me in the right direction regarding these block drains?

I bought a Dayco drive belt that autozone had. I hope it'll do for the time being since the one that broke was in horrible condition.

 

[2001LC]

Both side of block, rear, just under exhaust manifold, just in front of #1 o2. DS is easy to see, PS takes a little more looking.

DS coolant block drain:

 

[2001LC]

***

I bought a Dayco drive belt that autozone had. I hope it'll do for the time being since the one that broke was in horrible condition.

Drive belt tensioner has gauge on it, uses belt length.