The downside of obsessive maintenance - REDUX!!.
So it's September and we've been towing a bit into Canada and area mountains where it's colder in the 97 80. A couple times as long ago as 3 weeks I remember commenting to my wife when I turned the heater on that it sure didn't seem to be putting out a lot of heat (hint #1). Then, my wife commented last week that with the heat on full one morning taking the kids to school the truck didn't provide any heat until they were almost at school 15 minutes later - normally we get heat at about 3 minutes (hint #2). So today, I stopped to look at a Willys Overlander wagon and got to talking to the owner while the 97 idled. When I got in, the temp guage was at 3/4 (hint #3 as it hardly moves even when towing). When I got home, I opened the hood and everything looked and sounded normal except the coolant reservoir was down to the 'low' mark - a half inch from the bottom (hint #4).
So, I commented to my wife that we should switch trucks for a couple days until I get this sorted out. Why would the cooling system exhibit such bizarre behavior? I know it's full of fresh Toyota red from 6000 miles ago, new Toyota radiator at that time, and new hoses, belts, thermostat and gasket, flush, - everything's up to snuff. New plugs 6000 miles ago and no hint of head gasket trouble at that time. Double checked the head seam with a flashlight anyhow. What strange malady could be afflicting my perfectly maintained 80?
So I left to run a couple errands in it when it was already warmed, and out of curiousity put the heat on. No heat. Hmm, could the heater valve have failed? Turned on the rear heater. No heat. Wow, double failure of both heater valves? This is really strange.
Like a light dawning, I suddenly realized I'd overlooked the unarguably, absolutely undeniably basic thing - do I have enough coolant in the radiator despite my self assured thoughts about the cooling system? Blinker immediately went on into the grocery store parking lot. Popped the hood. Used a rag to open the rad cap - nothing! What a moron. I was so sure of my rig's maintanance state that I overlooked the simplest thing - verifying I have enough coolant.
Bought a gallon of distilled water and put half of it in before I could see coolant. Drove to the Toyota dealership and got a gallon of Red and put another half gallon in. Then topped off the overflow tank. Poor thing must have been sucking air in from the coolant overflow tank and the heater cores were not getting flow.
So, that's the downside of feeling like you know your truck intimately and being confident that all the basic stuff is handled, so any deviation in performance MUST be something really odd. I'm absolutely flabbergasted that this happened. I've been not only driving this thing nearly a gallon low, but actually towing at least twice through the mountains and it never complained. Speaks volumes about the cooling capacity.
Anyhow, it's that fancy silicone PHH hose I bought at NAPA, including the fancy $4 each constant tension clamps. There's a huge pink crusty trail off it where it's leaked a gallon and a half over the last 6 months. This is the second 80 I've used the silicone on, and the second time I've had a leak from it, so I'll be yanking it off soon and putting a piece of normal hose on.
Just a note from the OCD trenches.......
DougM
So it's September and we've been towing a bit into Canada and area mountains where it's colder in the 97 80. A couple times as long ago as 3 weeks I remember commenting to my wife when I turned the heater on that it sure didn't seem to be putting out a lot of heat (hint #1). Then, my wife commented last week that with the heat on full one morning taking the kids to school the truck didn't provide any heat until they were almost at school 15 minutes later - normally we get heat at about 3 minutes (hint #2). So today, I stopped to look at a Willys Overlander wagon and got to talking to the owner while the 97 idled. When I got in, the temp guage was at 3/4 (hint #3 as it hardly moves even when towing). When I got home, I opened the hood and everything looked and sounded normal except the coolant reservoir was down to the 'low' mark - a half inch from the bottom (hint #4).
So, I commented to my wife that we should switch trucks for a couple days until I get this sorted out. Why would the cooling system exhibit such bizarre behavior? I know it's full of fresh Toyota red from 6000 miles ago, new Toyota radiator at that time, and new hoses, belts, thermostat and gasket, flush, - everything's up to snuff. New plugs 6000 miles ago and no hint of head gasket trouble at that time. Double checked the head seam with a flashlight anyhow. What strange malady could be afflicting my perfectly maintained 80?
So I left to run a couple errands in it when it was already warmed, and out of curiousity put the heat on. No heat. Hmm, could the heater valve have failed? Turned on the rear heater. No heat. Wow, double failure of both heater valves? This is really strange.
Like a light dawning, I suddenly realized I'd overlooked the unarguably, absolutely undeniably basic thing - do I have enough coolant in the radiator despite my self assured thoughts about the cooling system? Blinker immediately went on into the grocery store parking lot. Popped the hood. Used a rag to open the rad cap - nothing! What a moron. I was so sure of my rig's maintanance state that I overlooked the simplest thing - verifying I have enough coolant.
Bought a gallon of distilled water and put half of it in before I could see coolant. Drove to the Toyota dealership and got a gallon of Red and put another half gallon in. Then topped off the overflow tank. Poor thing must have been sucking air in from the coolant overflow tank and the heater cores were not getting flow.
So, that's the downside of feeling like you know your truck intimately and being confident that all the basic stuff is handled, so any deviation in performance MUST be something really odd. I'm absolutely flabbergasted that this happened. I've been not only driving this thing nearly a gallon low, but actually towing at least twice through the mountains and it never complained. Speaks volumes about the cooling capacity.
Anyhow, it's that fancy silicone PHH hose I bought at NAPA, including the fancy $4 each constant tension clamps. There's a huge pink crusty trail off it where it's leaked a gallon and a half over the last 6 months. This is the second 80 I've used the silicone on, and the second time I've had a leak from it, so I'll be yanking it off soon and putting a piece of normal hose on.
Just a note from the OCD trenches.......
DougM
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