unknown Oil leak on passenger side floor upholstery, kzj78

[Lomoski]

Hey gang,

I have a 1995 kzj78. Today when I was doing my spring cleaning I removed my passenger side mud guard and the carpet under the squirrel fan is soaked with some sort of pink oily substance. I can't see where it is coming from. There's quite a bit. The rubber mud guard doesn't have anything on it but it's soaked the carpet underneath. I checked the floor pan from under the truck and it's leaking some sort of oil out of the floor board drain plug but otherwise it's clean. So obviously the oil is coming from somewhere inside. Has anyone seen this before? Where the heck do I start to try to figure this out? I have laid out paper towel over everything to see if I can figure out where it's coming from. Any help would be greatly be appreciated.

Lomo

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

Not coolant leaking from your heater core is it?

 

[Lomoski]

Not coolant leaking from your heater core is it?

Where is the heater core on these? Didn't smell like coolant though, I was running Toyota pink coolant before but have switched to green. It's definitely pink and fairly oily feeling.

 

[roscoFJ73]

There is no pink oil in a landcruiser, maybe red ATM fluid, but I cant see how that would get in there.
Is it possible the pink coolant leaked before you changed it? The heater core is mostly on the passenger side.
Coolant leaks usually run down from the back and under the carpet, they dont leak from overhead. So you probably wont see anything on the paper towels.
When you changed the fluid, did you open the heater cocks?

 

[Lomoski]

There is no pink oil in a landcruiser, maybe red ATM fluid, but I cant see how that would get in there.
Is it possible the pink coolant leaked before you changed it? The heater core is mostly on the passenger side.
Coolant leaks usually run down from the back and under the carpet, they dont leak from overhead. So you probably wont see anything on the paper towels.
When you changed the fluid, did you open the heater cocks?

It definitely seems like it has been running underneath the upholstery and pooling as there was absolutely nothing on the rubber floor mat. I definitely opened the heater when I flushed the coolant system and I also flushed the intake and outlet of the core with low pressure water until it ran clear. So I'm confident that it got flushed. My radiator was pinholed though so maybe the heater core is as well. I was losing coolant before I switched my stock rad with an aluminum aftermarket one. It's been hot since I flushed my coolant system though so I haven't been running heat through my cabin so maybe that's why the green isn't showing up.

How hard are the cores to get to? Are they able to be re cored or are there aftermarket ones?

Thanks for the tip

 

[roscoFJ73]

I would probably buy a new one, but taking one out is a bit of a job. Have you removed all the carpet back to bare metal?

Have a look at the whole thread here, does yours look the same? The Toyota Landcruiser Owners Club :: View topic - LJ78 Heater Matrix

If you dont want to tackle it straight away, you could bypass it by disconnecting the 2 hoses at the firewall inlet and outlet and temporarily joining the 2 hoses together. That way you wouldnt have it leaking into the cabin.

 

[AndrewHadji]

+1 for interest, if you do get to it, take pics. I broke my front, demist, floor lever and i hear its a pain to get to the magic box.

 

[roscoFJ73]

Looks like "fun" HJZ75 heater core - i must be close to getting this bstrd out!

 

[Lomoski]

I haven't been able to find a new one for my truck on the internet of things as of yet. I think it's likely the heater core now that I think about it. I've still been losing a bit of coolant since putting in my new rad and I have had the heater on. It makes sense that if my rad had pinholes that my heater core would as well as it's the same age. I'll definitely take pictures of the job when I do it. Just need to find myself a new core! Unfortunately it still gets cold here in the summer, I live in the mountains so having working heater would be nice.

 

[Lomoski]

Looks like "fun" HJZ75 heater core - i must be close to getting this bstrd out!

Type 2 fun

 

[roscoFJ73]

87107-90K04

Starts with a part number. Looks like all the 7* series are the same up till 99.

 

[Lomoski]

87107-90K04

Starts with a part number. Looks like all the 7* series are the same up till 99.

Yeah, I looked up the part number and came up pretty much empty. Thanks though, I'll keep scouring. Appreciate it.

 

[roscoFJ73]

I would at least get it out and see if its repairable. It might be one of the metal pipes attached to it. There was one on Australian ebay

 

[coldtaco]

It’s a bit of a chore. At the very least you will need to take the dash loose and remove glove box and the center dash support. And ducting.

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

It could be that when your cylinder head went it pressurized the system enough to damage your heater core. I damaged a heater core three times back in the day in my AE86 GTS because I was running a TRD 'racing' high pressure rad cap. Finally figured out what was going on and tossed the rad cap for a regular one. Blew my heater core up like a little balloon. One of the times I was able to repair it with a propane torch and solder; was pretty easy actually....if the leak is at the end tanks. But yes, getting them out is a horrible job.

 

[Lomoski]

It could be that when your cylinder head went it pressurized the system enough to damage your heater core. I damaged a heater core three times back in the day in my AE86 GTS because I was running a TRD 'racing' high pressure rad cap. Finally figured out what was going on and tossed the rad cap for a regular one. Blew my heater core up like a little balloon. One of the times I was able to repair it with a propane torch and solder; was pretty easy actually....if the leak is at the end tanks. But yes, getting them out is a horrible job.

That makes sense. I'll see if I can get it out and repair it. Is there a step by step in a fsm or am I basically just figuring out how to completely remove my dash and then putting it all back together? If I take it out and it needs to be recored I'll have to out my dash back together so I can get it to the nearest city and then do it all over again so hopefully it's something I can repair. Weather looks good this week so I might tackle it tomorrow. Thanks everyone.

Marc