My car did a really weird temperature spike while driving home rom work. So I waited for the car to cool to put water in, and I noticed it had water in there. Now I was thinking maybe my thermostat dtoooed opening...well I said **** it and try to drive it hime since traffic died down and it never spiked again. So I decided to cgeck if maybe some air is in the cooling system and there was a litting. Anyways after all this a month passed and no signs of leaks and temp spikes until yesterday.
See the picture below...do this pipe seperate from the housing?

 

Yes.. There are o-rings on that pipe that must have deteriorated and is letting water escape/pressure.

I circled the parts in question on this diagram, the part numbers



Part Number: 96761-24022
O (FOR WATER BY-PASS PIPE) RING
Number needed:02
List: $3.86

 

Thanks a lot for the information. I ordered them online and might as well change thermostat while doing that. Lol

 

may also want to look into the distributor o ring(those are notrious for leaking oil) that sits right above that union. Only reason im saying this is because the union looks to be coated in oil. best of luck!

 

I had a lot of fun with this one. It is a B***ch to get to if you don't pull the distributor. Matter of fact don't even try messing with it without pulling the Distributor.

I ended up having to drill out the holes because they stripped, and re-tapping them. You have to get the exact O-Ring and it should just slide in with a little pressure.

Also, have a distributor o-ring ready to replace the Distributor o-ring after you take it out. You can get them at any Auto parts store. Lexus will charge you $10 for them.