saephanh12

been a month now
Doesn't over heat
temp gauge works fine...
No smokes..
ac cold
heater hot
Drive great...
fans kicks on


But there's oil in my radiator? and this is my daily! some days i drive for an hour. No symptoms of any issue. Im asking this because, tomorrow i will be driving it 6 hours straight or maybe not depends on what i hear from ya!

thanks fellas!

vr4boy

i would double check and make sure its not transmission fluid as the tranny cooler is part of the radiator and with age,mixes with coolant from an internal crack.
when this happens its bye bye tranny-happenned on my 99 4runner

saephanh12

you mean the inside of the radiator crack rite?

saephanh12

well before the drive tommorow im going to drain and refill new radiator before heading out i guess.

Likini

Our gs have an automatic transmission most likely the problem is the oil cooler inside the right expantion tank on the radiator. It's probably leaking transmission fluid inside the radiator as you stated oil on radiator. Pull out and check your radiator and have the oil cooler pressure checked.

saephanh12

well i had taken the radiator out... i try to cover one side of the oil cooler passage and blew in the other.. no sign of leakage.. or does it involve a whole lot more pressure lol.

saephanh12

leaving in 3 hours. i let you guys know the outcome lol! wish me luck!

saephanh12

MADE IT TO MY DESTINATION!!! 6 hours drive.. socal/ norcal 395 miles


im guessing its not a bad HG? i maybe need a new radiator!

ttaylor993

Just curious to know what you see to let you know you've got oil in your radiator. Toyota transmission fluid is red. So is Toyota coolant. The two can sometimes be confused, especially if you are looking at small samples. If you are using green coolant and seeing red in it, could be when the green was put in a full flush was not done and you are seeing remnants of old coolant.

I know when I was changing my timing belt I had to take the radiator out to make room to work. Since I was going to put fresh coolant in the car and do a drain and fill on the tranny, I drained the radiator fluid into a container. I also disconnected the hoses to the tranny cooler in the radiator and let the approximately 2 quarts of transmission fluid drain into the same container. The fluids from the radiator and the fluid from the transmission were very close in color. You could see a difference in the density. The tranny fluid floated on top of the coolant but both were red.

I would think that after a six hour drive you would see some signs that your oil cooler is leaking. I would think that you would find coolant in the tranny fluid and vice verse (which you said you have seen). Since most transmissions are extremely sensitive to contaminated fluid, I would expect to see performance issue. Bottom line, radiators are cheap and very easy to install. I broke the upper radiator hose neck on my radiator. I got a new one on eBay last week for about $60. If it concerns you that much, put a new one in, if for no other reason than the peace-of-mind