Radiator Replacement Double cab 2006

I was in the drive thru and saw smoke starting to come out of the hood. I looked at the temp gauge it starting to rise got to about 3/4.

I pulled out and parked it and let it sit, I was scared to open the hood, with a fire extinguisher in-hand. I didn’t know what to expect.

looks like the radiator gave out at the seams. almost made it to 200k miles. 1.5k short.

I put about 8 water bottles in it and drove it home with the heater on. I was about a mile from home. Temps stayed good. I went to autozone and bought 2 gallons of pink coolant this morning and the radiator took about half a gallon. I don’t know why I filled it if it was just gonna leak out.

I ordered a new Denso radiator from rockauto. part number 221-0518 .

Hoses
Going to replace upper and lower hoses with Gates brand unless anybody recommends something else. Current hoses look good btw.

Thermostat and radiator cap have 20k miles on then, they should be fine. Not replacing

going to flush the system so we have new coolant and get rid of the water I put in it

Is there anything I should do while I’m there? Serpentine belt, tensioners, Timing belt and water pump all done 20k miles ago.

Going to clean the throttle-body



The radiator looks like it threw up on itself, it very pink in-between the fan shroud. It has a constant leak on the bottom left.



A small fire extinguisher fits perfect in the back seat side panel. Just need to buy some self tapping screws. 15$ mod

 

I did the radiator, hoses etc when the timing belt and water pump was done. Cooling system was drained and radiator out anyway so why not. You should be good to go.

 

Sounds like you're good to go!

One thing to MAYBE consider is if the lower radiator fan shroud has cracks or if one of the clips is missing.

I lost a clip from mine and the fan chewed and spit it out.

 

You've inspired me! I have a new Denso radiator that's been just laying around waiting for me to get around installing it. I think I'll get around to it this week...

 

Hell yeah. I went ahead and removed everything today. So when the radiator gets here everything just drops in. Removal was about 30 min.

 

Update

 

Heck yeah!! That's awesome!

 

Might be a deceiving view of carbon buildup but your thoughts on cleaning throttle body is not a bad call. According to how much time you have, bench cleaning will work wonders. Be cautious if cleaning in place and not over do it with throttle body cleaner into throat of TB. Once all buttoned back up after radiator burping and what not, consider unhooking battery to reset ECM. She’ll have some new feel to her with a clean TB and new fuel trims to work on as you drive around.

 

I didn’t consider a bench cleaning but hell yeah! Going to do that today. Looks like one electrical connector, 3 bolts and a nut.

battery has been disconnected since I drained the coolant

 

Yeah, since I knew you had coolant drained, it is easier since there are coolant lines attached to TB. You may know this also but be gentle with throttle plate and not let the tension slam it shut when opening and closing.

 

Definitely be careful cleaning that TB, as Bubba said. The TPS sensor is very, um, sensitive. If you're planning on a really thorough cleaning and want to take it off the body, make some match marks 1st and take a pic. The sensor has to go back just how it came off or it's going to be a tedious journey fixing your idle.

Also, the throttle body motor that's in front of the TPS sensor is a $200+ part by itself.

 

Oh, lol, you probably already cleaned it...I'm time traveling, yo!

 

Denso showed up. Order two radiators from two vendors. The Rockauto box showed up flawlessly. The second was from Amazon the radiator box that showed up was trash. Box had holes in it, it had been opened. Returning it today.

install took about 1 hour, most of that hour was fighting with the bottom spring clamp. I couldn’t get it to go over. I should had bout new ones or bought the spring clamp pliers

she’s running nice and cool now. Burped the system yesterday. Did some highway driving. She stayed nice and cool. Going to re-burp the system today to make sure all air is out of the system

 

Update:

got a check engine light today. P0128. I was going to clear it and burp the system again. The truck has been running very cool lately. Any advice?

Error code P0128 indicates that your engine coolant temperature is below the thermostat regulating temperature. This means that your Engine Control Module (ECM) or Powertrain Control Module (PCM) has recognized that your engine is running cooler than it's supposed to

 

You mentioned back in 1st post about not wanting to replace thermostat because of only 20K miles. Is that still the case or did you change ?

A stuck open thermostat will definitely cause coolant to flow freely all the time and never reach operating temp of ~190F and air in system can also.

Is the coolant gauge what cause you to say "running very cool lately" ? If so, in my mind that eliminates the ECT being a problem or ECM which is what diagnostics says.
When burping, did you turn on heater in order to circulate coolant thru there also ?

Did you run cool before changing radiator according to idiot gauge ?,

Have you thought about buying a scangage(mis-spelled on purpose) that monitors live data ?
With our trucks age, I find that live data sometimes is a must when I'm troubleshooting.

 

I will order a Toyota thermostat today. I did not change it (lazy and simple when all the coolant was out)

I haven’t done any highway driving yet. So haven’t got a chance to get it hot. Going to go do that in a few.

Update:
Last drive to run some quick things around the area ~178F
About to be in the car for 2 hours let see what happens

I have burped it 3 times already with the heater on. Iv been trying to get all possible air out of it.

I just plugged my phone up to my scanner so I can monitor temps more accurately and report back.

 

Was going to ask that but I saw in a previous post....

 

Thank you for all the advice. I went and got a new thermostat and gasket from the dealer.

been driving for 30min current temp is ~190F


Bottom one is the oem (new)

 

$55.22 for a thermostat and gasket

 

OEM or bust baby

 

I would have went with Aisin part for $18 total but could wait 2-3 days for parts. Trust me I was upset at the cost. But there were instock and ready for pick up.

Would the Aisin still be the oem manufacture for this part? They did the water pump

 

MSRP for the thermostat is $30.08. The stealer uplifted the price by $7.52!
MSRP for the gasket is $7.21. The stealer uplifted the price by $5.41!

10% sales tax?! That's almost as bad as the European VAT

BTW, my local dealer uplifts the prices too. I asked for a discount the other day, and he looked at me as if I had 3 heads! I only buy there when it's urgent (although they rarely have it in stock, rather it comes from the "warehouse" the next day) or if it's a small order and the shipping from McGeorge exceeds the dealer markup.

 

While it might not alter your ECU mapping greatly, if it were me, I'd be unhooking battery to reset ECU if you haven't already now that it has a proper degree thermostat.

If you haven't changed that top thermostat since that last time you put the Autozone thermostat in, pretty sure that's why you were seeing only 178 deg.
According to their online search for your MY, they suggest 6 thermostats but their only rated 170 or 180.

Confirms to me each time I see non OEM parts used that out engines really do want to see OEM rated parts. Glad your getting her headed in right direction.

 

Our sales tax in TN is 9.25% but we have no state income tax. I didn't know CA was at 10% plus their state income tax. Yikes.