First coolant issue, now all the Christmas lights coming on

I have a 4.7 liter 2005 Tundra Limited Crew Cab with 173,000 miles, and the last few months have been hell. While driving out from Washington to Colorado, I noticed during a fill up that I had blown coolant out of my overflow reservoir. Went to a dealer the next day, they replaced the radiator cap and sent me on my way. The problem got no better, I limped to Colorado adding coolant and never overheated, and went to a dealer. The dealer suspected head gasket, and tested extensively. They found no issues with exhaust gasses or compression, and replaced the leaking waterpump, and leaking radiator with a timing belt to boot. Say 1000% it's good to go.

Coolant kept bubbling, after extensive research, I decided to have the head gasket's done, only fucking logical explanation. They find issues with 3/5 left intake valves, and send the heads to a machine shop for milling. 10 days later, on the day of expected pickup, they tell me the machine shop fucked up and they can't fix them. Ordering me new heads on their dime, and I'm like okay.

Finally, after it's been ready for a week, after they drove it extensively, I pick it up and within 15 miles the check engine and all the other Christmas lights turn on. I immediately drive back, and it throws the codes "P0014 is an OBD2 trouble code often truncated as "bank 1 exhaust camshaft position - timing over-advanced" and P0420 "Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold." They suspect the right bank solenoid for the camshaft is no good. Putting it in tomorrow morning.

Partially posting this to vent and complain, and mostly to see if anyone has had issue with codes after a head gasket or head replacement. Much thanks!

 

I have nothing to bring to the table but well wishes.
Good luck!

 

No ideas either but with all that work done I would think you should be good to go for another 90-100,000 miles before T-belt and waterpump replacement. Goodluck!

 

Sorry, I can't help either . . . Best of luck with your issue.

 

Oh yeah she's a new truck once they figure this out. Thanks yall!

 

Stuck thermostat?

 

I've replaced two thermostats!

 

OEM, or Aisin? (Makes OEM parts for toyota.)

Some have reported problems with aftermarket thermostats.

 

OEM for sure, couple of them.

 

Bubbling coolant or boiling coolant would indicate air in the coolant system... wherever that may be...

I had similar issues with an Aerostar... nuff said... well they swapped a piston out which created an over pressurization and I ended up blowing 2 spark plugs half way home... San Diego to LA. This was all after a head gasket change. One of the mechanics clipped the oxygen sensor causing an catalytic code.. it was well on the way out... just caused more issues than I wanted or needed...

 

My son had a similar problem with his 99 Lexus GS400. Would boil the coolant out of the reservoir and then on one hot day it boiled all of the coolant out of the radiator. We had it towed to my house and I discovered the electrical connectors to the cooling fans was disconnected! Reconnected them, filled the radiator and it's been good for the past 5 years.

This was the direct result of timing belt R&R done by non other than a certified Toyota technician. Destroyed my faith in Toyota technicians. After that incident, I do my own timing belt changes....

 

Like most of us have stated, I have no experience dealing with this. You're navigating uncharted waters here, so please update us on what will be found. This is good information to share.
And welcome aboard!

 

Seems everyone gravitates straight towards failed head gasket every time a vehicle overheats. It would be one of the later things on my list. Cooling system would be first, Thermostat is easy, water pump, radiator, hoses, coolant age and level, fan, belt for fan, fan shroud, big shopping bag inside the grill blocking radiator air flow etc. Failed head gaskets should have many other symptoms besides engine operating temp. You are well past that at this point. You've had an unfortunate course of repairs, I've heard so many repair horror stories that I try to do my own repairs because I know they will be done right. Some of these jobs are difficult and time consuming, If it's not their car, they are tempted to take shortcuts in the interest of time. The job only pays so much. Hopefully the solenoid fixes the problem. One of the luxuries of having the poor little 2000-2004 non-vvti engine, no cam shaft solenoids, or air pumps.

 

Welcome from NY.

Hopefully they figure it out.

 

I had a Ford with a 300 six motor that would get hot, I replaced all the likely suspects to no avail, still was overheating. I finally figured it out, the lower hose was collapsing under power and restricting the flow. New hose and all was good. Sometimes it's the simple things to look at first.

 

Replaced the Solenoid, light came back on, they're gonna dig back into it. The good news is that the new heads (which the machine shop that fucked up payed for) have completely solved my cooling system issue, but now that damn p0012 code is hard to pin down. The truck runs like a brand new truck, and if they can get this done I'll be happy customer. Their two major fuckups were re-machining the heads wrong and then telling me it was fine, which caused me to fly home from Utah where I'm currently working on a film project, and then have it not be ready to drive. They said they drove it for 60 miles, wish it would have been 70, because now I'm stuck in Colorado, a month without my truck, and missing work because of it.

I'll keep y'all posted on the progress, hopefully they can figure out what's going on and I can get on my merry way and get another 175,000 out of the truck and forget this shit ever happened. I think this gen tundra limited is the greatest truck ever made and I'm not quite ready to give up just yet.

 

I just replaced all of my coolant hoses during a TB Change. I wonder if this is the reason my coolant temps are down 15°?

 

Good to hear you got the cooling issue fixed. You’ll get it all fixed!

 

I haven't experienced a collapsed lower hose myself, and I'm from the time when lower hose still had the spring inserted into them. But the idea of a collapsed hose at operating temp is somewhat of a urban myth. Once warmed up the system is operating anywhere from 10 to 16psi of pressure. If a car tire holding 16 psi doesn't fully collapse, a radiator hose at the same pressure wont collapse due to the suction from the water pump.

Bigeasy, was the truck new to you at 176k? Did the same shop that did the timing belt and water pump also pull the heads for you? Also, if you had a leaking water pump and leaking radiator, how the heck was enough pressure building in the system to push coolant out of the overflow reservoir? Why didn't the excess pressure just push out the existing leaks?

My sherlock guess is if the truck was newish to you, previous owner dumped way too much stop leak into the system. some clogged creating hot spots, hot spot vaporized the coolant, when you shut the engine down, these steam pockets pushed coolant through the reservoir. Maybe...

 

It WAS missing the spring. That was the problem. New hose with the spring solved it.

 

I bought it at 148, didn’t have an issue for 3 years. No idea why, but that coolant level just kept rising, always would blow after 3+ hours of driving.

status update, the mechanic said the timing was a little off, he put a new belt on, I picked it up to test it, and the light came on as I pulled out of the lot. Ha. How. She’s back at the shop now.

 

I do believe the large cooling hoses can collapse even with the system at 15 psi. I'll look for a video on a Ford Focus/Zetec site showing a hose collapsing and the fix with a spring.

 

The light came back on after the new belt, I feel like either they fucked up the cams or the sensors bad... what else could it be

 

Wouldn’t it be running poorly if there was physically something wrong with the cams?

 

If your by Lakewood just drop it off at my house and be done with it JK. Hope you get everything worked out

 

Sorry to hear it's still being an issue. May be time for a new set of eyes. Lots of moving parts (obviously) that have to all be installed properly and sync'ed up for the timing to get set properly. More so in the VVTi systems. Time to start back at square one and stop guessing.

 

As much as I agree, they’re the only decent shop in the area, the dealers are all 3 weeks out, and I need the thing back yesterday, bad: Not to mention that I paid them a hefty sum and it’s on their dime to get it right... rock and a hard place

 

If you haven't already, I would suggest going ahead and scheduling with the dealer. You can always cancel if the shop gets you fixed and back on the road before the dealer appointment comes along.

 

BigEasy,
I know your frustrated and thousands of dollars into this repair so I hope the shop gets it right for you.

This post is to continue the discussion regarding the coolant overflow in the hopes it may help someone in the future.

I don't think the coolant overflow was related at all to the heads or timing belt repair. The cooling system is a basic circuit. Warm coolant expands, the expanded coolant pushes its way past the radiator cap into the overflow reservoir. If coolant is dramatically overheated it can overflow the reservoir, but typically the overheated coolant will also spew out the radiator cap along with dashboard temp gauge showing the overheat condition.

Once coolant (water) is in the reservoir, engine is turned off. The water in the engine/radiator cools off and contracts. Remember the warmed water expands as much as 10% of total volume. So a two gallon system 256oz total, expands and contracts almost an entire quart of fluid (26-32oz). The contraction of the engine/radiator water then creates a suction effect which pulls coolant/water from the reservoir back into the engine radiator system. This process then repeats over and over for years.

The OP stated the reservoir just kept filling more and more, then over flowing. This should point to a one way blockage in the circuit. Expanded coolant can get into the reservoir, but not back out. OP did change the radiator cap, but did not cure the problem. Perhaps the hose from radiator to reservoir has become week over time and it is this hose that collapses when suction from contracting engine coolant attempts to pull fluid from the reservoir. Hose collapses, no fluid is returned, but heated fluid at 16psi can still be pushed into the reservoir. Or perhaps a kinked/pinched reservoir hose could behave the same?

 

Remington, a valid point to be sure, but the shop did confirm that 3/4 intake valves as well as the gasket on the passenger side were damaged, and the issue is fixed now with the same hardware (hoses etc) so I'm fairly sure the head's were bad.

All in all, the shop did fuck up again. I'm flying back to Utah without my truck because they fucked up the timing of the camshaft which is throwing off the timing of the whole engine. Shops paying for my travel which is cool, but holy shit the nightmare continues... What a saga... hope they get it right, and I hope that I can trust my truck again. I think I will call the dealer and make an appointment in case they can't figure it out, which at this point I would honestly not be suprised about.