Brown coolant and bubbling

So picked up a taco recently and was a little low on coolant. Got the extra long life coolant from the dealer and finally topped off the reservoir and the radiator (about 1 quart).

After driving for a day I pulled the cap off to check and noticed an orangish/brown color on the cap. And also an air bubble every few seconds. I see no oil film at the top of the radiator or in the reservoir. Also did oil change last week and looked good with no milkshake. It looks like this is either original coolant that was never changed or maybe someone mixed different types? The truck is within 183-193F during operation.




http://youtu.be/SPXWng-TOMc

 

Drain it all out, flush it with clean water several times, be sure you have the heater temp set to high, and replace the coolant with distilled water and then see what you get. You can also have a pressure test done on the system first to see if there is some internal leak.

 

The video is not showing. once you have verified that it is properly filled, and that there are no air pockets, then check for air bubbles again. Too many and you COULD be looking at a head gasket issue. But be sure that you have it filled up properly. If all of that holds well, then you really need to consider getting the radiator and block flushed out and cleaned. The brown color is usually rust.

 

That does look dirty, i would definitely flush it. Your operating temps are normal.

 

I am definitely going to flush it this weekend (I hope). Looking for alternative coolants at the moment. I am sure there is the exact stuff Toyota sells under a different brand that isn't $26/gallon.

 

You can purchase premixed Asian vehicle specific coolant from Napa. Mine sells it for about $13. It is pink, not green.

 

blown head gasket, maybe not leaking into the oil yet, but if the oil gets whitish/brown on the dipstick it has; open the reservoir cap; does the reservoir smell like exhaust? if so that's confirmation. You probably have engine surging/light roughness or will soon.

 

No surging or roughness and reservoir doesn't smell like exhaust. Doesn't mean it won't soon though. I am thinking since it was a little bit low adding coolant and recently turning on the heater may have churned some stuff up. I had the heater running for about half an hour yesterday after I topped the coolant off.

 

first thing is to clean out the system with distilled vinegar. then refill with any coolant.
burp the system and good.then the test-----
they sell strips of stuff that you put into your coolant to test for carbon dioxide in the coolant(head gasket failing or about too)
this is the best and only test with taking the whole thing apart.

the vinegar is a mild acid and cleans out the old burn coolant.

 

The steadiness of those air bubbles is kind of freaky. Do they increase when the RPMs go up?

 

I have not checked and did not get them to repeat today. But I'll rev it and see.

Thanks for the vinegar trick. I'll do that this weekend.

I was really hoping. To get to Overland Expo East but doesn't look like it.

 

drain old coolant and fill with vinegar and then heat up truck with cap off and drain. a side note if coolant is brown you might want to replace the thermostat as if it gets rusty it will fail and probable wont open.
also make sure the coolant is silica free as that gums up and fucks up shit.
flush out the system with a garden hose after the vinegar til its completely clear then ad new coolant.

 

Head gasket... do a compression test asap. If numbers prove me wrong then flush and add new coolant. Either way I haven't seen the long life antifreeze ever cause that unless there was an issue like a head gasket.

 

Is there any warranty (e.g. 90 days?). It's possible coolant was replaced if the coolant is pink. Crud on the cap is hard to diagnose. But tank should not bubble after a couple days. (air should be already pushed out)
If the coolant level continues to drop after a week or so and your oil is/stays clean, a gasket is letting coolant be burned in the engine and vapor is pushing into the cooling system. But this would result in an engine performance problem, imo. No other visable leaks I'm assuming.
Anyone know of other non-head gasket places for internal coolant loss?

 

steady bubbles, yes head gasket
---
but there is another reason for brown crap in rad fluid...for anyone's interest

something broke in the past and it was fixed
if this is an automatic transmission then be very concerned. my story

When my 4runner blew the a/t radiator cooler and i got the pink milkshake, the tranny was flushed a bunch of times (still failed later...once water gets in it's gonna die, no way around that) and also the cooling system was flushed with a special crap that is supposed to clean up the oil, and turn it into this brown foam goo that makes it's way to the overflow tank over time and then you can suck it out and dump it.

Perhaps your truck blew an oil cooler or worse, the tranny cooler and was cleaned.....if it was the tranny cooler and the tranny was not taken apart and rebuilt, that thing could fail any time now....hence, my warning

NOTE: if you have oil in the rad fluid it can (might..a/t fluid will do it) swell up the radiator cap gasket to three times size and it becomes obviously useless...as well as other o-rings or rubber in the cooling system. so check your radiator cap and the gasket
on it, to be sure it hasn't monsterized and gone to crap....

 

For the older Toyotas that take the red rad fluid I have heard of this, but my buddy is a Lexus Tech and I asked him what I could use on my 2nd gen and he said stick with the dealer supplied pink fluids. The second gen pink stuff is not the same as the older red fluids and can not be mixed with other fluids or so I was told.

 

http://www.toyotapart.com/ENGINE_COO...T-PG010-02.pdf

 

Good one!

 

Indeed. It comes in a black container with red stickers. I'll take a picture of the bottle I've got.

Wait what is the difference between the dealer fluid and the stuff I can get at NAPA? It isn't red, it is pink.

Also, I recently had to mix the Asian specific with some Prestone cause I was overheating on the trail. Finished the trail, drove 4 hours home, and still good lol. I need to drain and refill though.

 

If your taco is 2005 to 2007 its probly a head gasket. My 05 with 217k miles had a bad head gasket since (at least) 178k. its a common problem with these trucks till they updated the head gasket in 08.

Also the only way i could confirm head gasket was a coolant pressure test, and left the system pressurized for a couple hours before i saw coolant in the cylinder. Twas a small leak so other tests didnt work. Good luck man!