Water sound behind dash. Coolant leak

I've seen milk shake with oil+antifreeze and I've seen a strawberry milkshake with transmission fluid+antifreeze, it's definitely the oil. the strawberry milkshake is also something you never want to see, your transmission is toast :X

 

So I haven't had much time to look at it. I have just been checking the level in the reservoir and it goes down after a few days and I add more. I know this is not what I should be doing but I haven't had a choice the last few days. Before I left today I checked it and I could see plenty of coolant in the reservoir. It wasn't full but it was enough. I left for the day and did a lot of driving. On the way back my truck was starting to overheat. I was almost home and it was getting hot. I turned the heater on right away and it came back down for the next 2 miles to my house. When I got home I popped the hood and I noticed the reservoir was almost overflowing and it was dripping on the side from the tube for the overflow. I could hear a sucking/pumping sound.

1. I wonder if I've been putting too much coolant and maybe doing something wrong.
2. I wonder if turning the heater on helped something. Not sure this is possible but bretts had mentioned something about air.
3. I have no idea what to do now and I need to drive later.

Please help. Thanks!

 

So I waited for it cool down a bit. It’s still warm but I was anxious to take a look. I popped the radiator cap and it looks bad. You tell me. See pics. There’s a lot of coolant on the asphalt under the truck from the overflow. But the reservoir is now back to full level.​

 

OK Now I'm starting to think you have a head gasket issue. When you start having coolant pumping out of your overflow there is something wrong. If you are losing coolant and then over heating I would /think/ your overflow would be bone dry as the system sucks it back up when/if needed.

What I want you to do on your next cold start take the radiator cap off and make sure the system is completely full. Leave the radiator cap off and start the truck. Make sure coolant doesn't geyser out of there. If it shoots up out of the radiator that is a FOR SURE sign that the head gasket is toast.

edit: Just saw pics from post above - is your radiator full of fluid here or did you top it off? If you lost a bunch of fluid and the radiator is full maybe you just put too much in the overflow

 

Starting to sound a lot like a bad head gasket, mine went and I had no smoke, no huge overheat, but I had coolant sloshing/bubbling in heatercore and it would lose some every so often. Eventually I started having some misfires at startup. Your radiator cap looks toast, at least the seals do, time for a new one. They're like $4 at napa for a .9 BAR Stant unit.

When my HG was finally done they found that it had popped but my head also had four cracks so I ended up having as new head built for it.

 

I had sloshing behind the dashboard and I was also losing coolant as well, not a lot but definitely noticeable, and it turned out that the leak was coming from the intake manifold. Then regretfully put stop leak in it then that crap plugged my radiator and made it start over heating and then I flushed out the system numerous times and it kept overheating so I put in a new denso radiator and a whole new oem tune up kit and after that it stopped leaking and overheating and it definitely gives u more power, might want to look under the upper manifold if there is a leak?

 

Thank you so much for the replies. While you guys were replying, I made a trip to the parts store and figured I'd start with a radiator cap. While I was making the purchase, I decided to rent a radiator pressure tool. I couldn't believe they are free to rent. I hooked the tool up to the radiator and once I got to about 15 lbs, the coolant began spraying out from the radiator. I then could see the 3" crack in the top of the radiator. While I was initially renting the tool, there was a customer next to me who was also a mechanic. He came out and started looking at everything and told me my radiator is done and I should change the thermostat while I'm at it. He has a shop down the street from my house and he said just buy the parts and he'll swap it all out for me for $100. Sounds a little too cheap but I'm a little broke from Christmas and he truly does sound legit. I have a knack for filling people out and not being ripped off by people who don't know what they are doing. Ask me how I found that out.

Also, I think I did put too much coolant in the overflow, which caused what you saw; too much coolant in the radiator. I'm trying!

So now, I'm going to order the radiator but I'm seeing different sizes available but the parts websites say they all fit my vehicle. The larger size costs a little more. Are they worth the extra $40-$50? Any recommendations?

Thanks again!

 

That's a super easy job anyway, pretty hard to screw up. Even doing it the first time yourself you'd be done in an hour or so.

 

I would buy the most expensive radiator myself, especially if your truck is an automatic. Go ahead and replace the thermostat and cap while your at it. Was the crack where I outlined (2nd post in this thread) I'm curious if I was right..

You can get the radiator out with basic tools and have it done in less an than hour. If you don't have the tools you can borrow them from an auto parts store. Watch a 5 min youtube video and you'll feel comfortable doing it yourself, trust me. Save yourself the $100 and spend that on GOOD PARTS.

 

If it's that easy, I will do it myself. I thought it might be tough. I'm handy. I have all the tools I will need. I just thought it might be tough. If it will only take an hour, I will most certainly do it myself. I will buy the more expensive radiator.

The crack is behind and below the radiator cap. So, if you stick your head over the radiator cap, you can see it just below the cap and to the left. The coolant sprayed out all over the "CAM 24" text. Weird thing is, my original photos have coolant on the left side of the radiator hose which doesn't make sense as to where the crack is. Maybe there's multiple cracks.

 

Radiator is 4 bolts in the front behind the grille (don't undo the ones you can obviously see on the top and bottom of the rad) get spare clamps for rad hoses and maybe get new hoses too. Tranny cooler is built into the rad so you just have to plug the lines in on the new one and maybe add a bit of new fluid down the dipstick hole to make up for what was in the old cooler.

 

If you have transportation pull the old radiator and line it up with whatever the parts store has to make sure it is the same dimensions... they get wonky for some reason. Make sure you keep all the rubber pieces that it sits on and what not

 

No rubbers on the taco rad, it is mounted to metal brackets and each rad will come with new metal brackets too so you can throw the whole old rad away

 

When you say "add a bit of new fluid down the dipstick hole", you're referring to transmission fluid?

 

yeah, obviosuly gonna want to gauge the necessity of that with the dipstick but the cooler does hold a bit of fluid. Still less than a quart though

 

I'm assuming the thermostat is easy to change as well.

 

I haven't had to do one on the V6, but the write-up for it doesn't look bad.

Here's a guide from a third gen 4runner, should be almost identical to yours.

 

Buy Toyota coolant, denso radiator(just as good as oem), New oem upper lower hoses, oem clamps, oem thermostat, oem cap and u should be good to go

 

Problem is none of the OEM stuff is available at Autozone or O'Reilly. Are OEM clamps really that serious? I'm a total OEM guy for most stuff but I would imagine the clamps aren't much different. I'm a newb to most of this stuff though.

 

Nah you'll be fine with some worm clamps, I'd go to a Napa for the radiator though to avoid a dud.