Running Hot

so whats your recommendation?

 

sorry my terminology maybe is incorrect. here is what I am calling the reservoir.. I drove maybe 30 minutes ago and it looks fuller than when I checked this am and said it was half full

 

The coolant reservoir level will go up and down depending on engine temp. But you want to make sure it doesn't get below the low mark. If it's consistently getting lower and lower then you either have a leak or coolant is going somewhere it should'nt be.

We need to know exactly what your coolant temp is though before knowing whether or not you actually have an overheating issue, or if you're gauge just displays the normal temp a little above the middle mark. Some people on here have said that theirs sits a little over the middle normally. It's just not good to go off the dash gauge for that kind of info, you want a scanner so you can know for sure.

 

right, ive got a scanner on the way. the gauge doesn't necessarily concern me. what concerns me is the fact it is a tick over what ive noticed the normal point at for the past year ive owned

 

Let us know what the temp is when you get the gauge hooked up, 185 - 195 is generally considered the normal range.

I have a Scangauge hooked up and mounted to my dash that displays my coolant temp at all times, I'm usually at 186° around town and 190° on the highway. If I'm loaded down going up a steep freeway grade I might see it hit low 200s but it will drop as soon as I level out

 

worth the extra dough?

 

Yeah it's nice to have something that you can mount and look at data while cruising. There's also the Ultragauge which is around 70 bucks and does the same thing

 

Honesty if there is no visible leak it would be a thermostat or temp sensor but ive read that thermostats are made to fail in the open position in that means that your temp would be on the cool side the whole time. Im bot sure if ive heard any cases of it being stuck closed? I could be wrong but thats from my experience

 

Funny of the 5 I have owned of the years none of mine did.

 

Do not relay on the temp gauge to show you the failure. It is useful only if shows abnormalities - something different from other days. That might be a indication on upcoming problem (or may not ). Like if it is showing higher than it used to be - it is a prompt for normal investigation and use other means to check the health of the truck. The indication alone does not mean a squat. And in the most cases it does not even show any indications of the real problem. A couple examples from my personal experience.

1. In the morning I has funny feeling that the engine started on 3 cylinders (ot of four) but it was going away in few seconds. Me being an idiot ignored it. Then one day driving to the office I noticed my heater stopped working but the temperature gauge was showing normal. Then during the drive the heater engaged for a minute and got cold again. Me being a smart guy this time decided to turn back home. Checked under the hood - the overflow tank was empty, the radiator was not showing any coolant. More diagnostics and everything was clear. I had a head gasket leak on cyl no 1. During the night the coolant was dripping into the cylinder making it not firing for the first few turns. The coolant level went so low that stopped flowing into heater core but there was still enough coolant to flow through the sensor and radiator, so the engine did not overheated. Luckily the head was not warped nor cracked. This was when I started to pay more attention to my truck - more than just changing the oil and adding gas.

2. Not long time ago When I tuned AC on I heard terrible squeak from the AC belt. Popped the hood and saw the fountain of coolant from the upper radiator hose spraying directly on the the AC pulley. No indication on coolant temperature even I lost about two quarts of it. Again I was lucky that the coolant level was still enough to flow through the head so the engine did not overheat.

Conclusion is, that 1st gen Tacoma has no any indication that will directly warn you about some catastrophic failure. Besides basics like oil pressure light, brake warning or seat belt light the only real electronic diagnostic is the SRS system. ODBII is not for telling you what is wrong with the truck - the main reason for it to be there is to monitor emission. Later years On board diagnostics became more sophisticated and check many more systems, but for the first gen Tacoma ODBII was forced by EPA, so Toyota did whatever was required by regulations, not much more. First gen truck is a "real man truck" not a "soccer mom van" . Even if it is as reliable as it proved to be, it is better to keep your hands dirty.

 

I had a 3.4L V6 in my 4Runner and the clutch on the the radiator fan went bad and would cause slightly higher temps. A quick check to see if your fan clutch is working properly is to allow the engine to get up to temperature, roll some news paper up and with the engine running touch the one end of the rolled paper to the outer fan blades. if there is NO resistance and the fan stops turning the clutch is bad and not pulling the air through the radiator giving you sufficient cooling.

 

So your saying the ODB wont tell me much? whats your recommendation for diagnostics then?

 

Cool ill try that. looks like a clutch rebuild is pretty easy with just adding that silicon oil.

 

Besides EVAP monitoring OBDII is a great tool to check numbers on different sensors so it does tell you about the quality how engine burns fuel. Values presented may actually indicate which sensors are not working correctly so it is useful for diagnostics. But what I am saying it does not have any real time system diagnostics or alerting. I will not tell you that you are low on coolant and the engine is going to overheat. I wish it has ability to tell you that LBJ are out of spec

 

OBDII will tell you a ton of info, way more than what you'll get from just your dash gauges.

Here's a pic of my scangauge mounted above my wheel, I have it set currently to display exact RPM, intake air temperature, battery voltage and coolant temperature.



You can have it set to read a hundred different things, including ignition timing, long and short term fuel trims, gas mileage, auto transmission temp (01-04 models), MAF sensor reading, etc.

 

tried the reader at o'reillys today but couldn't get a live reading with my coolant temp. I guess ill keep waiting for mine to arrive

 

Not trying to be negative but besides distraction what is the real use of that display while driving? Maybe except battery voltage (for which analog needle or red/orange/green lights would be much more readable). Really the only missing gauge on Tacoma dash is the transmission oil temperature for trucks with A/T. Still analog needle gauge is less distracting than digital. IMHO.

One guy added temp sensors to t-case and differentials. This I also get as that live reading can warn you before the catastrophic failure. I'd like to see the same for engine oil temperature - much better than coolant temp. Other missing sensor is the coolant level warning. Toyota did a light for washer flud level being empty, but not for coolant reservoir. One red light in or next to coolant temp needle gauge would make a huge deference.

 

Meh,

I run a bluetooth OBDII scanner that connects to my phone. I run Torque Pro.

the only downside I've seen is that it's hit or miss with 1st gens to be able to look at Trans temp. I've been able to get Trans temp on my 2004, but the older ones (pre 2001) don't have the ability to send the trans temp to the obdII.

From what I understand, scangauge does...

So for me, the extra cost of the scangauage vs. the $20 OBD scanner and a $5 app wasn't worth it.

I just have my phone on a dash mount.

 

I keep the backlight turned at the lowest setting at night, just turned it up for the photo so he could see it. Driving with it at full brightness like that at night would be a huge distraction, I agree. But it's not any more distracting than the normal gauges when you turn it all the way down.

 

Yeah, I see a lot of people who want to display all sorts or data while they're driving so they can "track stuff". IMO the vast majority of it is just a distraction from the actual task of driving.

I have a trans temp light on my 2004 auto, which is honestly just as useful as the coolant needle, because they are both "dumb".

I set up my Torque App to display the trans temp when I first started towing a bigger trailer with my '17 4Runner. I wasn't sure how hot it would get. But after towing up some pretty damn steep hills, I have a god idea what the trans temps are like under a fairly extreme stress. Warning lights, temps briefly reached 230's, no warning lights. After that, I see no real reason to constantly monitor those temps while driving. Maybe if if I'm going to be on another big hill, having all these data displayed constantly is IMO just distracting.

Same thing with those diff and t-case sensors. While true that heat can be warning of a failure, IMO it's just not really necessary. Simple routine maintenance is effective and catching most problems - it's been that way for generations. Diffs just don't explode while driving down the road, unless you missed a leaking seal or you're pushing really hard off road.

We could track and display all sorts of data, but IMO people can easily just end up drowning in it, and are paying attention to the numbers, when they should have eyes on the road.