Strawberry Milkshakes

Anyone know if the 2nd gen Tacomas are potentially subject to the strawberry milkshake syndrome where the transmission oil and coolant mix in the radiator due to transmission cooler leaks? My brother had an older 4-Runner that had this happen and it toasted his clutch and was a PITA expensive repair. Just wondering if I should be thinking about replacing the radiator at some point as a preventative measure. I have no reason to suspect anything is wrong with my radiatior but from what I understand, by the time you realize what happened its too late for an easy fix.

 

I had this happen to my 4runner but I have not seen any reports
on 2nd gen tacomas

My Tacoma has an external tranny cooler, I am not sure if they all do or what...
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I learned this tidbit though...

as a general rule for any vehicle make or model:

if tranny cooler is inside radiator, replace radiator at 10 years by default, leak or no leak.

since radiators are cheap (100-300 bucks) and easy to replace in your driveway, vs thousands of dollars of
possible repairs...it is worth it.

I held off, nuked the tranny, had to have it gutted and fixed. runs sweet
now but took almost 2 grand out of me...and this is after I did the 50 quart flush
and limped along for 10,000 miles after the milkshake...it finally shat the bed, it
is inevitable. those who get past the milkshake by flushing alone are on borrowed time.

 

Well that's what I heard about the borrowed time. The water based coolant breaks down the adhesive that holds the friction material to the clutch plate and eventually it will let go. Once the milkshake happens its too late to stop the dammage.

I need to have a closer look at where my transmission cooler is.

 

For those who installed an external, you would just use that one and plug the one on the radiator?

 

Sometimes the more I read on these forums the more I have to worry about something going bad.

 

yup...then if it leaks it just costs $$ vs $$$$

 

I guessed as much, worst case (hopefully) you fix the leak up to replacing a $60 trans cooler versus a trans.