Crud in the radiator

I purchased a ’99 Tacoma off road in December. One of the things that looked positive was a new radiator, belts, and hoses, and it had been running like a top. On a trip out of town in March the truck overheated at highway speed (hilly ground and 75mph). A Goodyear service tech pressure tested it and told me two things; the first was that it only needed a new cap, and the second was what looked like rust in the system was actually stopleak. He concluded that the former owner had loaded it up with stopleak before finally changing the radiator and hoses, and that got under the cap, causing the pressure leak. He changed the cap, pressure tested it again, charged me $65 and sent me down the road. I’ve had no trouble since then until it overheated again while pulling my 16 foot boat at highway speed. Both times it has been blazing hot with steam and boiling water in the overflow. Both times it cooled off pretty quickly, and it never overheats on day to day trips. I just took it back to the Toyota dealer I bought it from, and they are telling me it will take about $2,000 to fix it. They want to replace the radiator, hoses, thermostat, and the thermostat housing, and say the whole system is full of rust. I of course asked why they would need to replace new parts, why they hadn’t noticed any of this when they did the pre-sale check, and I’m currently trying to get them to reconsider their diagnosis, their proposed repair (shouldn’t somebody have suggested flushing the system?), and whether or not they sold me a lemon. Something tells me I may be throwing away good money on the wrong diagnosis.

If you were me, what would you do? Take it to a smaller garage? I only paid $3,800 for the truck.

 

Get a second opinion, definitely. Something tells me it would be cheaper at a smaller garage too if that's indeed the issue. Hard to believe though that youd need a new radiator after it already got one. Does your radiator fan work well?

 

I haven't checked that; what's the process or what am I looking for? BTW I had the dealer just flush the system and replace the coolant, then I'm going to try elsewhere.

 

Good luck with the fix.