Worrying about strawberry milkshake transmission issue

i know this is not a common problem for 2nd gen trucks but there are a few that have been mentioned on tacomaworld. My truck has 140,000 miles and runs beautiful but I was wondering if I should have a new oem radiator put in for piece of mind. The thought of having a large bill for replacing transmission would hit me hard as finances are bad right now and I don't expect them to get better. My intention is to keep truck as long as possible so I wanted some opinions on doing this as a preventive measure. Thanks to all you great guys for all you've helped in the past.

 

It "runs beautifully" but sure go ahead and throw a new radiator in for peace of mind

 

Have you done the scheduled maintenance, i.e. Coolant flush?

 

170k on mine and only did brakes and ujoints so far.

 

I thought the strawberry milkshake was only a problem in 2005 - 2009 Frontiers?

 

Any idea what kind of mileage this should be done at?

 

There used to be a site that had it listed, but I think it's down now.

RTFM
http://www.ttguide.net/maintenance_and_care-121.html

or use search
https://www.tacomaworld.com/search/3910717/?q=Scheduled+Maintenance&t=post&o=date&c[title_only]=1

https://sites.google.com/site/tacomamaintenance/

 

Yes I've had radiator flushed once around 60,000 miles and I believe when my frame was replaced about a year ago they put new antifreeze in. I guess it's just something I'm going to have to decide to do for peace I've mind. Are there any tests that can be done to determine radiators stability in regards to the internal seperation of transmission cooler section vs engine cooling area in radiator. Tia

 

Thanks bud!

 

For typical radiator failure modes (corrosion, degraded seals), time is more of a factor than mileage. 10 years is a good rule of thumb. So go ahead and replace it some time this year.

If you tow a lot, another thing you can do is run a larger aftermarket transmission cooler and bypass the factory radiator.

An internally leaking radiator isn't going to show symptoms. And if you see shifting problems, it would already be too late.

 

strawberry milkshake was a 1st gen problem. Havnt heard much of an issue on the second gens.

 

I've seen just a few posts regarding a milkshake on the 2nd gen so it doesn't seem common but does happen. It was a notorious problem on some other Toyota vehicles.

I have seen a few people post that they have or plan to replace the radiator at around 10 years or so just to be safe. So you aren't alone in considering it.

I'm seriously considering replacing mine at 10 years, but that is still 8 years away so I may change my mind . Plus I can over time see how frequent a problem milkshakes really are as more and more 2nd gens get older.

 

Why replace the radiator?; I would just get myself an aftermarket Transmission cooler; Reroute the transmission lines that goes into the radiator into the new transmission cooler and call it good; better performance for cooling and you don't have to replace the radiator.

 

And xterra with the auto trans

 

I've definitely considered separating cooler from radiator but I'm in phila. Pa and was wondering about the warming effect that the radiator provides in winter. Maybe someone can clarify that issue for me. Tia

 

People do that, especially on the vehicles actually prone to milkshake. Personally I've got the tow package and so there is plenty of cooling in the system already. From a lifetime cost and hassle perspective I figure in the 20 years I plan to own the truck I'm going to have to replace the radiator at some point. Usually you'd wait til there was a problem to replace and for external leaks or clogging that's fine. But an internal leak causing a milkshake while rare is disastrous so if I replace the radiator preemptively at ten years I elimate that possibility. Also replacing as planned maintenance is less of hassle then doing it as an emergency repair.

Adding the external cooler also eliminates the risk of milkshake but I'm likely to still need to replace the radiator within 20 years for some other type of failure and so now I'm spending money and hassle twice rather than just preemptively replacing the radiator once.

Anyway it is a reasonable idea that people definitely do and which makes the most sense probably depends on the configuration of the truck and how it is used.

Near as I can tell this is a bit of a non-issue unless you live some place really, really cold (like -40F). The ATF is synthetic with a cold pour point of like -60F or something. The transmission in use heats up quite quickly as well and the heat generated from transmission use is likely way more than any radiator warming. Remember too that nothing is flowing through the radiator until the engine warms up so you'd need to warm up for quite sometime before the radiator could even warm the ATF. So you'd probably need to let your truck warm up for a good 10 to 15 minutes for the radiator to even have a chance to warm the ATF. If you just start driving it will warm itself much faster.

The general advice for "warm up" for years has been to just start driving if you are in a "mild" winter climate as driving will warm up faster than idling. PA would fall into that category. In really extreme conditions you can have the problem that the engine or transmission just won't work at all cold soaked and that's when block heaters or long idle warm ups make sense.

Last make sure if you go the bypass with external cooler route that the cooler has its own thermostat to bypass the cooler when cold. I think @gearcruncher has recommended a particular one in the past.

 

Or even if you don't tow at all you could do this. This would make a strawberry milkshake impossible. Probably just as cheap or cheaper than a radiator replacement anyway.

 

Radiator failure
It's not too common on the 2nd gens but I've heard of it happening. I've always heard 10 years is good rule of thumb. Then again, there are a lot of high mileage vehicles that I'm sure will go to the junk yard with their original radiator. Most people don't keep their vehicles long enough to have to worry about it... then again, most people don't have a clue about much of anything.

 

Dealerships do a coolant exchange at the 30,000 mile service along with trans and front and rear diffs.

 

I only heard of it for the 3rd gen 4Runner, and 1st gen since they share the same drivetrain.