Coolant loss

[[email protected] Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close [email protected]]

Hello all,

I'm new to the forum and to the Toyota Prado but so far I love Pradopoint for all the answers I allready got from the forum ! I'm from The Netherlands so please don't blaim me for my English .

I own a Toyota Landcruiser 120 3.0 D4D Autobox from 2003 with just 59000 Km on the clock ! Was really happy when I found and bought the vehicle and love the drive !

I do have some problems with it and would like to know if someone could help me out.

1) The car seems to loose slight amounts of Engine coolant.
The history of this : when inspecting under the bonnet I found a faulty hoseclamp in the EGR cooler. I could see that the car was loosing cooling liquid there (this was 1 month ago). I replaced the clamp and the leak was fixed. I filled up the overflowtank to half way. Then monitored the level over the next few days and found that the leverl was dropping every day a bit. Decided to have all the cooland drained and topped up by Toyota dealer with original pink fluid. I had this done last Teusday. Since then I monitor the level on a daily base. I check the level every morning (when cold) and it seems to drop about 0,5-1 cm every day ! It was a little over the full mark when I picked it up from Toyota teusday and it is now right in the middle between low and full when cold !
The first drop I could understand (air in the system) but as the Toyota mechanic did bleed the system I thought this had to stop at some point.
What I also notice is that on a day where I drive only very short trips (3-4 kms) a couple of times a day the level seems to drop. On a 100K trip wednesday the level did not drop at all !

Anyone any idea what could be the problem ?

I do not have any visible leaks (or water drops under the car), no white smoke, I do not have sludge in the Oil, I seem not to have oil in the coolant, I do not seem to have oil in the transmission fluid. Any ideas ??

What I notice is that the upper radiator hose is hard ( I can sqeeze it but not completely) when driving and warm but when cold the radiator hose is soft and I can sqeeze it completely (no pressure inside at all), is that normal ? Or is the pressure bleeding away ?

2) Another question is about that autobox. When I'm pushing the car to speed it shifts very smooth, then when it shifts from 3rd to 4th gear I can see the RPM going down by 500 what Rpm and 1 sec after that it drops another 2-300 rpm ! Is this normal ?? It's almost as if I have a 5th gear . Can someone let me know if this is ok.

I would love it if someone could help me a bit with my problem and question !

Best regards,

Arno

[Bear63 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bear63]

The water pump is a really common problem , you will need to have a really good look to see it

[[email protected] Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close [email protected]]

The water pump is a really common problem , you will need to have a really good look to see it

Thnx, I inspected the waterpump all the way but could not see any signs of a leak !

[Bushbasher Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Bushbasher]

The drop in rpm is the converter locking up. If you drive moderately and put the lever into 3 watch the rpms. Then shift up to D, you will see a drop in rpm and then another slight drop shortly after. That's normal. Our 5 speeds are almost like 6 speeders.

[[email protected] Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close [email protected]]

The drop in rpm is the converter locking up. If you drive moderately and put the lever into 3 watch the rpms. Then shift up to D, you will see a drop in rpm and then another slight drop shortly after. That's normal. Our 5 speeds are almost like 6 speeders.

Great thank you for explaining ! I thought it was the torque converter but was not sure.

[gonepradoeing Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close gonepradoeing]

Hello all,

I'm new to the forum and to the Toyota Prado but so far I love Pradopoint for all the answers I allready got from the forum ! I'm from The Netherlands so please don't blaim me for my English .

I own a Toyota Landcruiser 120 3.0 D4D Autobox from 2003 with just 59000 Km on the clock ! Was really happy when I found and bought the vehicle and love the drive !

I do have some problems with it and would like to know if someone could help me out.

1) The car seems to loose slight amounts of Engine coolant.
The history of this : when inspecting under the bonnet I found a faulty hoseclamp in the EGR cooler. I could see that the car was loosing cooling liquid there (this was 1 month ago). I replaced the clamp and the leak was fixed. I filled up the overflowtank to half way. Then monitored the level over the next few days and found that the leverl was dropping every day a bit. Decided to have all the cooland drained and topped up by Toyota dealer with original pink fluid. I had this done last Teusday. Since then I monitor the level on a daily base. I check the level every morning (when cold) and it seems to drop about 0,5-1 cm every day ! It was a little over the full mark when I picked it up from Toyota teusday and it is now right in the middle between low and full when cold !
The first drop I could understand (air in the system) but as the Toyota mechanic did bleed the system I thought this had to stop at some point.
What I also notice is that on a day where I drive only very short trips (3-4 kms) a couple of times a day the level seems to drop. On a 100K trip wednesday the level did not drop at all !

Anyone any idea what could be the problem ?

I do not have any visible leaks (or water drops under the car), no white smoke, I do not have sludge in the Oil, I seem not to have oil in the coolant, I do not seem to have oil in the transmission fluid. Any ideas ??

What I notice is that the upper radiator hose is hard ( I can sqeeze it but not completely) when driving and warm but when cold the radiator hose is soft and I can sqeeze it completely (no pressure inside at all), is that normal ? Or is the pressure bleeding away ?

2) Another question is about that autobox. When I'm pushing the car to speed it shifts very smooth, then when it shifts from 3rd to 4th gear I can see the RPM going down by 500 what Rpm and 1 sec after that it drops another 2-300 rpm ! Is this normal ?? It's almost as if I have a 5th gear . Can someone let me know if this is ok.

I would love it if someone could help me a bit with my problem and question !

Best regards,

Arno

Hi.
Sorry to pull up an old thread but it was hard just to find one with same issue as my prado. Did the OP ever find out why the coolant level dropped gradually despite refilling. My prado coolant gradually drops back to low level mark after refilling and running about +600km. Seems to "stay" or "constantly wants to return" to low mark when cool and havent noticed it going lower than that. Goes to middle when hot. Some very small signs of overflow and probably because I refilled to full when cold and after running rises further.

Any help and point in direction I could find out reason/fault would be much appreciated. I'm stumped.

[Bushbasher Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Bushbasher]

Don't refill it! That is normal operation. It should be low when cold and, as the engine heats up the coolant will heat and expand and some will flow into the reservoir. Normally it will overflow to the "hot" mark. As long as it remains somewhere between the 2 lines you're okay. If you overfill when it's cold then it will dump extra coolant into the reservoir and overflow when hot. You'll have a problem when you see the reservoir completely empty.

[gonepradoeing Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close gonepradoeing]

Awesome and a bit of a relief. Thanks Bushbasher.

I started to catch onto some of the head cracking posts and some are great news.

[Bushbasher Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Bushbasher]

The previous diesel to the D4D suffers from head cracking and coolant loss issues. The D4D is better in this regard. The injectors are the archilles heal of this motor.