Losing Coolant

[Dieseltrain]

I reckon Cracked head ? Once its running and opens up burning straight into combustion chamber. Car cools down, crack closes no more leakage .

If your rad cap was busted, the Rad place shoulda replaced it for you seein as you have had 2 pressure tests done.

Also cracked heads wont always show with a pressure test either. But it still could be a BHG and just goin straight into the chamber and burnin it up.

You could always try some Chemiweld or something and see if that sorts it out if you get desperate and dont wanna pull it down . Did that to a Falcon i had, saw 4 more years and neva 1 drama with it .

[airfireman1]

I reckon Cracked head ? Once its running and opens up burning straight into combustion chamber. Car cools down, crack closes no more leakage .

If your rad cap was busted, the Rad place shoulda replaced it for you seein as you have had 2 pressure tests done.

Also cracked heads wont always show with a pressure test either. But it still could be a BHG and just goin straight into the chamber and burnin it up.

You could always try some Chemiweld or something and see if that sorts it out if you get desperate and dont wanna pull it down . Did that to a Falcon i had, saw 4 more years and neva 1 drama with it .

I will second that. Crack may only open up when the engine is warm and can be very hard to trace. You will not always have white smoke and a rough running engine.
Have you had the radiator water tested for hydrocarbons? Its quick and fairly accurate.
Cheers Dave

[lexsmaz]

As has been mentioned, i would now suspect a BHG .. It possibly started off as a w/pump or the like, but if its run low in water a couple of times & you got steam coming out of the overflow ( which actually as you would realise was from your radiator / engine ) its got pretty hot ..

As has been mentioned i would get a Hydro carbon check done on the cooling system, if your nose is any good you can often tell by smelling inside the radiator neck, it will smell quite fummie ... Also how does the car start up if its been sitting for a while, as in overnight etc, if it starts up a bit rough & then comes good = BHG .....

[Razor]

starts and runs fine. I'll try the hydro test

[maurice c]

Run the car from cold with the cap off the rad and when its hot you might be able to see bubbles coming up in the radiator fluid, this indicates a cracked head.

[sleepyu]

sorry if this is hi-jacking the thread but as it seems to be errr a similar issue i thought i would put it here ...though unless its a water pump leak im guess my problem is a BHG

well im thinking i may have a BHG but before i rush out and buy a compression tester i thought i would ask you guys to find out whats the best course of action.. long story short was driving my adub a couple of months ago for about 5 min only to see smoke billowing out behind me and my temp gauge of the scale. Pulled over and got a mate to bring some water and oil… and got my baby home with no further over heating. It seemed the thermostat was fubared to I replaced it.
Now in the last month or so.. my coolant over flow bottle is always low (I filled it up to full last night and on my 1hour drive in traffic to work today its down past low) and I cant find any coolant leaks.. there is a high idle I cant get rid of and she likes to grumble on startup… though the car doesn’t overheat.. help anyone?

[Razor]

I booked my car to get the cooling system check tomorrow (Thursday) but today the car was spitting water from extra (worn out) hole on the overflow bottle and boiling.
So called the RACQ guy and told me that it might be my Rad cap as the temp gauge is below the middle of the gauge but water is just escaping from the overflow bottle not sealing the system. The top hose was soft and when you press that while engine idling it pushes the water out from the overflow bottle vent.
So the car is not in use and took the caps off to get tested tomorrow.
Hopefully thats the culprit and I'll just buy new ones from the Toyota Stealer I mean Dealer

Are rad caps specific for a toyota camry model? I saw a parts listing online that 1993 - 2008 have the same caps.???

[airfireman1]

Why line the pockets of a dealer go down to supershit or some other auto store and buy one, they will have a listing for your car and it will be half the price of a genuine one
Cheers

[JetspeedCamry]

Yeah as mentioned you don't need to spend massive $$$ on genuine Toyota radiator caps. Just go to Repco or Autobarn and get a Ryco replacement or something similar. It'll work as good and you haven't spent huge $ in case there's another issue..

[matty12]

jeez ay,the caps were possible to blame??whoda guessed that?


Just one thing,when you put the new ones on,double check the system is full and then run it up from cold and see if it pressurises,possibly it wont but see what happens.

[Razor]

its been 2 days now with the new caps and no more water boiling out of the reservoir and will be checking if Im still losing water. I'll be flushing the system tomorrow as well.

[Razor]

Where is the drain plug (cock) on the block for the 3VZFE? is it on the rear side of the block? below the exhaust manifold?

I might just flush the coolant from the bottom of the radiator....tooo much hassle

[Hiro]

Where is the drain plug (cock) on the block for the 3VZFE? is it on the rear side of the block? below the exhaust manifold?

I might just flush the coolant from the bottom of the radiator....tooo much hassle

Problem is (if the cooling setup is similar to a 4AGE) that by flushing from the radiator, you don't actually circulate anything through the engine because the thermostat will be shut

[Razor]

so I really have to drain it through the block?

[Hiro]

so I really have to drain it through the block?

For best results, yes. Or you can take the thermostat out (most likely will be messy though) and flush from top to bottom, with enough pressure it should flow enough through the whole system