Fallen Foul Of The Dreaded Radiator Failure

[ta21man]

I've just descovered that my radiator has failed and water is now mixed with the gearbox oil (ouch). despite being serviced regular by toyota it happened.

A new radiator has cost me £100 and I managed to get a recon gearbox with 42K for £650 all in. Just need to find out the mechanics fee

A warning to you all and I am sure it's been mentioned, if your LC is over 5 years old and it's an auto, get the radiator changed......don't even question it. For £300 every 5 years it will be worth it.

not a happy toyota owner right now as I feel they're not that reliable and to be honest my Pajero before never missed a beat nor any mechanical failure in all the years I had it....will probably sell the LC and go back to a Pajero

[cbv8]

I've just descovered that my radiator has failed and water is now mixed with the gearbox oil (ouch). despite being serviced regular by toyota it happened.

A new radiator has cost me £100 and I managed to get a recon gearbox with 42K for £650 all in. Just need to find out the mechanics fee

A warning to you all and I am sure it's been mentioned, if your LC is over 5 years old and it's an auto, get the radiator changed......don't even question it. For £300 every 5 years it will be worth it.

not a happy toyota owner right now as I feel they're not that reliable and to be honest my Pajero before never missed a beat nor any mechanical failure in all the years I had it....will probably sell the LC and go back to a Pajero

Sorry to hear of you misfortune i am a new L/C owner and also worried of impending radiator/g.box doom :o but i WILL be fitting a seperate trans oil cooler V soon :) What i cannot understand is you yourself have known about the rad failers but did nothing until now Surely you cannot say the L/C is unreliable due to one KNOWN failure how long have you had the car how many other faults/failures has your car suffered as to label it UNRELIABLE

[ta21man]

I recently had it serviced by toyota and asked them to check the radiator, all ok in their words, this was 2000 miles ago. So, don't trust your toyota dealer.

I have owned the car for 1 year and she is a 1998 model.

I accept some responsibility but this is such a major problem that dealers should include some kind of check in the service schedule.

Other problems have been more of a niggle, bulbs going, aircon topping, caliper problem, leather seats not that durable, a vibration that the dealer could not resolve and just scratched his head as he said "yep, there is a vibration but what it is, i don't know" £100 later and he still did not know.... I owned a Pajero for 4 years and just the normal service stuff, no failures anywhere.

It only takes 1 bad fault to disgrace a makers name, I'm not the 1st or last who will feel let down by such a manufacturer that claims to make the most reliable cars in the world and in your own admission you are going to resolve what can only be described as a crap design in terms of cooling your gearbox oil.

[cbv8]

It only takes 1 bad fault to disgrace a makers name, I'm not the 1st or last who will feel let down by such a manufacturer that claims to make the most reliable cars in the world and in your own admission you are going to resolve what can only be described as a crap design in terms of cooling your gearbox oil.

It sounds like the dealer you used is a waste of space :( to be honest the only time any of my cars see a garage is for the mot and fuel i service and repair my cars soley myself that way i know its done and done properly :D I still think your being a bit harsh on the L/Cs reputation though i think there will be a few on here to sing the L/Cs praises of reliability soon :D The oil cooler set up (in rad) was used in many automatic cars with no probs ie Rovers P5s P6s SD1s which i have had many many variants over the years i still own a (V8 SD1 VDP EFI) and had no such probs. I would agree about suspect quality of the oil cooler on the L/Cs but other than that they have a very very good reliability record ;)

[DragonCruiser]

I keep reading about these events with utter dread. I have a 2001 D4D Auto (75K) whose Toyota warranty expires in August.

Is there ANY test which can be done to ascertain if all is well/unwell or do you have to wait for things to go bang?

I vaguely remember someone mentioning that the gearchange went really notchy/bumpy..... any dip test on the coolant/oil available?

[ta21man]

here is my story so far and things are looking up but time will tell.

After falling foul of the radiator/gearbox cooling problem I set about buying a new radiator and recon gearbox. I got the new rad for £100 and the g/box for £650.....which turned out to be the wrong one so I sent back for a refund.

I was recommended a local mechanic who has fitted the new radiator, flushed the cooling system and fluched the G/box 3 times....in 1 month he will service the car and flush the gearbox again.

So far all is fine and the g/box is working smoothly.....so it has cost me £275 in total for the rad,oil and labour. I feel very lucky that the g/box seems to have survived this failure.

So, how do you prevent this......buy a seperate oil cooler for your gearbox and get it fitted. Budget for around £250 all in, parts and labour.

I will get 1 fitted in the next 6 months as I have a nice new shiney radiator.

I still question the reliability of these radiators and the bad design by Toyota for a vehicle designed for off road use....that means mud, water and all sorts attacking the radiator. Proof is in the pudding and to be more precise...proof is in your own pudding....so despite people claiming all sorts about toyota's reliability....in my case I don't think so and that's my personal feeling.

[cbv8]

here is my story so far and things are looking up but time will tell.

After falling foul of the radiator/gearbox cooling problem I set about buying a new radiator and recon gearbox. I got the new rad for £100 and the g/box for £650.....which turned out to be the wrong one so I sent back for a refund.

I was recommended a local mechanic who has fitted the new radiator, flushed the cooling system and fluched the G/box 3 times....in 1 month he will service the car and flush the gearbox again.

So far all is fine and the g/box is working smoothly.....so it has cost me £275 in total for the rad,oil and labour. I feel very lucky that the g/box seems to have survived this failure.

So, how do you prevent this......buy a seperate oil cooler for your gearbox and get it fitted. Budget for around £250 all in, parts and labour.

I will get 1 fitted in the next 6 months as I have a nice new shiney radiator.

I still question the reliability of these radiators and the bad design by Toyota for a vehicle designed for off road use....that means mud, water and all sorts attacking the radiator. Proof is in the pudding and to be more precise...proof is in your own pudding....so despite people claiming all sorts about toyota's reliability....in my case I don't think so and that's my personal feeling.

£250 for an oil cooler all in you should be able to buy an oil cooler for about £40 and fit it yourself my god it an't rocket science the hardest thing is finding neat place to fit it As far as a test for the gearbox demising just wait for dodgy gearshifts then take dipstick out if its like strawberry/rasberry milkshake your box is on borrowed time :( I am about to fit a bottle brush trans cooler from a Range Rover auto fits nicely beneath the rad looks like an original fitment just got to sort the mount bkt out i will post pics when i have fitted it ;)