112,000 original miles and everything goes wrong

[connor.stephens]

Today I took my supra to the shop cause the past two days when driving up hills my engine temp gauge would go to the red then drop back down once at the top. so I asked the shop to take a look about an hour later they call to tell me i have a hole in my radiator(brand new 20,000 miles ago) that is leaking coolant into my transmission lines mixing transmission fluid with coolant so my transmission is dead and also to top it all off my head gasket is blown. (The previous owner replaced the head gasket and had the whole top end of the engine rebuilt) So I took it to a transmission shop to get a second opinion and they are looking at it on tuesday. the man at the transmision shop said that this happens with our cars and it was a factory flaw. I have never heard of this happening? but he said that there was nothing that could have been done to prevent what happened. Cost to fix eveything is $4000.00. I think this is goodbye to my first car.

 

[hvyman]

It can happen. Didnt think it was common with our cars tho. It happens cause the at cooler is in the rad tho.

Does the transmission shift poorly? Bang into gears? IF it doesnt just flush it out and replace the radiator.

You could check to see if the hg is blown your self if you really wanted to.

 

[connor.stephens]

The transmission shifts alright. the past 3 months its been a bit slopy and shifts weird at times so i thought something might be up with it. i talked to my dad and he said its just cause its an old car which is why i didnt have it looked at sooner. I was considering doing that because the car doesnet feel any different driving it.

 

[hvyman]

Old has nothing to do with it. So long as you maintain a vehicle it should drive and feel just as it did new for a long long time.

 

[connor.stephens]

exactly and I do which is one of the reasons why this is so frustrating.

 

[Poodles]

Honestly... smells like bullshit.

 

[Quin]

$4000 my ass. If your head isn't junk, ~$500 for a felpro + ARP studs + misc stuff, sub $500 for a used transmission, whatever a new radiator costs. Don't write it off yet.

 

[suprayo]

Bummer bro. The car looks pretty clean Id swap the motor and tranny or rebuild. If the tranny is still shifting good it might be worth just changing the fluid and keep it till it goes.

 

[Poodles]

The chances of the radiator failing in that way is extremely low. It's not a design fault since a HELL of a lot of cars run that way. The tranny fluid is not high pressure, and the cooling system is only 13psi.

Now, BHG is possible. But I doubt the rest of what they said.

 

[SupraCorwin]

Unless the mechanic only was referring to the head gasket, which is a factory flaw.

If you didnt overheat it too bad and warp the head, you can patch it back together with a non-metal headgasket for fairly cheap, as long as you stay near stock power levels you should be fine.

 

[connor.stephens]

Im with you guys i think the blown head gasket is bull shit because its an auto so i wasnt even bringing it close to redline and the previous owner had the whole head redone. idk if it was torqued to the right specs or factory toyota specs. I checked my transmission fluid about two weeks ago and it looked brand new. and the car never smelt hot or even got to the red zone on the engine temp guage. it only got close once and that was this morning.

 

[SupraCorwin]

I guess this should have been addressed first, do you have any other signs of a BHG? Milky oil cap, coolant being pushed in the reservoir tank then on to the ground when the tank is full, white smoke or sweet smell from the exhaust?

I dont know much about the radiator leak issue, but when the new one was installed did you burp it properly? Air pockets could cause temp spikes, like on hills.

 

[connor.stephens]

The radiator was installed before i bought the car. and my car has never come even close to overheating before today. so im pretty sure the radiator was installed correctly. as for the BHG i didnt check for any symptoms cause the car is currently at the shop. but i know that the car has never leaked coolant and i've never noticed white smoke or a sweet smell coming from the exhaust. i'll deffinatly check the oil cap when i get the car back

 

[SupraCorwin]

Then you can move on to some fun stuff like compression test and or leak down test. Those will remove most of a doubt of BHG if they check out.