not your average pink milkshake...

99 4runner limited 273,000 miles had been sitting for about a year in the garage. Replaced the factory fogs with leds and went for a spin to check out the new lights. short run, not 2 miles. I start up the road to my house and feel a little slip in the trans. Have to stop in the drive to open garage and pull in, feel a more pronounced slip. Get her in the garage and shut her down and see trans fluid leaking through the front skid plate. BIG grimace and walk away until today.
Pull the front and rear skid plates and see that the fitting from the bottom of the radiator on the drivers side in hanging loose, connected to the hose and dripping transmission fluid. I can trail my leaking trans fluid all the way up my drive way and to the pool at the garage door and then into the garage. As I inspect this fitting I notice bright green radiator fluid coming from the hole in the radiator where the 90 degree fitting used to be connected. Last night after the slippage I ordered an oil cooler with the thought that I have been a lucky camper up until now. My transmission fluid looked pink, not horrible, in the driveway so I am unsure the status of the trans at this point.
Now the question...Since I am planning on bypassing the internal trans cooler is it possible/ acceptable to plug the fitting holes from the internal trans cooler in the radiator and go with it or should I look into replacing the radiator also? (I have not tried to screw the fitting back into the radiator). My plan is to flush the trans and replace the trans filter and to also probably flush the coolant.
I may be the luckiest SOB ever but I am not counting chickens ya know.

 

1. Why are you wanting to bypass the trans cooler?
2. Why is your transmission fluid leaking in addition to your coolant?
3. Coolant should be the pink stuff after you flush it.
4. Your driver side camber looks cambery

 

Next time reply outside the quotes, I didn't even realized you replied to me

I would just get a new radiator and fix all your problems at once. They're only like 100 bucks and very easy to replace on these vehicles. I wouldn't bypass the integrated trans cooler unless you're getting an external one, and even then I don't think its worth your while.

I mentioned pink fluid because you mentioned yours was green. Zertek pink is what's recommended (do a full flush with distilled water before switching colors). Transmission fluid should be red/reddish brown. If its pink something is wrong.

 

Sorry for any confusion, it was my end first post.
I have been scouring the forums and agree that replacing the radiator is the easiest way to go.
I am going to look into a radiator from a manual shift and be done with it. Thoughts?
Thanks for the input.

 

I'm not familiar with the differences in radiator design. I just go to rockauto for such things. You do need a cooler though, so I hope you have a plan if you get rid of the integrated one.

 

I would think an auto radiator has a trans cooler built into it and a manual would not.

 

My original Toyota one leaked (not at the tranny cooler) at 125k miles and the replacement from Advance ($110) with a lifetime warranty leaked similarly at the next 125k miles...so by my experience, I would just replace the radiator anyways.

The Tranny Cooler bypass replaced with an oil cooler is a good thing as you know as it will eliminate the potential for the pink milkshake.

I would replace the green coolant with the yellow stuff which is supposed to last much longer and be better for Asian (aluminum) engines.

The Transmission fluid has always been pink/cherry red in my rig (that I've owned) since new...well until it went black after never changing it for 250k miles.

Manual trannies don't have the cooler as far as I know. They don't have heat issues.

 

Well ya... I was more concerned about potential dimension changes that might affect mounting for him

 

Auto radiator is about 2" taller than a manual one.

 

Going all in lol. Have a radiator on it's way, went with the automatic model and will cap off trans cooler for now. I have installed the external trans cooler and once new radiator gets here I have toyo red to fill her up. Planning on flushing the cooling system as well as the transmission.