99 4Runner Advice - Radiator

I have a Limited Edition 1999 Toyota 4Runner. I have been the only owner of this car and other than a few problems with the emissions have had absolutely no problems and the car has been a dream. Looks beautiful, drives great.

Over the weekend, the radiator blew and the car stopped working entirely - no brakes, no steering, no gas etc. The dealer that we brought it to said the radiator had to be replaced and the transmission flushed. Once that was done, but once that was fixed they could not guarantee how the car would continue to run.

Have any other 99 owners had problems with their radiators? Have they been replaced and continued to run without problems for another 50,000 miles? I currently have about 114,000 miles on the car. Do you think i should just trade her in because her days are numbered? Any advice would be great. thanks.

(99 4RUnner SR5 V6-180,000 KM) - My transmission line burst inside the radiator and the tranny fluid mixed with engine coolant. Unfortunately it did not show any symptoms until the transmission was low on fluid and the gears started to slip and acted wierd. I drove it home (approx. 15 KM on highway):nono: . All of this happened at night time. Next morning I noticed the engine coolant reservoir was full and spilled out lots of tranny fluid and coolant on the driveway. By this time I was scared that I damaged the transmission. I towed the truck to the mechanic. He replaced the radiator, flushed the transmission at the dealer, flushed the coolant lines and thanks god everything is fine so far (4weeks-1,000km).

What do you think i could get for the car....$8000-$9000?

Why are you thinking of selling the truck?
Did the repair shop say that the engine overheated or there is transmission damage?
If not, the truck should be OK.
Regarding the price for a 99 4Runner Ltd. with same mileage as yours in good working condition you should be able to find it in your local Auto Trader magazine.

They said "they could not guarantee there was no engine damage when the radiator blew". I thought it might be best to salvage some value out of the car now before we are faced with any more problems, ie. the truck wont start, will cost $10,000 to replace the engine and it is essentially worthless.

If i knew there was no engine damage, I would feel much better.

OK, there has to be more to the story.

A blown radiator should not cause a vehicle to drop dead as you describe. :confused:

What's the rest of it ? :popcorn:

I wish there was more to the story - maybe the mechanic is not telling us everything we need to know. As a follow-up, we put in a new radiator and now they realized all of the sensors overheated and they need to be replaced - $1600. They are still not telling us if the engine was damaged when all of this happened. the dealership keeps saying "there's no way to know". I feel like i'm being taken advantage of.

Sounds like a lot of BS to me.

Sounds like you are being taken advantage of.

Was the engine ever running hot in the minutes/days/weeks before the rad blew?

Was the engine running OK when the rad blew?

If it wasn't overheating, the engine should be fine, and the "sensors" also.

How is the engine running after the rad was replaced?
Have you even driven it?

Sounds like they're trying to scare you into replacing everything.

This was the series of events - any advice would be much appreciated.
1) Car was driving fine - we were driving on the highway ALL lights went on and 20 seconds later everything died - the brakes, the steering, the gas...everything. Luckily we coasted to the side of the road.
2) The car leaks this substance that looks like "chocolate milk" - a lot of it.
3) We have the car towed to the dealership. They tell us the radiator blew and when it did, everything overheated. Before they can tell us anything else, the radiator needs to be replaced and the transmission flushed twice.
4) We have the radiator replaced by a local mechanic ($1000 less than dealer) he seems to think the engine was not damaged.
5) We drive 1 mile and the check engine light goes on
6) Bring car BACK to dealer who tells us the light went on because all the sensors were burned when the radiator overheated. All sensors need to be replaced.
7) We are waiting for the sensors to be replaced (and they are going to flush the transmission). CROSSING OUR FINGERS that this does the trick and the car is good to go.

Opinions?

If you drove it a mile and it ran and the only problem was the engine light. Then with the new sensors everything should operate properly, just watch you temp guage.

UPDATE: After $1450 repair on the sensors I picked the car up and the dealership told me it was "running perfectly". I drove the car home (approx. 20 miles). The next day while on the highway I had the EXACT SAME problem as we initially took the car in for - check engine light went on, 20 seconds later the car was completely dead. The dealership is now telling me that they repaired the initial problem and that in the 30 miles i drove it - the head gasket (which they claim was perfect) blew.

Has anyone heard of such a scam?!? I firmly believe the head gasket was the problem the whole time and they just scammed me into doing the other repairs before telling me the truth. I am going to call Toyota North America and report my experience. Anyone have any thoughts?