95 Camry Radiator Crack and Leakage

[Xiaoyong]

I noticed today that my 95 camry radiator has a crack on the radiator top plastci tube along a seam. I am thinking to get a new radiator and replace thermostat and gasket. I have two questions:

1. I was told by a dealer that there are two types of thickness of the raditor, one row (5/8 inch thick) and two rows (more than one inch thick). By looking at my car, I don't know which one it is and it is not accessable to measure the thickness of the core without taking the radiator out. Will it fit if I order the wrong thickness one? Will the heat dissapation rate differ much if using the wrong one?

2. The car was using green coolant at the time I bought it. But I changed it to the recommended red coolant after a thorough flush. Do I need to do another coolant system flush after radiator installation?

Thank you!

[Toysrme]

Originally Posted by Xiaoyong

I noticed today that my 95 camry radiator has a crack on the radiator top plastci tube along a seam. I am thinking to get a new radiator and replace thermostat and gasket. I have two questions:

1. I was told by a dealer that there are two types of thickness of the raditor, one row (5/8 inch thick) and two rows (more than one inch thick). By looking at my car, I don't know which one it is and it is not accessable to measure the thickness of the core without taking the radiator out. Will it fit if I order the wrong thickness one? Will the heat dissapation rate differ much if using the wrong one?

2. The car was using green coolant at the time I bought it. But I changed it to the recommended red coolant after a thorough flush. Do I need to do another coolant system flush after radiator installation?

Thank you!

1) The i4's have a single row, the v6's have a double row. Don't go back to that dealer. The service person isn't smart enough to work on your car. (They see elevendy-billion Camry's - they should know off-hand which one is which.

2) YOU CAN NOT MIX TOYOTA RED WITH NORMAL COOLANTS. That can not be said enough. It will eat ferrite metals, and turn into a very hard gel that can't be cleaned.
You need to flush the engine until you're blue in the face.

If you have a v6 you have the all-aluminum 1mz-fe - Feel free to use Toyota red. If you have an i4 you have a 5s-fe with an iron block - don't use Toyota red. The inhibitor package is formulated to work well with aluminum & breaks down much faster in an iron block. While that's not a problem if you stick to your recommended schedule of flushing the system every 2 years - I wouldn't use it.

Either way, once the engine is flushed & completely devoid of traces of previous coolant - you can use whatever you want, as long as you always flush it well when changing to a different type of coolant, or simply flush it & stick with the same kind.
The cevat is following the OEM schedule. Replace every 24 months.

[Xiaoyong]

Originally Posted by Toysrme

1) The i4's have a single row, the v6's have a double row. Don't go back to that dealer. The service person isn't smart enough to work on your car. (They see elevendy-billion Camry's - they should know off-hand which one is which.

2) YOU CAN NOT MIX TOYOTA RED WITH NORMAL COOLANTS. That can not be said enough. It will eat ferrite metals, and turn into a very hard gel that can't be cleaned.
You need to flush the engine until you're blue in the face.

If you have a v6 you have the all-aluminum 1mz-fe - Feel free to use Toyota red. If you have an i4 you have a 5s-fe with an iron block - don't use Toyota red. The inhibitor package is formulated to work well with aluminum & breaks down much faster in an iron block. While that's not a problem if you stick to your recommended schedule of flushing the system every 2 years - I wouldn't use it.

Either way, once the engine is flushed & completely devoid of traces of previous coolant - you can use whatever you want, as long as you always flush it well when changing to a different type of coolant, or simply flush it & stick with the same kind.
The cevat is following the OEM schedule. Replace every 24 months.

Thank you Toysrme. Mine is 5s-fe I4 engine, if I understand correctly, you suggest to replace the radiator and the thermostat, flush the engine completely and change back to the green Ethylene–glycol based coolant? It has been about 14 month since I changed to the red coolant, would you estimate what harm it has done?

In addition I have a question to clarify about coolant - are both geen colored one and red/orange colored one of ethylene glycol base? The owner's manual recommends ethylene glycol base coolant and I thought this type of coolant is red/orange.

[Toysrme]

Ya can't really go by color, because nothing is standard.
But... In the North American market - yes it's pretty well standardized. Green & yellow are old school ethylene glycol. You just want the old $1.50 a gallon coolant you can find anywhere.

Toyota red is ethylene glycol antifreeze without silicates & is high in phosphates.
Then you've got Toyota pink. IDK what it's made out of, but it's even more phosphates, without the nitrate content & rated @ 100-105,000m / 10 years.
It'll be like the rest - coolant lasts evne longer, but they under-shoot the lifespan & I'll wind up changing more radiators. Good for my money tho!



Having an iron block 5s-fe, I would stick to normal coolants. Toyota red came about with the idea that they were going to swap nearly every wide scale production engine they make all aluminum.
Normal coolants will last longer than red will on the iron block. You could get 3 years out of generic coolant - but I still say change it ever 2.

[Xiaoyong]

Thanks again. You are right I can't go by color. Actually I looked carefully back to my receipt about that cooling system flush, and found that I am using DEX-COOL, not Toyota Red. I guess I am gonna stick to it, what do you say?

Originally Posted by Toysrme

Ya can't really go by color, because nothing is standard.
But... In the North American market - yes it's pretty well standardized. Green & yellow are old school ethylene glycol. You just want the old $1.50 a gallon coolant you can find anywhere.

Toyota red is ethylene glycol antifreeze without silicates & is high in phosphates.
Then you've got Toyota pink. IDK what it's made out of, but it's even more phosphates, without the nitrate content & rated @ 100-105,000m / 10 years.
It'll be like the rest - coolant lasts evne longer, but they under-shoot the lifespan & I'll wind up changing more radiators. Good for my money tho!



Having an iron block 5s-fe, I would stick to normal coolants. Toyota red came about with the idea that they were going to swap nearly every wide scale production engine they make all aluminum.
Normal coolants will last longer than red will on the iron block. You could get 3 years out of generic coolant - but I still say change it ever 2.

[Toysrme]

Toyota red is an HOAT & Dex-cools are OAT, Dex-Cool uses 2-EHA where Toyota does not. I'd leave it in there for 2 years & flush it out & go with normal coolant.