No Coolant!

[darkwingduck]

O.K did a search and couldn't find much on this problem. I have a 93 ES300 with 11400 miles. Replaced TB, Thermostat, alternator all the regular stuff. Flushed the radiator, flushed Trans. Now my problem is my car gets really lazy and heavy when accelerating. Started to notice a little stain around the upper cap. Let the car cool and the thing needed a gallon of water.(not That much but you get the picture) put coolant in the damn thing and it started to run fine, no it doesn't heat up, now every morning I have to fill it up with water.

Let it sit running after a drive and lifted the hood, notice fluid coming out of the cap (the one over the engine). Replaced it and ran it for a while, same thing still leaking. Anyone with some help please.

[monarch]

Did the lazy, heavy acceleration problem exist before you performed that service work, or only afterwards? Did the coolant leaking problem exist before you performed that service work, or only afterwards? Are the thermostat, thermostat gasket and radiator caps genuine Toyota replacements or afternarket?

[darkwingduck]

Everything started after all of the service, and the caps, thermostat are aftermarket I picked up at autozone.

[mburnickas]

Everything started after all of the service, and the caps, thermostat are aftermarket I picked up at autozone.

Did you innstall the thermostat backwards? Is sys air bound? Do you have the correct PSI cap?

[Toysrme]

Ditto. What's the psi rating on both the manifold & radiator pressure caps? You need to burp the system too. They fill with air like crazy the first time you do a complete fill. Assuming it hasn't already overheated & warped a head, leading to a toasted head gasket. Which explains where all of your coolant is. It will as soon as it overheats.

I'd warm it up & do a compression test / leak down test. I think you've blown it up.

[darkwingduck]

The Psi on the manifold cap is 16psi and the same for the radiator. But the car doesn't overheat, it just gets lazy and heavy thats when I know the damn thing needs coolant. Every time I add more coolant I squeeze the top hose to get the bubbles out until theres no more bubbles. I noticed that I have to add more coolant to the manifold and not as much to the radiator, hmmmm?

[Toysrme]

It's overheating. I think you blew it up.

Do a compression / leak-down test.

[monarch]

Sounds like you made several servicing procedure mistakes :

1. You didn't measure the amount of old coolant drained so you can't know for sure how much new coolant needs to be added back into the system to fully fill it up. You may have severely underfilled the system and then drove the car causing the localized engine overheating Toysrme mentioned that won't necessarily be displayed on the dashboard temperature gauge.

2. You apparently didn't read the factory repair manual beause if you did you'd know it describes an air bleeding procedure (the burping Toysrme mentioned) that should be followed whenever you change the coolant.

3. You didn't buy genuine Toyota replacement parts (e.g. thermostat, thermostat gasket, radiator caps, etc. so you can't reasonably expect your cooling system to function normally without them. For example, Toyota radiator caps are rated at 13 lb, not 16 lbs. Toyota V6 thermostats open at 180 degrees, not 195 like auto parts stor thermostats. Toyota thermostats have a built in air bleeding valve that helps bleed air out of the cooling system automatically.

4. You mentioned adding water several times, but don't say whether you mean plain water or the 50/50 mix of distilled water and antifreeze that you're supposed to be adding.

Possible good news: If the engine still idles butter smooth like it did before you performed the service work and still starts instantly without alot of cranking from the starter then chances are good the compression of your engine is still good and your engine isn't severely damaged. But if the engine shakes a bit at idle now and doesn't sound as silky smooth as it used to then, like Toysrme mentioned, you may have heat warped a head and breached a cylinder head gasket causing low compression on some cylinders.

[Toysrme]

<Insert the Damn good post chief forum picture here>

Wrong pressure caps are a death nail to engines that use them. You're talking huge coolant boiling temperature changes if it's more than a psi low.

[darkwingduck]

The car idles very smooth and drives great when theirs coolant it. Stomped!