Overheating I4 on my 03 XLE - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

Giant81 · 04-17-2007, 10:31 AM

Hey guys, its been a while since I've been one but I've recently started having problems with my Gen 5.

It all started when I took the engine in for an oil change. I pulled into the bay where they take your name, and shut the car down. After completeing the paperwork, they went to pull my car around and it wouldn't start. Finally after a couple of min, we got it started and had no problems after that.

Once they had it up on the lift I asked them to check a "check engine" light that had recently showed up. It came back that the engine had overheated (mind you I hadn't noticed it on the guage, but I probably missed it). On the lift they showed a pice of dense foam between the engine and the transmission on the back of the engine that was saturated with coolant. We figured it could have been a bad hose coupled with a bad thermostate that caused the problem.

We figured the engine would overheat and since the thermostat was stuck closed, the preasure would build unitl it pushed out the bad hose. I went ahead and replaced the thermostat and this has not cleared up the problem. (I didn't think it would completely clear it up, but I figured with normal coolant preasures it would mask it until I had a chance to resarch the back of the engine and figure out where it could be comming from).

Now when I start it, the vehicle goes straight to overheat, and the resivoir never drops in level, meaning its not a casual leak. And instead of pulling from the resivoir, its pulling air in from the leak. It appears to be comming out from the back of the engine (below the plastic intake manifold piece). I'm afraid its a head gasket, but the oil looks clean, and it doesn't smoke at all. (accpt where the coolant is splashing onto the exhaust pipe)

Does anyone have any idea what this could be? Also since its still Toyota Certified I can have the headgasket fixed.

THanks for the help
-Robert-

renmike · 04-17-2007, 11:02 AM

Sounds like they didn't bleed all the air out of the system after the thermostat was replaced. Have you confirmed that the water is circulating? I had a similar problem when I put in an engine into my 95 camry, I had neglected to bleed all the air out of the system. With the engine cold, remove the radiator cap, start the car up and keeping and eye on the guage, let the car heat up and work the air out of the system). If it starts to bubble out of the radiator, stop the car because perhaps you have some air trapped. What I ended up doing was loosening the radiator hose from the front of the engine (the one that runs from the bottom to the inlet on the passenger's side. There was air trapped somehow and when I loosened the clamp and sqeezed on the hose, I could hear air escaping.)

Because this just started happening, after you get it to run cooler, take it to the dealership and have them check out the head gasket just in case.

renmike · 04-17-2007, 11:05 AM

Sounds like they didn't bleed all the air out of the system after the thermostat was replaced. Have you confirmed that the water is circulating? I had a similar problem when I put in an engine into my 95 camry, I had neglected to bleed all the air out of the system. With the engine cold, remove the radiator cap, start the car up and keeping and eye on the guage, let the car heat up and work the air out of the system). If it starts to bubble out of the radiator, stop the car because perhaps you have some air trapped. What I ended up doing was loosening the radiator hose from the front of the engine (the one that runs from the bottom to the inlet on the passenger's side. There was air trapped somehow and when I loosened the clamp and sqeezed on the hose, I could hear air escaping.)

Because this just started happening, after you get it to run cooler, take it to the dealership and have them check out the head gasket just in case.

Giant81 · 04-17-2007, 01:44 PM

Air is a good reason its still heating up as fast as it is... but what is back there that could be a causing it to dump coolant so fast?

anyone have a schematic / picture of the engine back there? I can't see enough to make a determination.

Thanks for the replies
-Robert-

renmike · 04-17-2007, 02:24 PM

I'm sorry, I didn't catch that you were still leaking coolant out of the back of the engine. Hmm, could a freeze plug have moved or popped out? I'm not as familiar with that engine. You might see if there's a gen 5 manual in the top of the general camry discussion section, that should have a more illustrated view of the cooling system.

marc780 · 04-21-2007, 11:30 PM

Quote:

Does anyone have any idea what this could be? Also since its still Toyota Certified I can have the headgasket fixed.

Cooling problems can be tricky to diagnose, but signs of blown head gasket as you say, oil in coolant or coolant in oil. Anti freeze dripping from tailpipe (not water vapor, thats normal when cold). Run engine with radiator cap off and smell for exhaust fumes. Remove a spark plug, is it too clean or evidence of coolant on it.

Since its Toyota certified i'd just take it in and let them wrestle with it -

Vector_In · 03-21-2008, 10:59 AM

Just happen to me this past week. We found that head bolts loosen up and kill the threads. the head gasket was in good shape. My Mechanic is trying to use heli-coils to fix the problem. The bolts are 11mm with 1.5 pitch. We found VW head kit from Heli-coil. Hopefully it works! I forgot to mention, there was no sign of a small leak, but it blew open at the gasket.