2006 Toyota Land Cruiser - Cold Cold Car…

[St.Jude]

Bit of fun.

Santa swapped Rudolph for a Land Cruiser, obviously.

[St.Jude]

-4c here this morning. As I have done forever, I will let the car idle and turn on the aux heater (which is an electric pump/heating element) and warms the car up quickly. Dropped my lad off at his granny’s this morning, got stuck in school traffic. The thermostat needle registered just a bit under halfway meaning I could turned off the aux heater and be warm from the engines own heat.

Except in traffic I noticed it started blowing cold. No more heat. I wont lie, it did annoy me. But i carried on driving to work, the thermostat needle went half way, but then dipped as i drove.

After a few minutes the heating returned.

Had a quick Google and there are 3 possibilities:

- air lock in the cooling system
- stuck thermostat
- blocked heater matrix

Tomorrow lunchtime im working from home so i will burp the car and see if that sorts it. i have read on another forum someone fitted a 12v pump to the heater circuit so it forces the heater to work which solved this issue for them.

But I am fairly sure its an air lock or the matrix is blocked.

[lesapandre]

Some of these have a rear heating outlet - people cut them out of the loop so the water is not circulating all that way and remains warmer.

Sounds like a thermostat element somewhere tho. 

I don't know these modern ones but an auxiliary pump sounds an excellent idea. I must try that. 🤗👍

[St.Jude]

I had it running for 15 minutes this morning in 3c temperatures. I left the aux heater off.

The temperature gauge didn’t budge really.

Kept checking the top heater hose to the radiator and it was getting a little bit warm over the 15 minutes. The heater gave off some heat.

So I’m looking at a failed thermostat that’s stuck open I think. 

[grogee]

Sounds like a stuck stat. Did Toyota put it in an accessible place? 

[St.Jude]

4 hours ago, grogee said:

Sounds like a stuck stat. Did Toyota put it in an accessible place? 

From a brief Google the answer is - not really.

It's located in the housing the bottom hose goes in to. One said to remove (but not disconnect) the air con pump, another said they didn't need to but had to move the alternator to do it. No chance of minimising coolant loss either, so need to avail of 12 litres(!) for the job.

Will have a look this week at it but it doesn't seem too bad.

[St.Jude]

Awaiting a thermostat from Japan which will be here before the end of the month hopefully.

I looked at the odometer and realised it's nearly done 10,000 miles since I last done the oil. I could also do the front brake discs as the wife was a bit concerned by that when she drove it while I was having an operation on my arm. So need to change those too.

It also does this weird vibration thing when it's on. It's more pronounced in D, but its like the car is rocking forward and back on the spot. If I put it in N it still does it slightly but not as bad as it is in D. So I don't think it's engine mounts, but I think the gearbox could now do with an oil change (which I mentioned previously).

So a lot of oils and fluids to order! When the thermostat comes it's going to get a big ol' service.

[Supernaut]

[Wanders into thread after not having a look for a couple of months]

You still haven't sold it?!

Stockholm syndrome comes to mind.

[lesapandre]

These are too useful to sell. They have their problems - but worth hanging onto.

2nd hand prices remain high for that reason.

[St.Jude]

42 minutes ago, Supernaut said:

Stockholm syndrome comes to mind.

It's a lot of this mixed in with me having spunked a lot of money on it in maintenance and the fact that it is working. If I'm trying to be sensible, future plans sort of dictate that I need a vehicle like this that can haul a heavy load and pull a trailer.

And to be fair if you go through the thread, the last 18/24 months have been relatively quiet. Other than an MOT fail on rot which was sorted.

A thermostat is quite a cheap failure point for once!

[artdjones]

With all your travails, I wouldn't rely on any of the Land Cruiser's competitors to do even that well.