How often should you change your radiator and thermostat?

Hey guys I’m at 125,000 miles.

how often should you change these parts? Is it worth getting them to change them now or wait till later?

side note: I recently ordered denso tpms sensors for my Tacoma from rock auto. Are they good? Are they what oem uses? If not, can I still use them?

Thanks a lot.

 

I’m at 145k with no issues but I’d say it’s a ymmv thing. The stock gages don’t tell you much so I’ve added better monitoring so I can tell when things change before it becomes dramatic.

 

As needed, the thermostat is monitored by the ECU and it will trigger a code when its needed.

 

Don’t fix it if it isn’t broken. The radiator should last the life of the truck. There is little reason to replace any part at a regular interval if the part can be easily inspected for wear. We replace things like oil at regular intervals because it isn’t easy to inspect.

Have you flushed the coolant recently?

 

yeah I flushed it twice so far.

I’m just worried because I recently got into an accident and broke the side black piece of the radiator.

I found the same piece from another Tacoma and replaced with it.

figured I’d get a spare radiator just in case.

 

Interestingly, coolant is not on this maintenance schedule.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-maintenance-intervals-simplified.766505/

I have a vague memory of a thread about Toyota saying the coolant should last the life of the truck or something like that.

 

I had a stick poke a hole in my radiator once. I lost all the coolant rather quickly, but I was able to drive it to a place o could park it, bought some epoxy, fixed the hole, filled it with coolant, and never looked back. A leaky radiator is not something to loose sleep over.

 

This guy might give you some inspiration on how to get a broken car home.

https://www.youtube.com/c/ViceGripGarage

 

Most automakers consider 100K the life of the vehicle.

 

Never heard of replacing radiator and thermostat unless there was a reason like a failure. They're not like oil filters and air filters. Maybe too anal

 

Can't locate it but have read that the Taco is engineered for 200+ thousand. Same source claimed the old LC was engineered for 300+.

 

Life of the vehicle doesn't mean it won't go further than that. "Life of the vehicle" is really just a play on words the manfactures use for marketing purposes. Like a lifetime warranty or when they claim transmission fluid is good for the life of the vehicle, yeah 100k good. Now will a transmission make it 300K with the original ATF? Sure some do/can but not all.

 

“Life of the vehicle” means to me that you don’t need to replace it on a regular interval. A radiator is not a wear item, but I suppose it could form cracks after repeated hot/cold and pressure cycles, but in that case it probably wouldn’t fail catastrophically.

Personally I’ve never heard of one failing unless there was physical damage done to it or it became clogged with corrosion or other gunk.

 

Each part has to be engineered for cycles. Motion cycles, heat cycles, push/pull cycles, etc. They can and do engineer parts for a certain amount of cycles. Why spend money making a 200k part assembly for a car that is only engineered to last 150k as a whole? None of the parts are engineered to last 'forever'. They all have target mileage > cycles.

 

Change coolant every 3yrs or 50k miles (not 100k, coolant gets acidic and eats at the multi layer head gaskets), inspect radiator cap at that time, replace as needed. Dont touch the thermostat or other parts unless it fails or is showing signs of failure.

 

Not what I'm saying.

All Im saying is lifetime is a marketing ploy. The average buyer hears lifetime and thinks "this thing will last further", while the manufactures diffention of lifetime means 100k on the vehicle as a whole. The term is used alot by some manufactures when they claim "lifetime warranty" but the fine print reads 100k. And yes, most modern cars will go 100K no problem.

 

I think the Toyota coolant is engineered not to do that, or not in just 50k miles. Don’t quote me on that.

 

Look up 2GR and 1/2/3UR head gasket failures.

For an extra 40 bucks every 3yrs 50k miles changing the coolant out In your truck is the cheapest insurance you can do.... Even from a water pump seal life extension alone it's worth it let alone a head gasket

 

"life of the vehicle"