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My coolant resevoir is drainging fast. Topped it up and 200 km later its half full and brown. Any suggestions?

Full and brown?? Are you overheating? Sounds like a possible head gasket issue.

No overheating as yet (indicator sits at just over half). It is not full in brown, rather I just topped it up and 200 km later it half-full and brown. Some are saying it may be an internal rad leak which is hours of work to find...

Sounds like you're getting oil in the coolant, possibly from a head gasket.

Thanks for the info. What are some of the possible solutions?

Experienced the same problem. Took it to my mechanic and sure enough it was a head gasket problem. You can also check the sparkplug connectors. If there's oil in or around the connector... guess what? head gasket. Replacing the gasket at the front takes about 30-60mins. However the one at the back takes a little longer. Let me rephrase that ... a heck of a lot longer! Parts are around the $50(CDN) range and the rest is all labour.

Thought it might be that infamous problem. Did it set you back huge in labour? I hear its an 8 hour job, more or less.

Christopher, if you were getting oil in or around the spark plug wire, wouldn't that just be the valvecover gaskets and not neccessarly the head gaskets?

check your oil, if its milky, its coolant in there, thats a head gasket. its not that hard to change them your self, i changed them on a simular toyota motor a while back, cams half to come out to get the heads off, so the intake has to come off to get the rear valve cover off, time consuming, but fairly simple

juiceDessert: That's what my mechanic estimated. The key thing is that he's a good friend of mine & I helped out with the labour to cut the costs down. <P>Jimmy: interesting point. So far changing the head gaskets did the job, but will be keeping my eye on it. Thanks.

Thanks for all the responses. My oil isn't milky but my coolant is brown and I do have oil around the front left and rear right plugs. So the question is valve or head gaskets? I suppose only during the job can that be determined.<P>Interesting that some Toyota engines had the same problem and Toyota offered a lifetime warranty on that problem, regardless of the owner. A contrast in customer service I suppose...

Christopher: Could you give me the name of your mechanic's business (i'm from Hamilton and don't live to far from there at present). I'd be interested in taking it to someone with experience in the matter.

Scary stuff... I had the same problem. My temperature guage sits just above half too! I had brown gunk in the coolant, and the stuff was starting to bubble out from beneath the cap. We flushed everything 4 times, and now the coolant is nice and blue, but the car still smokes, and now I've got a new set of problems in my other post. I kind of want it to be a head gasket problem, just so I know what has to be done to get it fixed.

My coolant is also brown. I got the car from the brother of the origional owner, he said he never changed the coolant. My temp gauge sits below half, car doesn't smoke, no oil in the plug holes, no coolant in the oil. I tried to flush it but the stupid rad drain screw on the bottom of the passanger side won't come out.......

if the drain screw is stuck, just remove the lower radiator hose.