I have a 97 Toyota Camry LE 4 cylinder and it looks to me like the Thermostat housing is up high, no draining of radiator looks necessary, two bolts, pop the new one in and done? Firestone quoted me $100 to do it for me, is there something I'm missing, it looks simpler than changing out a battery? Any help greatly appreciated.
Replacing the thermostat is a little more difficult than changing the battery. You'll be doing two jobs in one: coolant drain and refill and the thermostat change.
Depending on the schedule, you might drain all of half that you can and refill afterwards with the 50%-50% Toyota red/distilled water or the pre-mixed pink coolant (add no water). Then burp the system (clear the trapped air).
There will be some coolant coming out from the thermostat housing so use some rags to soak it up. Orient the jiggle valve as specified and use a new gasket. You may not have clear access to the nuts to use a torque wrench, but to some it doesn't matter.
The coolant and thermostat are two of the few maintenance items I still insist on Toyota.And exercise the typical precautions: disconnect the battery, wait for the engine to cool down, etc etc
I had my coolant changed at a Toyota dealership last year, will the coolant spill out so badly when I replace the thermostat that I might as well do a drain and fill anyway or would I be OK just filling up whatever coolant I lose?
Use a toy thermostat aftermarket are often junk, dont overtighten parts are aluminum, you will get air in the system and will have to check it.
On Dec 17, 4:52 pm, "CamryMan98" wrote: I had my coolant changed at a Toyota dealership last year, will the coolant spill out so badly when I replace the thermostat that I might as well do a drain and fill anyway or would I be OK just filling up whatever coolant I lose?
Coolant drain time is about 30K, so you have about what, 12-15K on your coolant....if it were me, I'd just replace what you lose during the swapout...
It's cleaner to let the coolant drain out of the radiator than from the inlet housing. In any case make sure the coolant doesn't get into the alternator and AC compressor clutch or any other electrical component.
I don't know how much it will drain until the coolant levels at the housing. You can drain about 2 quarts from the bottom drain first, so less will come out of the housing. I never reuse drained coolant, but others may differ. A typical 3/5SFE coolant drain and refill involves about what, 4 qts? And half of that is distilled water.
I'm sure you can still find Toyota Red around. And pure distilled water (not with minerals for "taste"), is about 70 cents/gallon at Walmart.
A big thank-you to everyone on the board concerning Thermostat replacement. The worst part of the entire experience were the parts people at AutoZone. They didn't have the O-Ring gasket I needed and then tried to sell me another gasket. I went to the Toyota dealer and the MasterTech took a look at the gasket AutoZone sold me (at the request of the parts person) and said it had nothing to do with the repair. Bought everything at the dealer, returned everything to AutoZone and the replacement went well. The advice about spending $15.00 more at the dealer is GREAT. HEED IT and save yourself some grief.
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