69 Comments

• Great set of directions, with a few differences from my 2007 Sienna. Between your photos and AllData DIY, I was able to change the radiator and thermostat over four days.

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  • Good job Roman–the radiator replacement on these Sienna’s is quite the job!!

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• John, thank you very much for sharing your effort in such great detail. This was a major help in replacing the radiator on my 2008 Sienna – 186K miles and going!

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• Thank you so much for this in-depth analysis!

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• Thank you for this detailed guide! I used your guide to fix my sliding door earlier this year so I was glad to find this one for the radiator. I have a 2009 Sienna with 169,000 miles and it blew the transmission cooler line out where it attaches to the radiator. Luckily it happened when I was in my driveway just after getting home with my kids from an appointment an hour away. On the 2009 Sienna a few things are different which actually made it easier so I could skip some steps. The thermostat is on the passenger side so I didn’t have to remove the battery or other things on the driver’s side. The thermostat was easy to change by simply removing an idler pully under it and putting a long wrench on the tensioner under that and clamping it until the idler pully was put back on. Also – all I had to do on the bottom of the radiator was take out two bolts that just went up through one main mounting bracket directly into the bottom of the radiator. They were a little rusty but came out just fine once I propped up the whole assembly to fit a wrench under there. The hardest part of the job was getting the hoses on & off.

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• Best Repair step by step evaluation I have ever reviewed on the internet. The hardest part and most challenging issue is the radiator bracket on the bottom. Without your advice I could have never figured it out. Outstanding!

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  • Thanks for the feedback Chip and good job on your radiator—that is a big repair!!

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• Seems like a person could make a sand mold copy of that flimsy Styrofoam part and make a fortune selling a cast aluminum replacement. Oh well. Nice write up. I will be doing my 2009 before long.

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  • I think the design of the foam is to dissipate energy in a crash. If you replace the foam with a solid object it will just smash back into the engine, firewall, and then into the passenger compartment, which is not desirable if I’m driving!

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• Dude – that was great! Thank You!!

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• This is the kind of post that makes the internet worth it. Thank you John Mueller. I was able to successfully tear out and reinstall a new radiator for a little less than $200. It took about ~10 hours because of some rusted bolts, and without your step by step guidance and details, such as showing how to remove the bumper I probably would have broken it in frustration.

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  • Your feedback made me smile and tell my wife all about your compliment. Good work—this was a hard repair, even with help! But for the money saved, worth it.

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• Thank you for this wonderfully detailed set of instructions. I’m pretty sure I could have replaced the radiator alone, but your instructions made the process much smoother. Thanks!

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• Thank you John.

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• Thank you Lewis for that information.

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• John,
  I had my 2005 Toyota Sienna radiator changed out at the dealer$hip. I then looked at your procedure which is very impressive, but the job was too big for me to do. My new radiator is loose on top and I can move the whole thing back and forth about 1/8 inch. Is this normal? Should it be Tight and not move back and forth? Thank you.

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  • My comment should not supersede the one that you are waiting for from John.

    I would simply like to say that there is a reasonable chance that your 2005 Sienna originally came with the default towing package rad which was 7/8″ thick. The non-towing package rad was 5/8″ thick and it became an OEM item a few years later. In recent years, Toyota may have replaced both rad versions with a single version that is 5/8″ thick, even though aftermarket suppliers may have continued to offer 7/8″ versions, like the one I recently bought on Amazon made by Denso. There is a good chance that your top and bottom rad brackets are sized for a 7/8″ rad and not a 5/8” rad. substituting a 5/8″ rad in the same space reserved for a 7/8” rad leaves room to wiggle 1/8″. The front condenser will set the limit that such a narrower rad can move forward and the rear lips on the 4 rad brackets will set a limit on the rearward movement of the same narrow rad.

    However the four 8 mm. hex head bolts that pass through holes in the upper rad brackets should be mating with the 4 spring clips that are attached to webs formed into the top channel of your new rad. Sometimes the webs of aftermarket rads don’t line up with the respective holes in the fixed position rad brackets so the mechanic doesn’t bother to complete the attachments, thus leaving the rad open to being loose at the top. The weight of the rad (with coolant) will reduce free movement at the bottom. Even if the top 4 attachment bolts were missing, a 7/8″ rad would not wiggle as much or at all, but a 5/8” thick rad might.

    A simple solution might be to use tie-wraps to bind the top of your rad to the top of your condenser. But that would require removing the top horizontal rad support bar, and I can’t remember if that is easy to do without first removing the whole bumper.

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  • Because of the hoses connected and the bracket on top which fits down onto two posts that stick up from the radiator assembly I don’t think it should move that much. If you paid good money to have the dealer replace it I would take it back and ask about that. There are two rubber grommets that the two posts stick up and into–make sure they are in place (if they are not then that may be reason for there being play in it).

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• When I first read John’s procedure with its 47+ steps, it looked overwhelming. Then I started watching half hour long YouTube videos of radiator swaps and only then did I realize that some of the 47 steps could be skipped if one was only swapping radiators and nothing else. It took me about 20 hours of work over 3 days plus 10 hours of research. In all, about $400 CAD was saved compared to a local garage quotation with a copycat rad.

  It took me a while to be sure that my girlfriend’s 04 Sienna (build date 12/03) had the 7/8” thick rad (for towing package) and that there was actually traces of leaking coolant visible once the fan shroud was partially separated from the rad.

  We ordered the Denso 221-9386 from Amazon.ca which took 10 days to arrive. It was the last one in inventory available for fulfillment by Amazon and after we ordered, the next ones to appear on the website were from an Amazon partner at over twice the price we paid.

  While waiting for the new rad to arrive and after taking the old rad completely out, I additionally ordered from my dealer the 2 infamous lower rad brackets (16506-0A030 & 16506-0A040 used exclusively for the towing package) along with a small assortment of plastic body fasteners and metric bolts to replace the ones broken thus far. Here now are my comments.

  Step 3: I did not initially drain the coolant; I first wanted to try to unscrew as many bolts as possible in order to evaluate how difficult the process might eventually be.

  Step 4: The upper air cleaner inlet separated easily and pulled out completely once the 2 bolts were removed. One bolt head sheared off but I was ultimately able to get the bolt’s remaining stud out using vice grips on the back side. I did not remove the air cleaner body nor the battery.

  Step 9: The lower air cleaner inlet duct’s single bolt came out easily but I did not remove this duct, I simply pushed it backwards a few inches which created enough adjacent clearance to later allow removal of the rad and fan shroud.

  Step 10: I had no problem twisting the rad hoses off after removing the screw type stainless band hose clamp on the bottom hose. The upper hose had the original spring type hose clamp and it was awkward to remove with pliers. I replaced it with a screw type band clamp. For the two oil cooler hose connections, I tagged the upper hose so that I would not forget where it went during re-assembly. Very little transmission fluid escaped after I disconnected these lines and I sealed up the free ends of these lines with plastic stretch wrap film held by elastics and stowed the free ends away behind the battery.

  Step 11a: After destroying one of the 4 wheel-well liner plastic clips (47749-58010), I later discovered that these 4 fasteners need their slotted heads to be turned 90 degrees before extraction.

  Step 11b: I also had to buy 3 new plastic clips (52161-02020) of the 5 used for the top front of the grill.

  Step 11i: I just yanked the bumper off the fender starting at the wheel well and the 3 hidden clips released in sequence.

  Step 11j: I left the styrofoam bumper insert in place attached by a bungee cord on each side.

  Step 12: I did not remove the hood latch or its plastic protector cover from the upper radiator support sub-assembly, I simply detached all the electrical connections and I removed the single 10mm bolt at the bottom of the vertical support bar and pulled the T-shaped assembly off to the right side of the styrofoam bumper liner while leaving the latch cable completely attached.

  Step 16: I failed to disconnect the fan shroud wiring connector without first breaking its locking tab, so during re-assembly I was forced to put a few wraps of plastic electrical tape around the junction of the male and female connector parts.

  Step 18: The badly rusted heads of the two lower fan shroud 10mm bolts would not accept a wrench so I had to tear off the rear tabs of the lower rad brackets with a sharp object to release the fan shroud. Later on a work table I had to grind off the remaining metal tabs which were still attached to the fan shroud by their lower 10mm bolts. The grinding heats up the nuts and bolts a lot and the fan shroud plastic will melt, so grinding must be done for a few seconds at a time with a wet rag to cool down the metal. The 2 upper fan shroud 10mm bolts removed from the upper rad brackets without issue.

  Step 19: As pointed out in one YouTube video, the 2 upper rad brackets are sufficiently flexible that once their four top vertical 8mm bolts are removed, the brackets can be bent upwards slightly which releases the top of the rad. Thus it is not necessary to remove the 2 (rusted in my case) upper Philips head horizontal 8mm. bolts tied to the condenser.

  Step 20: The fan shroud then easily came out while the rad and condenser remained attached to the car.

  Step 21: Any disassembly treatment of the 2 lower rad brackets first required raising the rad and condenser up slightly in order to get a 10mm wrench underneath the rad to tackle the 4 lower vertical 8mm bolts. During my earlier exploratory phase, while prying away with a screwdriver around this area, I accidentally punctured the bottom of the un-drained rad and it started spilling out coolant. Once this happened, I was suddenly passed the point of no return of continuing to use the old rad for driving purposes and the car was completely out of order for the next 10 days while waiting for parts.

  Unlike with so many repairs noted in the videos, my real problem was that the 2 bottom plastic grommets (donuts) were frozen in the lower radiator support assembly and the 2 lower rad bracket pins were also frozen to the grommets. I used my trunk tire jack to create the hundreds of pounds of pressure to force from below a compatibly sized metal dowel pin into the grommet center holes. On one side, the grommet released from the car but stayed frozen to the lower rad bracket hollow pin, on the other side, the grommet remained frozen to the car but the rad lower bracket’s hollow pin released. Now the rad and condenser were finally free to float upwards with the flexible Freon lines still attached to the condenser and I placed a wooden stick under the sandwich which allowed me to see the underside of the rad for the first time

  None of the 4 vertical lower 8mm bolts would unscrew from the rad as their 4 female clip-nuts were rusted to the bolts. I ended up using a pair of cutting pliers to chew between the lower rad bracket and the condenser while leaving the 2 rusted Philips head bolts and their hidden mating nuts completely attached to the condenser. This allowed the rad to finally be extracted from the car while leaving some of each lower rad bracket still attached to the rad and the rest of the each lower rad bracket still attached to the condenser.

  Later with a grinder (4”x 3/32” disk), I was able to grind off the Philips head bolts and the residual part of the lower rad brackets that were still tied together to the condenser.

  Step 24: Having seen how all the female clip-nuts had rusted at the bottom of the rad, I decided to manufacture my own female fasteners from a white plastic kitchen cutting board yielding blocks of ½” x ¼” x 1.5”, into each I drilled a hole and tapped a M5-0.8 thread for 4 new 8mm bolts that I had bought. I made sure that the plastic fasteners would not block the lower drain holes of the rad. I used 4 plastic fasteners on the bottom and 2 on the top of the rad, while recycling only 2 of the 8 metal clips from the old rad. Otherwise I would have been forced to back order at least 4 of these metal clips which were not in stock at 2 dealerships. No tie wraps were needed and future rad removal should be much easier.

  Step 27: Instead of buying 2 new Philips head bolts, I bought new hex head 8mm bolts which were just long enough to get half way through their mating female nuts welded to the lower rad brackets. If these condenser attachment bolts were longer, then they would interfere with the rad located directly behind the nuts. Every metal bolt used throughout this project had their threads first coated with anti-seize before re-assembly.

  Step 30. As I mentioned earlier, the mating of the lower rad brackets to the lower grommets and the mating of the lower grommets to the lower horizontal support bar were very tight due to rust build-up. I decided that I would first insert the lower rad brackets’ hollow pins into the re-mounted lower grommets but without the rad attached. Then I would attach the fan shroud to the lower rad brackets using the two lower fan shroud 10mm bolts but not attach the fan shroud to the upper rad brackets. This allowed the critical distance between the two lower rad brackets after insertion into the grommets to be locked to the fan shroud. Then the fan shroud and the attached lower rad brackets were pulled together out of the car and turned upside down. The new (upside-down) rad was then bolted to the upside-down fan shroud via the already attached lower rad brackets while allowing the fan shroud to be subsequently detached from the lower rad brackets without compromising the critical distance between the lower rad brackets. Now the new rad with pre-attached lower rad brackets could be reinstalled into the lower grommet holes where there was very little available wiggle room and then the fan shroud could be re-attached to the new rad for the last time. Once the new rad and fan shroud were finally in the car for the last time, the condenser, which had been floating forward, could be slid back and down over their mating mounts which were welded to the lower rad brackets.

  Step 45: I used about 6 quarts (litres) of new coolant as only this same amount had previously drained out.

  Then came the big moment when I turned on the motor for the first time and waited to see if there would be any coolant or oil leaks in the new rad. There were none. I noticed that the electric fans never came on unless I also turned on the AC. I found that both rad coolant hoses stayed relatively cool for many minutes during the warm-up. At first the upper rad hose got hot but the lower one stayed cool. Eventually the lower hose also got hot. I used a Bluetooth enabled OBD-2 scanning tool on my iPhone to monitor the coolant temperature. First it leveled off at 85 deg. Celsius, and then later rose to 91 then back down to 85, all while the car was standing still and without the electrical fans ever coming on.

  My repair project would have been completed in half the time if the 16 year old original lower rad brackets and mounting hardware had been designed to be in plastic instead of metal as is the case with newer Toyotas. I cannot imagine how my local private garage thought that they could do this all in 2.5 hours and not be required to additionally supply 2 new lower rad brackets and fasteners costing an extra $100 CAD not provided for in their quotation.

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• Thanks John for your DIY tutorial. My girlfriend has a Canadian 2004 Sienna LE AWD (mfg. date12/03) she bought second-hand 3 years ago and it is losing 1-2 ounces of coolant per hour of operation.

  There is no leaking onto the ground while parked and the limited area of rad fins that are visible from the rear of the rad with the fan shroud still attached are all clean. Occasionally there is a chemical odour inside the car while driving. It is hard to imagine that such a clean rad could leak, but the Toyota TSB surfaced while these rads were relatively new prompting a warranty extension.

  Do you think that a sealant product added to the coolant might be sufficient to block the leak or is this rad doomed to fail again given its 17 year age?

  Another challenge is being sure which rad to order. I bent a small hook on the end of a piece of solid copper wire and inserted it into the fins from the rear and twisted it so it would hook. Then I measured how much it was inserted and came up with 7/8 inches (not 5/8), so this suggests to me that we have the thicker OEM rad for the towing package. The Denso 221-9386 rad for towing is also 7/8″ thick, so I think that this is a match. Inlet pipe diameter is the only other dimension that is markedly different between the 2 models of Denso rads.

  Is there a more reliable way to find the proper replacement part identifier?

  Thanks

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• John, thanks so much for the tutorial! I replaced my radiator and condenser this past weekend. There’s no way I would have attempted this without your walk through.

  The torsion hose clamp on the bottom radiator hose where it meets the radiator gave me fits. It came off fine, but I couldn’t get it on. I couldn’t get it to lock open so it would be wide enough to fit over the connection. After working on it for an hour I just went to the store and bought the screw type.

  Overall, I’m pretty happy I was able to accomplish the task, with the good Lord’s help and the great tutorial.

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  • Chris, you are so welcome–good work on replacing your radiator AND condenser. I ended up replacing those hose clamps because mine were too corroded. Thanks for leaving a note.

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• Hi John. I finished my radiator replacement last week end. Third radiator in this 250k mile 2004 Sienna. Toyota recalled the radiators because they wept and leaked, but the radiator they put in did the same after another 125k miles, so the replacement radiator with the new part number from Denso lasted about the same as the recalled original radiator. I did as you describe except throughout. I agree that the bumper was the most difficult part. I left the horns and hood latch in place and let the entire top beam assembly dangle. I never removed the fan assembly, just held it in place but pulled back, by hanging it on a copper wire from the engine. I replaced the coolant inlet tube, a plastic tube that had broken off causing a total and sudden coolant loss, thermostat, radiator hoses, and starter motor. My bottom brackets were in okay condition, mostly a California never salt on the roads car. I installed a rebuilt starter from Amazon, put everything together, tested it, but the the starter did not work. Then a rebuilt starter from O-Reilly was installed and removed because its gear stuck out just enough to make a terrible noise hitting the running clutch gear after starting the engine. So I ended up re-installing the starter and all of the air box and air ducts and battery 3 times. I thought a rebuilt would use a decent Denso core, but not so. No non-Denso parts ever again, no way, no how!

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  • Michael, thanks for sharing. I didn’t have mine go bad in time to get the bad radiator reinstalled. I did put a Denso in mine and it’s holding up fine at 200K. I did the repair by the book as much as possible but I’m sure there are shortcuts that real mechanics use to make the process go faster. Thanks for sharing your shortcuts. That’s a bummer about the starter, no one wants to dig that thing back out with all those hoses and connectors above it.

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• John Mueller – you are the MAN. I read through your guide several times before attempting the radiator repair. When I got into the job I knew exactly what needed to happen next. The repair was smooth and – most importantly – the van works now! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

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  • Darrell, you are so welcome. Thanks for the great feedback. Good work on fixing your Sienna!

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• Thank you for this guide! I replaced my radiator with this guide back in March. It took me most of the weekend due to severe rust on the lower brackets. I had to dremel a slot in one bolt and cut of the other bracket entirely.

  I did put a hole in the AC condenser by dropping pliers on it while toiling with the Toyota hose clamps. My hands got fatigued and the pliers slipped and fell on the soft metal. Do yourself a favor and replace those horrid hose clamps. Mine weren’t rusted, but the bolt-on type clamps look far more intuitive than the pinch type.

  I also ripped the plastic off the bottom corner of the fan by turning a rusted bolt attached to the soft, rusted mount. It was too late before I noticed. Perhaps cutting the bolt off would have been better, but everything works fine with the other three bolts on the fan assembly.

  While my experience changing the radiator wasn’t perfect, I’m glad I did it. It is satisfying to repair a car, and one should not avoid doing (anything in life) over a fear of failure.

  On the bright side, I saved some money on the radiator job to put toward a new condenser. The ice cold AC should feel good on my 6,000 mile road trip next month; 200K here we come!

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  • Thanks for sharing Connor and good job on surviving this repair. It sure made me feel good to conquer this repair and I’m happy to help others do the same. Were you able to run out and get a new condenser coil while you had the van torn apart to replace it when you accidentally put a hole in it? That’s a bummer but you still saved money I’m sure even with replacing that as well and that was the time to replace the condenser if you ever were going to replace it! Good work on fixing your van Connor!

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• John,
  Good instructions! I replaced my 2004 XLE rad with a spectra CU2682 from rock auto. Prob about 8 hrs after having to do grinder surgery on lower brackets…. I luckily ordered new lower brackets and upper rubber grommets anticipating rust issues. I ended up grinding slots for flathead screwdriver on the top bracket bolts and ended grinding the heck out of the lower brackets. I had a hard time getting the condensor/rad to prop up to get access to lower bracket bolts. The lower rubber bushings the rad sits on were rusted into the two big holes. This caused me to think I might have damaged the condenser but it survived. I def would pre order lower brackets and rubber grommets and pre-spray areas with PB blaster, I forgot to do that. Also purchase new M5x0.8 metric bolts to replace old ones. It took a while to get bumper off even with all your tips. I also replaced hoses. I passed on thermostat.

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  • Thanks for sharing Jay and good work on fixing your Sienna. The radiator is a big job but it is doable and I think it is worth saving all that money by doing it yourself.

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• Also, beware of non-Toyota hoses. I replaced my Toyota hoses at 200k miles on my 1998 Avalon with American car parts store (Gates), and within a few years the new hoses were bulging and the >10 year old Toyota hoses seemed as new. I had not thrown out the Toyota hoses, and put them back on and they are still on at 20+ years and 280k miles. It seems to me that the Toyota hoses from Japan are more chemically pure and chemically stable.

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• Consider replacing the water inlet pipe while replacing the thermostat. At around 180k miles my water inlet pipe broke off where the hose connects, leading to a dangerous sudden total coolant loss.

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  • For what little it costs, that is a good idea Michael–thanks for sharing. I didn’t think about that when I did my repair but I did change all the hoses. I also don’t know if the new Toyota hoses are as good as the old ones! I’m glad you were able to get your van fixed.

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• Thank you so much for taking the time to put this very detailed process together. Following your steps, my friend and I were able to replace the radiator and hoses for my wife’s 2008 Sienna in about 5 hours for just under $200 including pink antifreeze.
  Going into it we were slightly intimidated, but with your steps, it was fairly easy. Once we removed the bumper, which was not difficult at all, we felt our confidence soar. We used a $8 nylon pry bar trim kit I hand on hand from Harbor Freight to separate and could easily pop the tabs with a this screw driver. There were some minor difference in the 2008 but overall we followed all steps except we didn’t remove the air box. Thanks again.

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  • Thanks for the note Scott and good work on repairing your van. I look at my Hyundai accent and how easy the radiator would be to remove (bumper removal not necessary) and think, “That will be a piece of cake!” By completing this repair you should put a notch in your belt and when the next repair comes, you’ll be more confident about being able to do it yourself.

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• Hi John, Not just the money saved, it was the satisfaction that counts. I bought an aftermarket radiator for $180 (Canadian dollar after tax), while the OEM part from Toyota dealer was $725 plus 13% sales tax.

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  • I bought an aftermarket radiator as well, a Denso, and they are the OEM manufacturer anyway. Glad you saved money and were satisfied–that radiator job was the most time-consuming job I’ve probably ever done!

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• Hi John,
  With the help of your posting, I replaced the radiator on my 2006 Sienna yesterday.
  I did remove the bumper as per your instructions, which made the whole job much easier.
  With tons of penetrating oil, I could remove the four rusted bolts on the condenser.
  So I could remove the radiator with the lower radiator/condenser lower bracket attached.
  (One continuous bracket/bar in 2006 model instead of two brackets in your case)
  Then I removed the lower bracket attachment bolts while the radiator was off the car.
  Still the whole job took me about 7 hours to complete.
  Thank you again for your detailed instructions.

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• Hi John,

  Thank you for posting such detail instructions.

  I replaced the radiator on my 2006 Sienna today with the help of your posting.
  Was taking my time and took me 7 hours to complete.
  With tons of penetrating oil, I manage to remove all four rusty bolts on the condenser.
  I used anti seize compound on every bolts during installation, just incase I need to replace the radiator again in the future.

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  • Ben, thanks for the feedback and for sharing about your successful repair. The radiator replacement is quite the task but I bet you felt real good when you had done it yourself and saved probably $500 from paying someone to do it for you!

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• Dear Mr. John Mueller, I am planning to replace a radiator on my 2004 Sienna soon. I found your instructions was so amazing and I greatly appreciated you spend this much time to take pictures and detailing your experiences in very single steps while you were replacing this radiator. There are only one thing that I still confuse, Denso is the supplier for most Japanese cars, but this Denso Radiator 221-3140 was design to be direct fit for 2004 Sienna 3.3L V6 LE 3300CC FWD non-towing package, and it is much thinner than the OEM radiator (1/2″ vs 7/8″). Did you find those mounting brackets fit perfectly onto this new radiator. Does this Denso radiator has enough cooling fluid to handle the long distance driving since its 42% thinner (42% less cooling fluid). Please email me your suggestions base your experience. Thanks.

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  • Paul, thanks for your question and the feedback. I am familiar with Denso as they historically have been a major oem parts provider for Toyota. I can only speak in general as I don’t know anything about the particular radiator you are looking at. I would guess if you are sure that Denso says it is an equivalent radiator then it should be fine. Cooling efficiency is the biggest concern, so if Denso says this replacement radiator has the same cooling efficiency and capacity as the OEM Toyota one for your particular VIN, then you should be fine. I would be sure that you don’t have the towing package on yours and it is the AWD model and the radiator you are comparing it to is for the FWD non-towing model as that wouldn’t work. Let everyone know what you decide and how your radiator replacement goes. Read through this article carefully, make sure you have all the tools and parts, block out a Saturday, and you can definitely do this repair.

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• I’m no mechanic and with this tutorial completed the job successfully in about 5 hours – moving slow and cautious. The hardest part was reinstalling the Toyota large hose clamps which took about an hour of sheer will. If I ever do this again I’d like to know if there is a trick or tool to make it easy. Also, on the front bumper, once you realize where to position a screw driver, that is easier. It was a bit of a mystery how to pry those out. I can’t thank you enough for your time and efffort of putting this together. Thanks!

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  • Good job on the repair Scott and thanks for taking the time to leave a comment!

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• I just replaced the radiator of my sienna this past weekend (3/25/2017) using this “How To”. It very helpful and I should have completed the project in a day only if I was not stuck installing and position the big host clamps. I have to buy a tool that I may use in the future just for the host clamps.

  Thank you so much for sharing your step by step guide.

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• John – Also an EE here! I’ll be attempting this repair this week. Thanks for the guide.

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  • Thanks for sharing Tom, this should be a good challenge for you. Let me know if you have any questions.

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  • Did the repair in about 4 hours with help from your guide on my 2005 Sienna. Probably saved $500 by doing it myself. I used the Denso radiator (ordered from Amazon) and it worked perfectly. I did not take out the battery tray or airbox.nor did I replace the thermostat or the radiator hoses. Fortunately the lower brackets holding the radiator and condenser were not badly corroded and the bolts came out fairly easily. Thanks!

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    • Thanks for sharing Tom and good job on thinking through the repair on your own as to what was required. I’m glad you were successful.

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• Best step by step, bolt by bolt tutorial I have ever seen. Thank you! I can not imagine how many hours putting this together took. The pictures make it crystal clear, no question about what you are referring to. Amazing attention to detail. Thanks again! I will be doing this repair in 4 or 5 days.

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  • Thanks for the feedback Karl and good luck on the repair.

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• Also: the vehicle ramps would’ve been nice, but I found the job perfectly easy to do in my driveway without them (and I’m 6’1″, 220 lbs, so not a small guy).

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• Great instructions; thanks so much for all the time you saved me.

  For those whose radiator hoses look OK, so they’re not gonna replace them or the thermostat, you can get away with not removing the whole air-filter assy (although opening the box to replace the filter itself might make sense). Also: rather than WD40, I recommend some PB Blaster for trying to get screws out. The wise person would apply a bunch of this to the top and bottom of the upper radiator bracket a day or so before starting this project (and maybe to the screws at the bottom brackets as well). I broke off four different M6 x 1.0 screws during this job, and ended up wiring the bottom bracket to the fan should with stainless seizing wire instead of wire-ties because of it.

  Other people have apparently done this job without removing the bumper, and I tried to do so…but regretted it. It turns out that removing the bumper was pretty easy and made a bunch of other things a WHOLE lot easier.

  One suggestion: a more complete list of tools would include the following
  * paper towel for plugging the ends of the oil lines (both the ones in the car and the ones sticking out of the oil radiator), and for placing BELOW the oil lines to catch drips during the initial removal.
  * small slotted screwdriver for prying “fender tabs”
  * masking tape
  * marking pen for writing on masking tape to identify parts/hoses/etc
  * #2 philips screwdriver
  * Nitrile gloves
  * vise-grips for compressing hose-clamps (if they’re the spring-kind rather than the screw-kind)
  * liquid dish soap; a TINY bit of this, diluted with water, inside the tip of the radiator hose will make it slide on very smoothly.

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• This is great but I didn’t see the step about reconnecting the oil hoses to the radiator fyi.

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  • Ahhhh! Thank you for pointing that out. As you can see, there’s a lot of steps and I missed that one when I was writing the article. I have added it as Step 32 now. BTW: Did you use this tutorial to repair your Sienna and that is how you realized the step was missing or did you notice it by just reviewing it? Thanks again for taking the time to share.

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    • I repaired my Sienna. unfortunately I also knicked my condenser messing with those bottom brackets so I replaced that as well. But thanks for the help!

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• Incredibly helpful. Thank you.

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  • Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment–if you have any tips or suggestions to add to this article please put them in a comment. Good work on the repair!

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• Hi John,
  Many thanks for these super-detailed instructions. The pictures you posted really helped explain what needed to be done.
  One small comment, for versions of the Sienna with front radar/proximity sensors, you will need to unhook the wiring before removing the bumper. Otherwise, everything came apart exactly as you have described.

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  • Thank you Alan for taking the time to share. I will add notes on that step to remind people who have the automatic cruise control to make sure to disconnect the other sensor wiring harnesses. Take care and good job on the repair!

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  • Alan, Thanks again for sharing that tip about the radar sensors. I had added that stop to the bumper removal only article but had not added it to this article. Now I have added the following step:

    Step 11g: Disconnect any other wiring harnesses you see connected to things on the inside of the bumper.
    You may need to disconnect other wiring harnesses at this point too if you have the smart key system or the automatic cruise control that detects that you are approaching another vehicle–there are radar sensors behind the bumper that you’ll need to disconnect at this point as well.

    Thanks for the feedback and your help in developing these articles.

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• Hi John.
  I wanted to write and thank you very much for putting these instructions together. They have been very helpful to me. I needed to replace the AC condenser in my 2007 Sienna and did so today after reading your clear instructions. I too had to use a Dremel and abrasive grinder disk to cut out the old condenser.
  Boy – when I was a young man in the 50’s and 60’s, replacing a radiator was a far simpler task!

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  • Thanks so much for taking the time to comment, Ron. I’m glad to have been able to help you change out your condenser.

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• HELLO,
  THANK YOU FOR A WELL DESCRIPTIVE EXPLANATION. IT WAS VERY HELPFUL AND I APPRECIATE IT. I WAS ABLE TO CHANGE THE INLET PIPE AND THE THERMOSTAT AS WELL. MY WIFE IS HAPPY SHE GOT HER VAN BACK. NOW THE NEST PROJECT IS TO CHANGE THE FRONT CV AXLES BECAUSE THE CV BOOTS ARE WORN OUT. THANK YOU

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  • You are so welcome, thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. I haven’t done CV’s joints before–sounds like a greasy job! Let me know if you want to share your CV repair!

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• Thank you!

  We were able to replace the radiator on my father’s 2006 Sienna thanks to your very thorough guide. Much appreciated!

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  • Thanks for the feedback Stephen, I’m so glad you were successful and that I could be of help.

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• Amazing detail, thank you. I found what I was looking for at step 44 (confirming the odd place for radiator cap). Really appreciate it.

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  • Thanks for sharing David, I’m glad you found what you were looking for.

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