Just wondering if I should be changing out the radiator, or other piece parts.

- do they typically go bad at any time?

Spot

Flush and change your coolant about every 2-3 years.

Hoses and clamps will depend on your weather extremes. If you're wheeling or doing lots of distance travelling, spares are recommended.

USE ONLY DISTILLED WATER, not tap water, to mix your antifreeze to the desired mix. This is a Toyota mantra. Your head gasket(s) will thank you.

Life will be good.

Hoses and radiator- inspect and change only as needed. Typically, OEM Toy hoses last a LONG time. My 10 year old, 200k mile hoses are like new, but the GM radiator sprung a leak and I replaced it with an all metal aftermarket one.

I've heard its bad to use tap water because it has minerals.
I've heard its bad to use distilled water because its more corrosive.
I've used both without apparent problems though. Nowadays I buy the Toyota coolant and mix it with the water they sell for radiators at the parts store (Peak or Prestone I think). I forget what it says on the bottle- demineralized but not distilled or something like that.

Funny to hear that someone says distilled water would be corrosive. Never messed up my iron after 20 years of pressing military uniforms! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

Water is usually distilled for the purpose of removing impurities, so I don't know where that would've come from... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

I remember when an article came out about not using distilled water. The claim was that for some reason it wasn't ideal and demineralized water was better. I have NOT seen an article that does not recommend distilled water in a radiator since.

I remember the articles about the problems with using distilled water as well. Had to with mineral and ion leaching. As in distilled water was low and would pull them from some of the metals in the cooling system. Worse with aluminum heads as I recall. Some very interesting and detailed supporting documention to go with those claims, including lab tests on the content of the coolant.

Unfortunately, I've not seen those articles for years. And that includes the very good one published on the web somewhere.

The article(s) also gave the recommendation for sacrificial anodes in the cooling system. Which seems reasonable. They are used in residential hot water tanks and boats for exactly those reasons.