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radiator replacement time


Red Nightmare

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Looks to not be too bad a job. It has a leak in the radiator and I cannot seem to pinpoint where.

Anyways I was looking at this job and of course the trans coolant lines must be removed.

Mine look pretty rusty.

Do they tend to break or strip upon removal?

I am wondering if I should pick up some new lines just in case?

 

Also, what other advice would one offer for doing this job?

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Chances are if its leaking, its most likely the plastic on the ends. if you can see it, but it leaks, thats usually where it is. mine would start leaking only when it got hot and the crack was on the front. Not a bad job at all. Pull the fans, motor mount, and the accessories. pretty straight forward.

 

I may suggest you replace the level sensor on the passenger side of the radiator. they always go bad, and now would be a great time to do it. i never had a problem with those lines breaking. just be careful and soak em for a bit.

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When I did my cars, those lines did come apart with no problem. Just spray them with your favorite penetrating oil a day ahead of time and they'll be fine. On my 96, they were rusty too, so I did replace them while I was in there. But you don't have to.

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Good to know about the trans cooler lines.

For the coolant level sensor, i might see if it is fixable or something. If not, no big deal. I am under the hood enough that I can see if the level is falling so a light on the dash is not really needed.

Side note about that sensor failing, they seem to do that on a lot of GM cars. I once had a cavalier with the same issue.

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While you're in there and have the coolant drained, it probably wouldn't hurt to also replace the thermostat unless you've done it recently.

 

The job is pretty simple. You do need to remove the radiator fans to get the radiator out.

 

Sent from my HTC Awesome using Tapatalk

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today I pulled a radiator out of a junk car and it didn't seem too bad. I can tell the lower hose is gonna be kind of a hassle but no biggie.

At least now I know what I am looking at when I do it to my own car. I see pulling parts at the junk yard as a "practice run" of sorts.

Just kind of hoping the "new" one isn't leaking but even if so, I can exchange it.

 

The part of this I will hate most is draining the old radiator. That always seems to be a huge mess. Seems empty, disconnect something and out splashes coolant.

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Well I got the radiator replaced, with a junkyard unit (good Idea, i know)

Anyways so it wasn't AS bad as I thought but was a messy job.

 

So with the new one - it seems to leak in the same spot, around the drain plug. Not too bad but it is there.

is this common for our cars? If it is the drain plug bad, no big deal but i wonder if the lower driver side mount tends to crack or something.

 

Just seems weird that both would leak in the same area.

 

I knbow this seems silly but I am getting tired of fighting with the cooling system

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Pretty common, I think. Mine had the same problem, it was cracked in the plastic tank just below the top radiator hose and it runs all the way down. New radiator is about $100.

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