Jump to content

Radiators, LOL


gp90se

Recommended Posts

So im lookin around the net and I decide to go onto http://www.radiators.com to get a quote on a rad. call the 800 number, tell em its a 90 TGP, comes back with the price of $1500 :shock: he even checked with his manager. what a friggin riot. most of us didnt spent that much on are cars never mind parts.

 

Just wanted to share :)

-Jeff

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So im lookin around the net and I decide to go onto http://www.radiators.com to get a quote on a rad. call the 800 number, tell em its a 90 TGP, comes back with the price of $1500 :shock: he even checked with his manager. what a friggin riot. most of us didnt spent that much on are cars never mind parts.

 

Just wanted to share :)

-Jeff

 

Please do some reading of my post just a few days ago:

 

http://www.w-body.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11908&sid=993ccefdc5cadeb876bf8924d3ac0428

 

Jeff M

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice post, but I was just sayin that $1500 for a rad is a tad rediculous.

 

-Jeff

 

Dealer charges about the same thing, so it's not a glitch and they're not pulling your leg. A lot of the price tags on TGP parts are rediculous, but it comes with the rare car territory. The air struts on an AWD 6000 are $330 each, the driveshaft is $1,500, and a new Teves II ABS system is $2K +. :shock: Developing cars like this isn't cheap. They're using many unique parts, and when you don't have the quantities to spread the cost out through car sales....well....what you get is a massive price tag for those unique parts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

spending over 1K is a no laughing matter...the thought of spending that much calls for a ton of beer!

 

Actually, you should probably be cutting back on the beer to free up more money :shock:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice post, but I was just sayin that $1500 for a rad is a tad rediculous.

 

-Jeff

 

it is for sure, I just thought you needed help. And to help not freak out others, just wanted to mention other options, much cheaper, to take care of fixing a 14-15 year old radiator. Actually I believe the retail price is more like $2,000!! There are radiator repair shops in every town, even small towns with service garages can find access to radiator supply companies, and with that they just need to know it’s a 3 core then the dimensions to order up one meaning its just a core to them, not a TGP or TSTE specific core only, so DON’T GO SAY IT’S FOR A TGP OR TSTE, and that the dealer wants $2,000 for it, these guys are not dumb, they will up the price hearing this, SAME goes for the PowerMaster III Brake System, DON’T go telling Prior GM’s price for it, you just saying this shows you think Prior's price is cheap, they will raise it!!!! A number of TGP owners have gone this route getting their radiator re-cored with great results, and reasonable prices. Thanks Hyeboy for those quotes, you are exactly right, furthermore GM has to keep inventoried parts for every car they make for 7 years, obviously doing it for longer since they still have parts for the TGP and others, and when you look at a parts book for just one car, multiply that times all the different cars they have made since at least 1989-90, it can add up to a huge operation to run and fund. Looking at the retail cost of the TGP turbo (no longer available) at $1,200, dealer cost of $784, assume GM parts warehouse with their markup of 35%, and their cost is $509, then assume GM sells to the warehouses with their 25% markup making it $382, maybe less since GM is notorious for forcing suppliers to sell cheap, these are just estimates but it gives an idea and how the many middlemen kill the end user’s wallet. Yea it don’t make sense to us to charge $3,200 for a complete ABS unit for a car that is 14-15 years when most owners get their 14-15 year old cars/TGP for this or less, but the other side of keeping an inventory and all the middlemen profit is GM has little loyalty to their customers anyways, to them they would rather you send the car to the yard and buy newer, or new, but what GM does not see is that ownership experience is what builds a loyal GM customer, or not, and most first time buyers can only afford a used car so aside from the used parts price shock as their car ages, they also find the inherent weakness of the poorly engineered and/or built areas of their car, make it right to begin with and maybe used car ownership experience will be a pleasant one, but GM and many other car makers rush too fast getting their product lines out, even knowing there are problem areas still unresolved! Being an old guy who has been around for a while, I have seen a lot of cars foreign and domestic and every one of them has a list of inherent problems, some worse than others, some more costly to fix than others, even high end models like BMW and others have their issues, take the much heralded BMW 800 series, the 850CSi with a big 12 cylinder engine is prone to eat the 6 Speed Manual Trannies, and have problems with the drive by wire Throttle Bodies and the prone to fail Intake Gaskets, those items will give you sticker shock and then some, nothing new here either, every car has some problems. The latest BMW M3 has had major engine failure since it first came out, which BMW is blaming some on the owners, but being a bit smarter than most domestic manufacturers, gets damn busy finding a fix, and has also made up a special oil, get this, 0w60 synthetic!! But with all these problems comes the aftermarket, that works pretty damn hard to reverse engineer a problem prone part, figure out the flaw/weakness, re-engineer a better part and get it manufactured for sale to owners, and many times for less than the OEM supplier who still makes the same faulty designed part, the aftermarket is our salvation.

 

Well enough, I got more emails and work to do, hope this was useful and/or informative.

 

Jeff M

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jeff M, I was being absolutely serious when I said "nice post." I have learned more from reading your posts then I have anyone else's when it comes to TGPs. The fact GM can take a $120 radiator and mark it up over 1000% is nuts but I now understand why. If I do go that route of having the rad recored, I will not tell em what its out of. As far as the PMIII system, if mine does fail, I will be talking to a mechanic around here who I have seen do a lot of odd brake conversions, see what he says. Once again, thanks for the informative posts.

 

-Jeff

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jeff M, I was being absolutely serious when I said "nice post." I have learned more from reading your posts then I have anyone else's when it comes to TGPs. The fact GM can take a $120 radiator and mark it up over 1000% is nuts but I now understand why. If I do go that route of having the rad recored, I will not tell em what its out of. As far as the PMIII system, if mine does fail, I will be talking to a mechanic around here who I have seen do a lot of odd brake conversions, see what he says. Once again, thanks for the informative posts.

 

-Jeff

 

 

Thanks Jeff :) , sorry for such a big reply, that’s my fault being so intense with a wordy reply, its because I look at my posts more to the topic and how it relates to all those who will view it and benifit from it now and in the future, not just in reply to what you wanted to say, and needed!!! 8) Yea its pretty insane and somewhat entertaining the prices charged for unique parts, I know of quite a few like this as do other TGP owners, good thing there are others who post here offering better/more affordable solutions. Good luck with yours, and I like your 36 inch rims, all those boyees with their 24’s are going to be bummed when they find there are 26" rims out now :shock: .

 

Jeff M

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jeff M, I was being absolutely serious when I said "nice post." I have learned more from reading your posts then I have anyone else's when it comes to TGPs. The fact GM can take a $120 radiator and mark it up over 1000% is nuts but I now understand why. If I do go that route of having the rad recored, I will not tell em what its out of. As far as the PMIII system, if mine does fail, I will be talking to a mechanic around here who I have seen do a lot of odd brake conversions, see what he says. Once again, thanks for the informative posts.

 

-Jeff

 

 

Thanks Jeff :) , sorry for such a big reply, that’s my fault being so intense with a wordy reply, its because I look at my posts more to the topic and how it relates to all those who will view it and benifit from it now and in the future, not just in reply to what you wanted to say!!! 8) Yea its pretty insane and somewhat entertaining the prices charged for unique parts, I know of quite a few like this as do other TGP owners, good thing there are others who post here offering better/more affordable solutions. Good luck with yours, and I like your 36 inch rims, all those boyees with their 24’s are going to be bummed when they find there are 26" rims out now :shock: Jeff M

 

28's at the auto show!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

28's at the auto show!

 

28s now too?, tires for these must be close to $1,500 as I saw 26s for $1,100. And oh good, some more Escalades pimpin down the road with pizza pan size rims, no, snow saucer size rims :lol:

 

Jeff M

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

The core in my radiator in my STE rotted out and started leaking about 2 weeks ago. About a week ago it got to the point that the coolant would all leak out before the engine would warm up so the car at that point pretty much became undriveable, unless it was for a very short trip (like around the block). So Friday I took the radiator out of the car because I knew I was going to find some way to replace it. My Grandfather would not believe me when I told him that a new one cost $1200 so he called up the dealer and it was a little over $1200 for a new one, then he started calling up companies that remanufacture them and the cheapest he could find was $1130, at this point he started to believe me. But after I got my radiator my grandfather brought it to a guy that is going to recore it. I haven't been told a price yet, but since the guy doesn't know what kind of car its out of, I am thinking it shouldn't be too much, maybe $300 at most (at least I'm hoping). I will let you know what it cost when I get the bill.

 

Shawn

Link to comment
Share on other sites

that is insane.. well after seeing how much a PMIII cost, i wouldnt doubt that the radiator is BANK!... personally i would go the cheaper route.

 

* relocate battery to the trunk

* install a standard GTP radiator

* install front mount intercooler

 

upgrade and save cash at the same time. :)

 

 

shane

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm w/ shane on this one. OR, do what I did in my truck. I have an all aluminum dual 1" core rad. I paid $185 for it. I'm probably going to find one that fits, and fab up my own mounts for it. Click on my WWW to see it. It's in the 66 p/u. 8)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Uhhh, come on guys :) , don’t be skipping $175 to $300 (as stated many times by me and others) as a repair to a 14-15 year old radiator, that’s all that is needed and not some $1,000 to $1,500 worries. This radiator is well used, and if anyone looked into the end opening at the radiator where the hose comes out to go over to the t-stat, would see just how plugged up the end tubes have gotten, and adding more junk to plug a hole will only collect more in those blocked passages. Same thing as before; the concept of a 3 core radiator is not TGP specific, rad shops buy cores as cores based on size so just tell them the size and bring it on in, never telling them the price of the OEM (though if they care to spend the time, can find out). With the small growing amount of overheating TGPs and TSTE (and other w-bodies we don’t here about here, but they bitch at their car just the same!) out there and their resulting warped heads, fixing the radiator right is the thing to do, and if you want a performance mod, then think of it this way, cooler water equals cooler heads allowing a denser more powerful air/fuel mixture!!

 

I rest my case, at least for a few more weeks until it starts all over again :lol: .

 

Jeff M

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest TurboSedan

another nice thing about keeping the TGP radiator is that it is shorter, and allows a nice 'window' where the stock IC was when adding plumbing for an FMIC. of course, you would need to ditch the A/C or get a shorter condensor also.

joshua

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey, Be Cool's are expensive. :wink: One of the reasons I suggest the aluminum rad. is A) Cool factor (no pun intended) B) It's just as cheap with NO crappy/proven good quality. C) My rad. was beaten up by the P/O not replacing the primary motor when it needed it, and the rad. was beaten up. If you can't fab up the nec. mounts, then do what you want. I was just suggesting a CHEAP, BETTER, alternative to stock. Because most of us want to make our cars better, especially if we have to spend the money either way. It's a good way out. When I go through this w/ my car I will probably be putting together a complete cooling system package (Mounts, radiator, fans, hoses, etc.) Matt F. I'm gonna need a hotter area than Muncie to test this one! :lol: :wink:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...