Has anyone ever changed one of these things before in their Maxima?

I have a auto tranny and my radiator recently sprung a leak. I purchased a new radiator from Rock Auto for $82 bucks shipped (I should be getting it sometime next week).

Anyway, some local repair shops wanted anywhere from $235 - $350 to replace and install a new radiator. If I bought my own, they wanted $120 - $200 in labor alone. I think that's a rip off for what I think should be no more than a 1 hour job.

Anyway, I figure that if I am capable of replacing the following things on my car, this should be a piece of cake (I hope): Knock sensor, spark plugs, O2 sensor, pcv valve, rear speakers, fuel filter.

So, tell me -- has anyone here changed their radiator? Got any instructions on how to do this?

Thanks in advance.

 

Its easy as pie. Took me 30 minutes. Check page 7 of my homepage for some info. They aren't exactly instructions but...

 

Thanks for the info. Looks easy.

Did you have to drain your auto tranny fluid, too? If not, how did you handle keeping the fluid from draining out when you unhooked the tranny lines from the radiator?

 

Very easy to do. I think its a total of 4 bolts and some hoses. You gotta jack the front end up, drain all the fluid which will take most of the time. Take the old one out, new one in.

Be careful of the bottom main hose though, dry rotting is a common problem with them. i think autozone or discount will have it if its bad.

 

Radiator swaps are easy, just as said. Replace the hoses for piece of mind....

 

I changed my radiator a month ago. Not very hard to do. Get a pair of latex gloves, is a bit messy.

- Is easier to chang the radiator if you put it on a ramp.
- Remove the cap from the radiator.
- Drain the coolant from the radiator into a bucket.
- Unplug the (2) two transmission tube. Clip or plug it with something to stop the fluid from leaking.
- Remove the coolant hose from the top and bottom. Is the size of a dollar coin.
- remove two bolts attached to the fan.
- unplug all electrical connected to the fan.
- Remove top two bolts from the radiator.
- Push the fan away from the radiator and lift up the radiator.

- Put back everything, refill coolant and test drive it.

I think this should help you.

 

Thanks for all of your valuable input. I'll be tackling the radiator job this weekend.

I was also going to do the thermostat while I was changing the radiator and hoses. One of the manuals I have says that you have to remove the drive belts to get to it... that can't be the case, can it?

 

I bought the radiator online and coolant myself and had Meineke guys do it for $65 flat.

 

It would be a really good idea to do a coolant flush when swapping radiators. Check the fluid and maintenance forum. I recently did this with a LOT of distilled water and Toyota Red coolant. It seems a lot of people's radiators are going bad.

 

It seems that pulling the fan and radiator out still bolted together would be easier. That is the way I did it. Be careful not to overtorque the bolts. One of mine broke the plastic fan housing a bit.

 

i just replaced my radiator today. it was one of the easiest tasks ive ever done. did the job in about 20 minutes. you dont even need to jack up the car like some people said. as long as you can fit a drain pan under the car do catch the coolant you are fine.

 

Buy a haynes manual...