Since my alternator went out, I was poking around under my hood, just checking some things to make sure the rest of my Max wasn't falling apart...

Come to find out, there is a ~5" long hairline crack in my top plastic radiator tank, right below the filler neck. It just seems to be seeping; but thereis no way I want to drive it around like that. If I put pressure on the filler neck, I can see the crack open up a little and some coolant comes out.

How does all this ****e happen at once?

 

yep. replace. I got a metal one now.

 

Yep what; you had the same problem? I know it will have to be replaced, I just wanted to know if this was a common problem. I have never heard of it before...

 

mine had a small crack at the filler neck. Its an old plastic radiator, what do you expect?

 

Group deal on Koyos IIRC. I wouldn't say it's common.

 

Kewl, thanks for the info. I am hesitant to buy one from flea-bay...

 

Yep it happens with plastic tops on the radiator. Get the Koyo or get a replacement from Autozone. Its not hard to do. You should also consider changing thermostat and hoses.

 

I'm not really worried about the difficulty level; putting in a radiator is not exactly super-intensive work...

I will be doing rad/hoses/thermostat/coolant flush all at the same time.

Just gotta get my alternator fixed first...

 

Happened to me last week - 5" crack below filler neck. My engine had coolant
spritzed all over but I couldn't find the source until I parked one day and steam
was coming out . Hurried to open the hood and saw quite a stream briefly shoot
out of a practically indiscernable crack. $140.00 for radiator at Advance auto &
suprisingly it was in stock. I can't complain too much as I got 12 years , 285 K
out of the original radiator & hoses.

 

Yours made it a little longer than mine did then. My 97 has 175k on it, but the Florida heat may have somethign to do with mine not lasting as long.

I am going to go with one of the rad's in the group deal section - they sound like a good deal.

 

just got changing one in my dads car

 

go to a place that does rads and have it replaced. 248.00 to replace mine 6 months ago and i know it wont break again even though its plastic like the oem one. reason for plastic- no rusr like the solid metal ones.

 

As I said before, I work on my own car. I have no need/will not pay for someone else to do something I can/like doing; working on my car.

 

The plastic still has aluminum and its not the rust its the type of coolant you put in there or water. Always use distilled water.

 

Yea, its not hard. One thing you may want to change is the by pass hose. Its a small 90 degree rubber elbow. You can get alot done with the radiator out. Like you said changing that alt my be the best thing to do also. You can change the belts as well.

 

The alt. wil definately be going in at the same time, I'm going to get a H/O version to upgrade. I will also be doing all the hoses and everything; but the belts/idler pulley are less than a month old.

 

The plastic end tanks weaken with time and exposure to hot coolant.

My wife's eclipse popped a plastic rad tank this summer just like this. I bought an OEM-style replacement and installed it in a couple hours. Make sure to buy new rad hoses while you're in there. Yeah, metals tougher, but her car doesn't go to the track or anything, and the first rad lasted 160k. So plastic again. I can spend the extra $100 on beer to soften any worries I might have about it

 

I like the way you think

Or, the extra $100 will damn near buy my alt...

Meh, I'll prolly get both anyway

 

Mine cracked and I had to use superglue for a while to the coolant in, got another OEM plastic one thou it last close to 200K

 

I was actually thinnking about doing somethign similar to this; I was going to drain the coolant out and open the crack up as much as I could, then fill it with silicone and let the tank go so it owuld hold the crack together.

That was going to be my temp fix, but I think I am just going to get a new one.

 

it happens

 

i doubt silicone would hold, if you need a temporary fix just use some JB-weld

 

JB-weld didn't work well for me. It held for about 3 days then coolant started seeping around the edges of the weld. Luckily my ebay radiator came in the mail 2 days later.

 

1.) intsall Koyo
2.) take pics
3.) upload write-up
4.) ???
5.) profit

 

LOL at the suggestions of jb weld and silicone. Buy a new radiator already. No need for anything fancy.

Dave

 

IE it will get you around for a few days until you can find a reputable shop to do the work or get one shipped, it should never be a permanent fix but some of us don't have the option of having our vehicles out of commission for an extended period of time.

 

my plan in the end

 

yeah....Jb weld, the only stuff that might have worked, lasted about 3-4 days. get a new radiator off radiatorbarn.com .. 130ish shipped. 2 row aluminum radiator. it is good not great quality, but it should last the rest of the life of the car with regualr maintenence. unless you live in the desert or a really cold state , i doubt u need a truly hi performance radiator,