i just bought a knock off nismo oil cap and radiator cap. installed it couple days ago, and just opened the hood up today and noticed rad fluid all over my Front Valve cover. it was leaking coolant in some areas around the crimp sections.

so i just went back to the stock cap and topped off my coolant. should i be ok now or do i need a whole new radiator? i hope not....

 

radiators are common to leak at the tank crimped section...best way to tell is to pressure test it with a cooling system pressure tester.

 

i think thats why i never went with aftermarket rad cap, oem only. i was told they would leak. i heard the greddy and stillen ones are fine if you want to pay 65.00 for a cap.

 

well wish i knew this before. i hope it'll stop leaking now since i put the stock one back on...

 

ok, its still leaking, just not as bad as before. is there anything i can do or what?

 

maybe your radiator went bad and its just coincidence that it happened with the knock off cap. i dont see any reason why it should leak if u put the oem nissan cap on.

 

if it continues, i might just have to sell out for a new radiator. the car does have about 148,xxx miles though...

 

pfft!!!...man that thing is just getting broke it bro...i see them come into my dealership all the time with over 250k ,there are even a handful over 350k...just sayin....

 

well i don't know whats going on w/ mine then. this started happening after i replaced that stupid rad cap.

one thing i noticed was, i topped off to MAX for my coolant reservoir and just let the car sit in the garage. came back around 3-5 hours later, it was freaken down halfway.... now i'm thinking there really is a crack or something.
i think i'm going to get a new one cause i don't want to be driving around like this...

 

did this happen while the engine had just been shut off? do you see coolant leaking on the passenger side as well??

 

yes, this was when the car was off. although i didn't see anymore leaks around the crimped areas but to tell you the truth, i noticed all this when i was auto-crossing yesterday. after each run, it just kept leaking around the same areas, passenger side and driver side crimped areas.

just checked the reservoir level this morning and it stopped at the halfway mark. so i'll check and see if its leaking again and if so, i'm going to order a new rad prob today or tomm...

 

oh and i got your pm. i don't really get on AIM that much anymore but i can if u want me too

 

well it sounds like to me your radiator was low and when you shut your car off, the coolant overflow is doing its job. when the coolant is low in the primary area(radiator) it has a suction ability to pull coolant from the overflow tank...its how its designed. i wouldnt be too worried about that...you fix your coolant leak and that issue i can promise you it will go away.

 

ohhh man. well that sounds like a reasonable explaination but i kinda already bought a new radiator...this afternoon....and they already shipped it out.
dang i guess i bought a new rad for nothing...

 

ok got back home from work, topped off the reservoir and started the car. it leaked again. and ur saying this is fine? oh well, doesn't really matter now since i bought a new one...

 

no, i never said it was fine, i said the reason the coolant overflow was low each time you checked it was because it was doing its job by replaceing the fluid that the radiator kept leaking out. ytrust me your doing the right thing be replacing the radiator.

 

ok i see, i see. thats what i figured it was doing. thanks for the help

 

Yeah I wouldn't trust those cheap ebay radiator caps.

 

Is it just me or is there a crack on that header (actually looks like two, one on each side of that raised area):



I don't know if you were specifically taking pics of the cracks, or just showing the puddle of coolant.

Either way, at least you got a new one.

 

actually thats just some lines in the tank from the forming process.typically they dont leak there but rather the seam of the tank where it is folded over onto the core. but i see what your saying..

 

Look at the fluid trail, then blow up the image and take a look - definitely looks like a crack to me.

 

oh trust me i see what your saying...it lookslike the fluid is flowing downwards..but more often than not thats not really the case..you also have to think about this, when the fans kick on there is a fair amount of air moving around under the hood. if the coolant had some pressure behind as its exiting the radiator, then its possible that what you seeing is merely a glycol residue trail that has merely clung to the seam...ive seen is a hundred times. but it could always be possible i guess.

 

Regardless..... that radiator is done!

For the new one, what brand did you go with OP? OEM? Griffin? or?

 

yeh, i still drove it around a few times though b/c i really had to.

i got a Koyo, i'm not dishin out $300+ for a heavy griffin. its just a radiator...
oh, and i picked out some new rims for you wizard