A few months ago I started to notice white smoke coming out of my exhaust on mostly cold starts. Naturally assuming head gasket. The smoke is still intermittent as it was before. A few days ago I was on the phone with a local dealer and he said that it could be something else, and wanted to check my radiator. I needed a flush anyway, so I agreed.

He returned the car to me, telling me that he did not do anything other than a regular inspection and told me that my radiator was “Falling apart” and sure enough, this morning I got to school and noticed smoke coming out of the front grill. I opened the hood and found coolant squirted all over the engine, and dripping from the top of the hood.

So now I need to find a shop to fix my radiator on the cheap, and fast…yet reliably. And this is why you are reading this post.

Does anyone know a good radiator shop in the east bay (SF, California) that has a good reputation? The dealer wanted ~$850 to do this and was going to replace the radiator, hoses, and thermostat. He said this was with a sub OEM radiator ($250).

This is a fuller list of my problems ( I want to complain somewhere)
Radiator
Alternator
Head Gasket
Valve Cover Gasket
Oil Pan Seal
Front Axel Seals (Right+Left)


---Fun!

-Konstantin

 

Radiator is a simple job. I did it myself in my driveway in about an hour and a half and I had never removed a radiator from a car before then.

I went with the Koyo one that was offered in the group deals section a few years ago.
Just checked, group deal still going heres the link

http://forums.maxima.org/group-deals...t-pricing.html

I bought new hoses from my local parts store (pep boys, autozone, advanced, napa) and new coolant of course.

If you search on here you will find a write up, its an easy job to tackle without needing any special tools to complete.

 

Nice, i will check it out. I just don't have a driveway myself, so I may be at the mercy of my cousin on this one.

 

Bring a bucket and do it at the parts store ... not saying I've actually done that, but yeah... a couple of times actually... - as long as you don't leave a mess, they usually don't care (the bucket is to catch the 'draining fluid') ... stuffs toxic ya know.

oh, and if you have the 5MT - you'll have a nice built in oil cooler - (I'll have to do a post on car mods that I do for MT people, and other interesting ways to get 'cheap' horsepower that most people can do themselves)

 

The head gasket is NOT the cause of your white smoke on cold starts in the morning. Condensation (water) is a by product of combustion. Mostly seen exiting the exhaust system when the engine is cool.

Take that item off your list.

Your welcome.

 

Condensation is not white smoke. Condensation dissipates as soon as it enters the atmosphere.

OP may want to find out if has blown head gasket before putting all this work into his vehicle.

 

I'm 90% sure my head gasket is blown, to some degree. The smoke was very intermittent.

I just replaced the alternator, and will have to do the radiator this week.. figure ~800 bucks now will keep the car running for another 6 month or so, giving me time to shop for something else.

Do you guys think anyone here would want to pick this baby up for a few $$ as a project/scrap parts car?

and if so, what could i possibly expect... if you wanted to try engine work, replacing the head gasket would be a great project .

 

What ever symptom a blown head gasket would give you, it would be constant, not intermittent. A cracked/broken compression ring on a piston gives you white smoke when you first step on the gas such as starting the car or taking off from a red light.
Have you pulled the spark plugs to see if you have a fouled plug and at least can isolate the problem to a certain cylinder?

 

Interesting, but i doubt as far as repair that this would be any cheaper. ether way I'm boned... I will look through them just from curiosity though.

I replaced the radiator last night, will see if I start to see that white smoke more, now that the cooling system pressure has been restored. I did notice some extra connections on the bottom of my original and replacement radiators, other than the top and bottom houses. After I got home I checked my FMS manual and it looks like it is an A\T Oil cooler attachment. Never heard of that before. (and yeah, there were connected because I have an AT)

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/995...10101138am.png