xiton

Hello all,

Finally got my replacement radiator in, and I'm going to attempt it today. I was wondering if there are any guides out there that I can follow to help me a bit.

My biggest concern would be any flushing and refilling of coolant, and the proper way to do this. I'd like to stick with green coolant without attempting to replace with anything else.

If there are no guides, any comments and suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

GGENIUS

iTrader: (1)

these are very simple. its literally as complicated as,

finding the drain plug on the bottom of the rad and draining as much fluid as you can out through there.(opening the cap will help a lot.)
undoing the hose clamps and removing the hoses.
removing the bolts on the upper tie bar where the rad is held in place with brackets, and any other bolts holding it in place.(i havent done one on OUR car in a hot minute)
and then pulling the rad + shroud out.
installation is the reverse, putting the fan shroud on while the rad is out of the car obvi.
when youre filling it back up, just run the car and fill little by little through the rad cap. air bubbles will be worked out through the opening.

xiton

Thanks for the quick reply! I guess what mainly confused me is that I was reading threads on flushing a radiator, and they mentioned distilled water to flush, then refilling with 100% antifreeze which would give you a 50/50 mixture.

Should I be flushing the old radiator pre-removal, so that I can flush any old fluid out of all the lines? If so, what would be the process when I put in the new radiator? Will there still be enough water in the system to add 100% antifreeze, or should I still mix with 50/50?

Thanks again!

asand1

iTrader: (1)

I have been smelling hot coolant lately and noticed a crack under the rad cap yesterday. I will be ordering a Koyorad soon, and will make a how thread-to with pics.

tosheto

iTrader: (5)

Some one just posted a how to change radiator thread with details and pics

GGENIUS

iTrader: (1)

you dont really have to flush unless your coolant was contaminated. usually you can just drain it, swap rads, and fill and youll be good to go.

MAXIMA_STYLE

iTrader: (21)

In this order.... open hood,crawl under car remove drain from rad while its draining undo hose clamps but dont move hoses just yet unplug harness from fans...there should be one on each fan,then once coolant is drained undo hoses,then if your automatic undo the two hoses running to transmission,then.undo brackets.on top pull up and install is reverse

xiton

Just as an update. The install went well, but took more time than I expected. A lot of the hose clamps were a huge pain in the ***, and were facing the wrong direction. One of the clamps broke, and two stores I went to didn't have any other clamps in stock.

I don't detect any leaks, but I do still smell coolant. I'm hoping it's just the remnants of the previous leaky radiator. I just drove home in it and everything looks good. I'll check it out again tomorrow to see if any problems arise.

Thanks again for all of the advice and help!

MAXIMA_STYLE

iTrader: (21)

Well,after a day of driving it should go away,if not start check hoses VERY well... if those check out ok you got another problem....

asand1

iTrader: (1)

Yeah found it in fifth Gen. Don't think we have one though.

2brosgixxer

Everyone should know this guys username...PMOHR. He has so much useful stuff!!

Heres a vid
How to change Radiator

SPER

Awesome link, thanks a lot. That guy has 36 videos!! All for the 4th Gen Max!


Back on topic, I changed my radiator on my 95 max a couple years ago. I believe I did a tutorial on here, I'll go check. It was my first time ever attempting it and it took me like 2 hours. But saved me like $300, (If I remember correctly tires plus quoted me like $450 or something) The part itself only cost me like $106 with shipping.

Heres my post, its not quite a tutorial but it has pics and stuff.
http://forums.maxima.org/general-max...ml#post7010851