Replacing Radiator

[ingm80]

The only hint I can offer as a semi-professional, is some cars (this is a generalisation) you don't fix off the radiator before fitting up the hoses; this gives you room to bully it about a little and wrestle with clamps/clips. Also do the bottom one first, this way you have the most manoevrability.

On earlier (XU) series motors the back outlet housing is crappy ten-year plastic and changing it in situ with the offside driveshaft still fitted is a right mongrel.

Australia is a real gift in that we don't get massive corrosion unless the car's lived beachside. If the job starts to get stroppy on you, it's often a quicker approach to whip off the whole front than take the "Right said Fred" option of forced, piece-by-piece unbolting...

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hi i am not a mechanic by any means or stretch of the imagination, but i was in a bit of a spot in the middle of nowhere in france and they say that necessity is the mother of invention

anyways i got the new radiator 100 quid oh lord, anyways jack car up making sure it does not fall and kill you. sure there must be a post on how to do this

managed to get all the hoses apart from the bottom hose off dead easy, you must have some of them long nose pliers things. oh lord the bottom hose. well took wheel off and jacked car up. do not cut the pipe from the engine to the bottom hose (have a look you dont want to be replacing that and i couldnt see how i could take the pipe off from the block). i got a hack saw and cut the bottom corner off the radiator and took it out. this left me with the old radiator fitting over the pipe coming in (stupid design)

next carefully and i mean carefully cut off the remainder of the radiator with a small hack saw and you are left with the pipe that fits into the bottom of the radiator, be careful as the pipe goes further into the radiator than you think

next sand and grease the metal on the end of the pipe to get rid of some of the rust if not all, grease - i dont know what to use i tried a load of things not sure which ones dont kill the rubber / plastic

then actually fit the new radiator into the holes and then push the bottom pipe in and put the clip round

i think they sold me a ac radiator despite me saying no or non, so i need to take plug out of old radiator

i know this is probably so not the way to do it but i did it with the pliers, a socket set and lots of swearing still it was france and they dont understand right

mechanics will probably be rolling their eyes but it worked for me and no leaks so far

no bleed points on new radiator so lots of looking in expansion tank with cap

all the old clips didnt break so no jubilee clips needed, these would have probably squashed the plastic radiator pipes anyway

[pitpan]

Washing up liquid works well it makes the lower hose slip in easier. I had to do mine last year and I have the wire safety clip type. They can be a pain but once you get the knack it's quite easy to do.

[geoff]

I use silicone grease but you can use pretty much anything as " modern non rubber rubber components " don't degrade easily. Furniture polish ( Pledge etc ) works well as will oil from your dipstick particularly when you have fully synthetic oil - ideal for bush repairs.

[ron]

I use Waxoyl as it doesn't affect rubber & I have a big tin of it.:thumbsup::thumbsup::lol: