okay, i was looking at the driveway today and i say a pool of coolant dripping from my radiator… whats happening it seems is the coolant is pooling at the top of the radiatior, filling up those ridges at the top and spilling over, and pooling at the bottom. It just started doing this today, but over the past few months its been smelling like coolant. My temp gauge is good, and its never gotten past 90 degrees, so i know its not overheating, and my coolant level is good, my hoses are good, and my overflow tank is normal. What seems to be wrong here? do i need a new radiator? also, on rare occassions the engine will idle, drop below 1k rpms and die at about 800 rpms… and this isnt on a cold start either, its after being run… does anyone think these two problems are related? btw, my cars an auto if that helps any. thanks for any explanations
steve
i dunno if this could help ya…but i noticed the same puddle of coolant under my car…and on the fan shroud…upper hose looked good…took off the upper hose though…and the neck of the radiator was cracking and had a hole in it also…it appears to me the cracking cause there not to be a good seal w/ the hose itself and the neck…therefore making it leak…i tried to use a radiator sealant on the neck…didnt work…next day…same puddle…i ended up having to get a new radiator…
Sounds like your radiator is shot. I wouldn’t fool around trying to patch it, it probably won’t last. FYI, I got a replacement radiator on EBAY for very cheap ($118 + shipping) from a company called Radiator Warehouse (I think they’re based in CA). They sell lots of these on EBAY so it should be easy to find their auctions. When my radiator arrived, the box said made in China, so I was a little skepitcal, but the unit itself looked very nicely made and was completely identical to the original–in fact it seemed heavier and more robustly made. After 4 months no problems or leaks at all. Sure beats paying the dealer $500 or whatever they charge for a radiator nowadays.
change it asap; i had a crack in my radiator a few months ago and slowly but surely it began to get more cracks. then i used some of that prestone anti radiator leak and thats when my radiator finally gave up and dumped all the antifreeze on my driveway.
if your car is dropped, watch out for bumps because they can severly damage the radiator and thats also why i had to take off my intrax springs. but then again i have bad vision so i really cant see any bumps especially at night.
Would you guys recommend a rad w/ plastic or metal tank? I’ve seen both available. I’d be more interested in reliability for another 200K miles.
thanks,
js
Re: coolant leaking from radiator!
Originally posted by toohott4handlin
okay, i was looking at the driveway today and i say a pool of coolant dripping from my radiator… whats happening it seems is the coolant is pooling at the top of the radiatior, filling up those ridges at the top and spilling over, and pooling at the bottom. It just started doing this today, but over the past few months its been smelling like coolant. My temp gauge is good, and its never gotten past 90 degrees, so i know its not overheating, and my coolant level is good, my hoses are good, and my overflow tank is normal. What seems to be wrong here? do i need a new radiator? also, on rare occassions the engine will idle, drop below 1k rpms and die at about 800 rpms… and this isnt on a cold start either, its after being run… does anyone think these two problems are related? btw, my cars an auto if that helps any. thanks for any explanations
steve
my radiator went out a couple weeks ago. it had a slow leak near the top corner near the passenger side headlights, i tried using stop/leak a couple of times, but no luck. i never overheated the engine but it was a pain in the ass checking your coolant everyday. my car is a 91 4dr gs with 126k miles and in the last six months i replaced the battery, alternator, rotors and pads all the way around and the radiator. it seems a lot of members are having the same problems, just look at some of the older threads. the idle problem might be your alternator. is your battery light on? or it could be your battery. if you overheated, make sure you change your spark plugs.
good luck to you, brother
I will be replacing my radiator real soon and I wanted to know if you all had any info on the radiators.com people?
Did any of your replacements come with the cap?
90_RS_2DR: Did your replacement have the plastic or brass tops that the stock has also?
Thanks!
nafreak:
The replacement has plastic top and bottom tanks, with the rest metal–same as original. The unit did not come with a cap. I did get lifetime warranty though.