Radiator swap

[gazza82]

A week or two ago noticed the tell-tale signs that the rad in the CC was probably on it's last legs .. obvious weeping, crystallised coolant stains and very wet along bottom edge. So a quick google around found me a brand new rad for about £30! from carpart4less (on their fleabay shop!). Ordered it with 5 Litre of concentrated coolant and they knocked another £4 off rad. Got both for just over £32 delivered! Plus another £3-4 for de-ionised water from Halfords. (I live in a hard-water area so you don't use tap water in car rads here!)

New rad came very well packed .. in fact the new rad is strapped inside its box, that box is in a much larger box and the gap between is packed out with very large air-filled packing (think 4"x2" bubble wrap - goes pop! Loudly!)

So using a pipe spanner, closed up the spring loaded hose clips to release the lower one, wriggled hose free (thank goodness for plastic!) and drained into an old bowl (and up my right sleeve .. luckily it was still warm!).

Then same to upper hose with bowl placed below to catch any spillage and then the small hose to the expansion tank in top left corner. Removed the two mounts at the top and lifted the old rad straight out. It fits into the upper mounts and lower cross-brace on moulded pins into rubber grommets so don't lose those. (It was then I noticed the drain tap next to the lower hose outlet!)

New rad was a bit more "multi-car-fitment" so had two extra pipes: one at top next to main hose outlet and one in bottom corner. But it has two rubber blanking pipes and jubilee clips in the packaging. So blocked those off and refitted. Bit more of a faff to get to back as the lower blanking hose is now a closer fit with the a/c pipe but gentle persuasion got that in. Replaced the two upper mounts not forgetting the grommets. And reconnected two main hoses,

Also had to replace the overflow adapter .. two supplied in kit with a new hose clip.

Then started the refill with coolant/anti-freeze. Added it a litre at a time slowly (50-50 mix of coolant and de-ionised water). Remove the bleed plug in top of rad (large hex fitting - used a sump-plug adapter) until I could see the coolant just getting to the threads and put the bleed plug back. Ran the engine for a while until it warmed up (engine was still warm it took so little time!) and then topped up expansion tank and waited for it to settle and hold steady at the bottom edge of the top. The expansion tanks is opaque (either by design or due to age, so you can't use the min/max lines as you can't actually see where the level is, so I overfill a bit to the bottom of the hole you can just see). Took the car for a quick spin and when back rechecked the levels, with another small top-up.

Job done! Took about 30-35 mins and some of that was mopping up some spillage from garage floor!

And now safe for the big first cold snap. The old rad would probably have not survived ... the fins were literally turning to dust if you pushed on them!

[Capncol]

Done in the nick of time by the sound of it Gazza.
I had the pleasure of replacing a broken front spring on a 307 today, Top mount is under plastic windscreen scuttle and wiper mech- Modern cars eh!