Radiator Change, How To?
Radiator Change, How To?
Ok, where shall I start...
been driving the other day, and noticed the engine was heating above normal, when stopped at trafic lights the steam came out from under the bonnet, but just for a wee while, I carried on, only noticed when car started to overheat (3/4 of the heater) so after inspection found out that radiator is leaking, gave it a wee while to cool down, topped the thing down and drove car home (with few 5l canisters of water inside)
Ordered new radiator of ebay, so should be here tomorrow, now...
I looked at it, two brackets on top, undo all the hoses (drain the coolant or whats left there)
is it pretty easy to separate aircon rad with the coolant rad? or it'll be fiddly and tricky job? I'm not scared of spanners and such, just dont want to damage anything there...
any tricky bits?
Might actually do a manual, if the weather would be decent and not pouring with rain in here...
Pretty sure you'll need to get underneath as well. Which will mean removing all the 10mm screws on the undertray Then there will probably be a few more brackets holding the rad in from underneath. I dont think its joined to the aircon rad at all though.
Also interested in swapping the rad on my car for a performance one, so if you get any pics or info when you do yours 'd be interested to hear how it went
When I did mine I found it a very simple job (having never done anything like it before!) and much easier than I had expected.
I didn't even jack the car up, though I think I may have removed the undertray (10mm bolts as Jim says) though I think that was to more to prevent making a mess draining the fluids than anything else. I think the top brackets may be all that hold it in, and it just lifts out of the brackets that hold it at the bottom? It was a while ago, so I may be wrong, but the point I'm making is that it's probably easier than you think it will be!
But I do remember that Lexus quoted me two hours labour and god knows how much for the part. I sourced the rad for £120 delivered and fitted it myself, with no experience, no guide and (I think) just a 10mm spanner for tools (did the hose clips by hand!) all in under an hour!
the one I got of ebay was £88 delivered next day, will upload pics tomorrow, and it really is a bog easy job (and I dont have undertray, which made it even simpler) and as ormi said on LOC, it only took me 15minuts + some time to get naughty rusty screws from the bottom of rad/fans