mystery fluid on ground

[Loren]

Let it run for 5 or ten minutes after reaching operating temperature just to make sure all the trapped air is out then shut the valve --- Job Done.

Sorry, 5 or 10 minutes won't likely do it. He should drive with the bleed valve open for a couple of days - topping up the coolant as needed daily.

[shihman]

guys thank you again for all inputs. i looked up the price for a radiator, just the radiator from pelican is $243 and sunset parts usually is 10%-15% cheaper. my local shop will charge me $95 for diagnosis. of course that cost will be waved or taken off if i get it fixed there. their labor cost is $85/hour and i am sure this will be at the very least a 2 hour job for them plus what ever parts that they may add on. i am just wondering if this is a fairly straight forward DIY, i don't mind just purchase and replace the radiator myself. of course i will need you guys holding my hands again going thru the steps, in a manly car fixing manner of course ;). unless there will be much complication with the hoses and bleeding/flushing.

please let me know so i can order the radiator.

ps. i have to say you guys gave me the bug for this DIY concept.

[Glyn]

guys thank you again for all inputs. i looked up the price for a radiator, just the radiator from pelican is $243 and sunset parts usually is 10%-15% cheaper. my local shop will charge me $95 for diagnosis. of course that cost will be waved or taken off if i get it fixed there. their labor cost is $85/hour and i am sure this will be at the very least a 2 hour job for them plus what ever parts that they may add on. i am just wondering if this is a fairly straight forward DIY, i don't mind just purchase and replace the radiator myself. of course i will need you guys holding my hands again going thru the steps, in a manly car fixing manner of course ;). unless there will be much complication with the hoses and bleeding/flushing.

please let me know so i can order the radiator.

ps. i have to say you guys gave me the bug for this DIY concept.

Dont panic with this job, in comparison to the AOS this is a dead easy job.

I changed mine a few years ago and the 5 to 10 minutes bleed was fine - however Loren is a very experienced guy so perhaps you could leave the bleed valve open.

We will be there monitoring your mail - moral support (again in a manly way)

[1schoir]

guys thank you again for all inputs. i looked up the price for a radiator, just the radiator from pelican is $243 and sunset parts usually is 10%-15% cheaper. my local shop will charge me $95 for diagnosis. of course that cost will be waved or taken off if i get it fixed there. their labor cost is $85/hour and i am sure this will be at the very least a 2 hour job for them plus what ever parts that they may add on. i am just wondering if this is a fairly straight forward DIY, i don't mind just purchase and replace the radiator myself. of course i will need you guys holding my hands again going thru the steps, in a manly car fixing manner of course ;). unless there will be much complication with the hoses and bleeding/flushing.

please let me know so i can order the radiator.

ps. i have to say you guys gave me the bug for this DIY concept.

shihman:

The $95 charge for diagnosis is bogus. As is the hourly rate for labor in this case. All of the radiator shops I have ever worked with can eyeball the radiator to at least tell you if it's completely shot. After that, they should be able to give you a flat rate for repairing the radiator. They may have seen you coming down the block to give you that kind of quote. Think about it. How long would they stay in business if it costs more to diagnose and repair a radiator than to buy one brand new.

Go to a different radiator shop and bring the radiator with you. If they know what they are doing, they'll tell you right on the spot what you are faced with.

As far as removing the radiator, it's very straightforward as Glyn says. Once you pull away the A/C condenser that is in front of the radiator, you will be able to see that there is only one fat rubber inlet hose going to the radiator, and another outlet hose coming from the radiator. Those are the only two that you should clamp off.

As Glyn says, don't disconnect the a/c lines going to the condenser or you will have to have the a/c recharged.

After losing some coolant when I replaced the coolant reservoir, it did take a few days of driving around with the bleeder valve open to get all the air bubbles out of the system.

Take some photos before you take anything apart and that will assist you in putting everything back when you are done.

Regards, Maurice.

[itzbob46]

I would replace that radiator. For the $100-150 that's you may save by repairing it, there is a lot of your labor involved and this is something that you should do right. I am surprised that the plastic locator that I pointed out in my earlier post was not cracked. Must be because you hit the radiator in the center and the aluminum absorbed the impact rather than the radiator being pushed upward and stressing the locator.

Your car being a 2000 (don't know your milage) is a good candidate for doing a coolant change. I don't care what they say about lifetime coolant. There's a lot of c_ _p floating around in there that should be flushed. Replace it with another high quality "lifetime" coolant and you're done for the next however many years. Changing it corectly is a pita. I flushed my system out twice with distilled water.

But, the radiator labor is not complex or difficult. Just take your time and it's just a bunch of nuts, bolts and clips. I found that replaceing the bumper skin was a chore, but I did it alone. Most guys say it's not so bad. Watch how well the rubber internal parts match up to your two end grills. May take a little jiggling to make them line up right.

Bob

[shihman]

thank you all again for all the info. i will go ahead and order a new radiator now. hope fully nothing else will be needed.

i will report back when i start the job and hopefully it will be as smooth as the oil change. haha

[Loren]

thank you all again for all the info. i will go ahead and order a new radiator now. hope fully nothing else will be needed.

i will report back when i start the job and hopefully it will be as smooth as the oil change. haha

Check the hoses and buy new SS screw type clamps.

[shihman]

ok guys, so finally i got the bumper off. i know it didn't take long but just got a lot of sh*t going on. but anyway this is what is underneath. i guess i hit the center part of the radiator so it is causing it to leak on the left lower corner. see pic.

so let me know what is the next step? replace the entire radiator and what else? :help:

Shihman:

The radiator probably has to be replaced, although if the bend is not too bad and all you have is the leak, in some instances a radiator shop can re-solder the radiator or epoxy it and stop the leak.

You might be better off getting a used radiator from someone parting out their car if you don't want to spring for a new one. Take a look at the 986forum.com classifieds. There are a couple of guys parting out their 986's. You might get lucky.

One caution. Before you remove your radiator, get a couple of hose shutoff pliers and clamp the two radiator hoses shut. If you don't you're going to lose a lot of coolant and it will be that much harder to "burp" or bleed the cooling system after everything is back together. Pep Boys and Autozone sell a set of two pliers, made of red plastic that should do the job fine.

Regards, Maurice.

hey maurice, i went to autozone today to look for those shutoff pliers but they don't know what i am talking about. they have something called quick disconnect is that it or not? do you have a picture of what they look alike and i'll try pep boys next.

thanks,

[1schoir]

ok guys, so finally i got the bumper off. i know it didn't take long but just got a lot of sh*t going on. but anyway this is what is underneath. i guess i hit the center part of the radiator so it is causing it to leak on the left lower corner. see pic.

so let me know what is the next step? replace the entire radiator and what else? :help:

Shihman:

The radiator probably has to be replaced, although if the bend is not too bad and all you have is the leak, in some instances a radiator shop can re-solder the radiator or epoxy it and stop the leak.

You might be better off getting a used radiator from someone parting out their car if you don't want to spring for a new one. Take a look at the 986forum.com classifieds. There are a couple of guys parting out their 986's. You might get lucky.

One caution. Before you remove your radiator, get a couple of hose shutoff pliers and clamp the two radiator hoses shut. If you don't you're going to lose a lot of coolant and it will be that much harder to "burp" or bleed the cooling system after everything is back together. Pep Boys and Autozone sell a set of two pliers, made of red plastic that should do the job fine.

Regards, Maurice.

hey maurice, i went to autozone today to look for those shutoff pliers but they don't know what i am talking about. they have something called quick disconnect is that it or not? do you have a picture of what they look alike and i'll try pep boys next.

thanks,

It's hard to hire good help these days! :P Quick disconnect is not it.

I will go out to my garage tomorrow morning and take a photo and post it here.

Regards, Maurice.

[1schoir]

hey maurice, i went to autozone today to look for those shutoff pliers but they don't know what i am talking about. they have something called quick disconnect is that it or not? do you have a picture of what they look alike and i'll try pep boys next.

thanks,

Shihman:

Here are two photos of the pliers. I think the formal name for them is "radiator hose pinch-off pliers":

These are a cheap plastic version of the more substantial and expensive pliers, but they work just as well for this application.

You just slide that little plastic ring that is around the handles forward, open the jaws of the pliers wide and place around the radiator hose, then squeeze the pliers and pull that little plastic ring back to lock them shut.

Regards, Maurice.

[shihman]

thank you murice. yeah i definitely didn't see these at autozone yesterday. i will try pep boys later today and few other local places if they don't have it.

very clear and thank you.

[Glyn]

Shihman, you can also use mole grips or even a G clamp and at a push an adjustable wrench to sqeeze the water hose together to stop water escaping when you disconnect the hoses

[shihman]

ok guys, got my new radiator and the hose cut-off pliers and ready to go. i took off the front bumper, clean off all the debris and loosen the ac grill. now here comes my questions (did you really think i wouldn't ask anymore questions? haha). immediately my first impression is there is not enough slack of the ac hose for me to move it out of the way to get to radiator. then second problem, looking around radiator, other than the 2 clip on the right end (facing radiator) can't figure out what else is holding it so tight because it literally doesn't move. is there something else i need to remove? third, the ac hose is not long enough and even if i can somehow to get ac out of the way, the radiator hose is not long enough either, especially the upper hose.

oh yeah, studying the new radiator and found a short stem on the back side (see pic) then went to look at the attached radiator and saw a small tube is connected to it. what is it?

am i missing something or am i really that clueless and who said this is easier than the AOS?! ;)

please advice so i can get this over with.

[itzbob46]

Look at the photo on the left that is on the bottom of the first page of this thread (that Bobiam submitted). That left AC radiator is easily out of the way. Look for fasteners. You'll find them. I think there are some slide clip fasteners holding one of the radiators on. At a glance they look tricky, but are not really. You do have the inner fender off...right?

There is some metal frame towards the back of the radiator that I recall removing that supports one end of the radiator system. There is really no problem with the length of any hoses. Look again at the pic that I previosly posted and take your time identifying fasteners. It is a project that requires patience. you certainly don't want to remove all that hardware again!!!

Regarding that little plastic tube in your photo, if your old radiator has one, you're in business. I can't recall it or what it's for, but I'm sure it's nothing to worry about.

Who said easy?? I just changed spark plugs and bled the hydraulic clutch while lying on my back and comfirmed that almost nothing on these cars is easy, except dropping in a new pair of brake pads. But they're so cool.........!

Bob