I do believe there is something missing.. half my radiator..

[aaronjb]

Helloooo fingers!




There was still some water left in the radiator, but not a great deal (perhaps 20% of it's capacity), and not a lot anywhere else in the cooling system, either.. hopefully no other damage was done, and hopefully it is the radiator that burst, rather than a pipe I can't find.

It's certainly very wet all under the radiator, all the way across the car:




Still, I suppose the radiator is 7 years old with 77,000 miles on the clock - it's not a bad life, really.  I'd even been planning to do the rad this year - I just didn't plan on doing it quite this way!

[uktotty]

Wow looks just like mine. there is an awesome aluminum one on eBay, doddle to fit   s:bounce: :bounce: s:bounce:    s:bounce: :bounce: s:bounce:

[aaronjb]

Yeah - I have a replacement turning up tomorrow (courier problems notwithstanding) - 30 mins to get it out, should be quicker to get the new one in..


Aaaand then I have all the fun of bleeding the system  s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

[E]

OMG   s:scared: :scared: s:scared:   I hope there is no permanent damage.

[uktotty]

I win!!!

[E]

Ha ha think of the reduced wind resistance  s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

[Anonymous]

Great weight saving too.

[aaronjb]

lol  s:) s:)  I've already saved 17Kg, I don't need to save the weight of a few little aluminium fins! (OK so that weight saving technically isn't off the car, but off me.. but I'm the one driving the car, so it counts  s:P s:P  )

[Anonymous]

Aaron mate, any chance of sending that weight to me? I only weigh 60kg  s:( s:(

[aaronjb]

 s:lol: :lol: s:lol:  Sure - I'll post it up to you  s;) s;)

So the replacement rad turned up today - actually I ordered two, one Alu race rad (turned out to be out of stock, so got a refund) and one pattern replacement from a motor factors.

At first I thought perhaps they had sent me the radiator for a Scania truck - the box is 2/3rds my height!:



But no, there was just another box inside.. still looks a bit big, perhaps it's for a Luton van?



Ah, no, behold, it's just really, really well packaged:




So - it's a full metal construction (metal end tanks, soldered core) 'proper' radiator that appears at first glance to be a match.  I'll compare it properly later, and if it's good I shall tell you all where I got it from - because it was only £90!

[cclarke99]

Obviously a bad time for radiators as mine went last week at 7 years 65K miles. I'm afraid I was a bit short of time, so paid someone to replace it, cost me £260 for the whole job. I only noticed there was something wrong when the temperature shot up and the heater stopped working. I had to refill the system to drive it to the garage, but it wasn't too hard to bleed following the Toyota instructions and revving the engine to about 3K rpm to stir things up.

[aaronjb]

Yep, similar age to mine and Russ' when his went too - I think 7 years is actually not a bad run for an alu cored radiator, really.

The new rad is in and plumbed in - so to sum up:

Good points:
* Very cheap
* All copper construction
* Fits pretty well

Bad points
* Inlet pipe is maybe 1/8" too low so the pipe isn't quite as easy to get back on as the stock radiator
* Inlet/outlets must be ever so slightly larger because it's a nightmare to get those stupid spring clamps over the swage on the pipe
* Bleed/drain plugs are the 'old style' slotted thumbscrew, rather than the stock Toyota items

Oh and mine did get a knock in shipping, that dented the drain plug - so I only have half a drain plug (length wise!) - it'll seal, and when was the last time you used a drain plug anyway?

Now the slow job of filling the damn thing up! It's draining in ever so slowly, so I'll just keep popping out every 20 mins and adding a bit more to the tank, before I start it. There's definitely coolant in the rad, at least, just not up to the bleed bung yet  s:) s:)

[aaronjb]

Note to self: Refit fan tray to radiator before putting radiator in car, even if that makes it harder to get the pipes on.

Because once it's in and full of water, you're really not going to want to take the radiator back out when you can't get the bloody fan tray to go back on it's little clips.

!£!*@&Y£!

[aaronjb]

Ok - I'm not sure I could really recommend this radiator unless you're happy with .. er.. a slight bodge.

The inlet & outlet hoses are ever so slightly farther down than they should be, which means the fan tray doesn't quite fit on it's little pegs - one slight modification of the fan tray later (with a large file) and it fits..

Except the bolt holes at the top for it to bolt to are in the wrong places by about 1/8", so the top is now fastened with cable ties rather than bolts.


Still, it seems to be bled now - hot air from the heater, hot water on both sides of the radiator at top & bottom, and the temp gauge (on the PFC) didn't budge over 84C even with the fans disconnected when idling - the old radiator couldn't manage that little feat!

I'll take it for a run later on and fingers crossed everything will be fine.. (apart from my arm, which has a few chunks of flesh missing from cramming it down between the radiator & power steering pump!)

[uktotty]

Send it back mate, mine was a simlar price but TOTALLY right, the guys who made mine aparently make the Toyota ones, so they are identical.

[aaronjb]

That would be hard - it's in the car now.. it's not coming out until it expires! Kinda need a car to get to work and look at houses, anyhow  s;) s;)

[Anonymous]

I've only heard of a couple of radiator failures before.   I guess when something decides to give, it just self-destructs.   Best of luck with the new one, Aaron.

[aaronjb]

Thanks Kevin  s:) s:)

Rad failures seem to be quite common over here - I believe it's the salt in the winter which speeds up the normal aluminium oxidisation to the point that they just.. well, fall apart.  Happens on all cars at some point, although some manufacturers are now fitting 100% plastic radiators (very strange, if you ask me!).

Anyway, as an update - after a little adjusting the fans are working fine, and the radiator keeps me at a nice 86C on the motorway, 89C in traffic - which is cooler than the stock radiator managed with half it's fins missing  s;) s;)

So now I can get back to business - should have the turbo manifold milled flat (the flange twisted during welding  s:( s:(  ) in the next week or so and then it can go back on at last  s:) s:)

[uktotty]

Nothing worse than a twisted flange!

[aaronjb]

I know, it's a painful affliction!