So, I woke up this morning, Car wasn’t blowing hot air in the vents..
Moving the hot/cold slide back and forth on the dashboard I can tell the baffle is working properly,
Well, next thing to check was if the radiator was full/leaking…
The heat pipes on this car come off the top of the Radiator..
The reservoir tank was empty. Great.
I grab the gallon of distilled water I keep in the trunk for emergencies.
Fill the reservoir and it immediately splashing onto the concrete below the car.
Great.
So, Peeking under the hood I noticed the reservoir is cracked.
I take some pictures…
Well, How did that get there? Huge hole and crack in the tank…
So I take the front bumper off the car, the first step to getting that tank out,
which just happens to be part of the fan for the radiator.
Oh look,
The radiator is bent in, So this ‘Excellent’ condition used car I bought has been in an undocumented front end collision.
They replaced the surrounding metal thingies and not the radiator.
When the radiator was pushed in, the engine hit the coolant tank, and I suppose over time the cracks in the tank just failed.
After removing the top post holding the radiator in and pulling the fan/tank assembly out,
Had to order the tank/fan assembly from AutoZone,
Not a bad price of $130.
Same part was $190 at Advance Auto Parts (wtf?)
I thought about using some flextape…
or epoxy and patching up…
but nah, might as well do it right.
I’m not going to replace the radiator yet as I stared at it for quite some time,
I don’t see any visible … issues… in the metal at the bottom on the front or back.
Also it’ll save me $200 for now, and save me having to disconnect the transmission lines and stuff on the radiator….
Welp, Have to wait for daylight tomorrow to put it all back together as the part didn’t come in till late.
Oh, As an added bonus, everyone always makes jokes about 10mm sockets being hard to find..
Ta Da!
