Leaking radiator

[lars]

Yes it's Friday the thirteenth, and it looks like my radiator has gone. It seems to be leaking from the "crimp" join betwen the upper plastic piece and the metal core of the matrix Top front offside of radiator. Is this the normal way these rads fail? I've just had a quick look on E-bay and they seem to vary from £100 to £200. Obviously I do not want to spend more than I need to. Could someone with experience of these products advise please, the good the bad and the ugly as it were.

[Northern Bongolow]

thats the usuall place.its the hotest point.

[missfixit70]

Seems to be a common fail point, some people had success by tightening the crimps over, but it's a bit of a gamble.
I went for the JAS rad after a few reccomendations on here - http://www.japautosolutions.com/acatalog/cooling.html it's identical to the factory fit rad, all fits in fine & does it's job fine.
Just make sure the passenger side oil cooler connection is tightened up properly, they leave it a bit slack to be able to adjust it apparantly, I thought I'd tightened it up enough, but it was still weeping slightly, needs to be really well tightened, not a big issue, just thought I'd mention it

[321Away]

i've fitted lots of different rads from various sources and have never had any problems with the ebay versions, some of the ebay types are all metal construction
Julian

[al & chris]

We went for JAS seems fine.

[lars]

It would have been a bit pointless asking for advice and recommendations and then ignoring them, so I bought a radiator from JAS, total cost £153.50. It looks identical to the original and as mentioned that loose auto box cooler pipe is a bit odd. I tried to follow the "Fact Sheet" way but of the ten bolts holding fans and pipe guides, two came out, two sheared and the rest spun in the plastic. As I now faced a lot of work to remove these I looked again only to see that the fact sheet was creating work, there was no need to grovel under the vehicle to undo the fans at all! 1. Remove top air duct. 2. Remove lower duct. 3. Remove electrical connections to fans 4. Remove all pipes from rad blocking as necessary. 5. Remove top rad retaining brackets. 6. Remove rad complete with fans. 7. Now comfortably remove fans from rad on the bench. Thanks for the help once again.

[mikexgough]

Result ...............and some good additional tips....

[321Away]

Thats how i do rads, from the top, if you undo the oil cooler pipes where they go from metal to rubber (against off side rail) then its a lot easier and doesnt require removing bits underneath and as you state you can remove everything esle on the bench. When you remove several radiators a week for kettle tests its the only way to do it.
Julian