Do it yourself auto repair thread.

[coriolis]

My car radiator has been leaking and its to the point of leaking about a gallon a day. The stop-leak stuff worked for a while, but the leak comes back with a vengeance. Makes me wonder if the leak is progressing along a seam. I went to the auto salvage yard yesterday and got a new, used radiator (guaranteed), for $50, (vs. $250 for a new one plus labor) and plan to do it myself this weekend.

The job looks pretty straighforward. The only connections are the two hoses and the two tubes for the auto transmission. I do have a question: do those tubes to the tranny carry coolant or trans fluid? That would be a consideration to avoid cross contamination. If they carry trans fluid, will I need to bleed anything in the tranny to purge air?

[Miss Mary]

Ed - PM thundercat. He's into cars and perhaps does his own car repair. Wish I could help you out but geez, hubby doesn't even do his own car repair. LOL Seriously though, try Scott/Thundercat. He's quite the character I know, posting song lyrics, etc. but get past that and he's an okay guy.

Good luck.

Mary

[Lindaloo]

Ed,

What kind of car is it? Some cars have bleeder fittings on them for the coolant. If it does, crank it up, let it warm up and bleed it and be sure it is full of coolant.

Transmission fluid flows through, not coolant. Hook up the transmission lines, crank it up and then check the transmission fluid. When you take the hoses off you may lose a little bit of transmission fluid, but not enough to worry about.

Also, did you know that you could have replaced the core in the radiator probably cheaper than the junk yard deal.

[GrimReaper]

After you follow Linda's advice, you might also want to do a radiator flush, because even if the junk radiator you bought is guaranteed.....it, too, could be full of corrosion, and you'd be back to square one!!
I do the accounting work for several auto-repair shops, and hear all the chatter about repair work!

Good Luck

[coriolis]

Hmm, Linda, this has plastic tanks on the ends. I am told that these are basically "throw away" units that can't be soldered like the all-metal ones that used to be in cars. I am assuming that this means that it can't be recored. Tell me if I'm wrong, I learned most of my knowledge the hard way!

[Lindaloo]

Nope, can't be re-cored.

[streetsoldier]

It's a FACT that automakers don't make the bulk of their income on sales of new cars, but on PARTS...hence, Ed, you are another victim of "planned obsolescence".

Trust me on this one...my younger brother was a GM Master Mechanic, and before that worked for MOPAR dealers...it was he that laid the "bitter truth" on me....and, now, to you.

[Lindaloo]

It's a FACT that automakers don't make the bulk of their income on sales of new cars, but on PARTS...hence, Ed, you are another victim of "planned obsolescence".

Trust me on this one...my younger brother was a GM Master Mechanic, and before that worked for MOPAR dealers...it was he that laid the "bitter truth" on me....and, now, to you.

Well Bill, if that were true I would be VERY rich. Don't stereotype all mechanics. MAJOR car dealers are the ones doing this. Not self employed mechanics.

[coriolis]

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

It only took about two hours with a break for breakfast. No major surprises. It was actually easier than I expected. I had only one "spare" part left over - some sort of clip thingy that was at the bottom of the radiator. It seems to be holding water. After it cools off, I'll go get some radiator flush and do that. I found the leak in the old radiator after it was out. One of the tubes was all rotten. I'm glad I got it out before I had a catastrophic failure.

Next job: overhaul the automatic transmission. Ha Ha.

PS, Linda: is your husband hiring?

[Lindaloo]

LOL Ed!! I am glad it went smoothly.

Yes he is hiring, I will send out his Leer jet to pick you up each morning. LOL!!

[rockythehusky]

Wow, this one was almost up my alley, too bad I didn't catch it when you posted it. The only thing is that I have always dealt with radiator problems on 2 of my cars and they were easy fixes with stop leak, but I do have enough mechanical knowledge to get by. I can pretty much take a Ford 302 aka 5.0 apart almost in my sleep having done it so many times. Also, I am pretty knowledgable with the GM 3800 (3.8) especially in the Camaros.

[streetsoldier]

Lindaloo, you are correct; most of the price-gouging comes from dealers' "super-bays", yet...even the freelancers have to pay for model-specific parts, not including "rebuilts"; and many of these are ONLY available from "authorized" dealers.

[Lindaloo]

Well, when my husband has to buy a part from the dealer he gets a discount. I do not know how much of a discount, but I know he hates it when he has to buy from the dealer! So must not be much.