[kcaz007]

He claims my radiator has a lot of corrosion towards the bottom and I saw it, seemed like it was true. Do i really need a new radiator??? He made it sound like it is one of the most important parts of our cars and highly recommended i change it. He quickly called up and found 2 prices, one 400$ and one 275$. What do you think...is it bad enough to get a new one?? I'd guess about 15%-25% off the bottom had some whiteish color to it (corrosion). Thanks!

 

[VR-4_Owner]

Corrosion? On a plastic/aluminum radiator? I'd give it a good cleaning and inspection before I went that far... Besides all you need to do to take the radiator out is remove 4 bolts and a few hoses. it's not like it's on of those, "while we can get at it" kind of situations...

 

[kcaz007]

He did take it out, and claims i need a new one...what do i inspect it for? I will clean it up and then tell him to re-use it? He advised strongly against it, but as long as these things don't go bad, i will if you all say its ok. Thanks--please reply again

 

[VR-4_Owner]

I can't tell you if it's good or not by your description... I've never heard of a radiator corroding away and starting to leak.... Well not one of our modern radiators anyway. Ask him how much he want's to charge you in labor. If it's more than 75 bucks, don't bother he's trying to shaft you. I swapped one out in 15 minutes.

 

[kcaz007]

Its already out, he's just telling me this as a precaution when he installs my engine. He said something about the head could overheat if it is bad. I talked to my dad and he said that I should just bring it over to a radiator shop and have it looked at instead of replacing it. ANy comments
Thanks again

EDIT: forgot to mention this: the car i bought (the 92 vr4) was sitting outside on the guys lawn for 7 months, maybe that's why it was corroded?

 

[Mista Grimm]

You can take it to a radiator shop and they'll crack it open and rod it out for you for about $60. Then it gets soldered back together and painted. If not, they'll tell you it's bad or whatever.

 

[brainfood]

This is a good time to ask... anyone know if the 2nd gen eclipse radiators are the same as ours... look pretty similar... if they are then we could get a new aftermarket aluminum radiator might be a little lighter and keep things cooler.

 

[GCtech Industries]

sup `

if the worse man , i suggest u get an aluminum radiator ,,, what ??? they dont make it for the 3000gt ..........wrongggg...
the eclipse gsx is the same as ours ... fluidyne has one ,, u can get ot from road race engineering for $350 dollars

 

[Andrew Caple]

You *can* get corrosion in our systems. The heads are aluminum, the block is iron. Two dissimilar metals induce electron transfer from the one to the other, which means - rust.

I'm guessing that our interlocutor here is simply seeing it all piled up in the bottom of his radiator, not that it necessarily came from the radiator itself.

Whatever you do to solve your problem, just make sure in future that you change your engine coolant no less frequently than every two years - considering how cheap rad fluid is, annually is certainly financially feasible. Clean coolant will reduce, if not eliminate altogether, your problem.

Rust in your system can be bad in another way - just picture what could happen to your engine if some big flake of rust floats around and plugs up one of your water cooling passages in the block. Your cooling system should be kept as squeeky-clean as your wife's own plumbing.