how hard to replace radiator

[marwood82]

Hi,

How difficult is it to replace the radiator? (on a scale of 'can be done by 2 people on a drive' to 'for the love of god pay someone to do it for you!')

I whacked the underside of the car and managed to bend one of the brackets attached to the radiator. I think i also have a small leak from the radiator.

Ive ordered replacement parts from ed, but am wondering whether to attempt it myself.
Is there a procedure for doing it?

Simon

[Rich Hanlon]

Very much to the left of the scale you suggest. Pull off the lower hose to drain into a bowl first (undo expansion bottle cap to let the air in otherwise it'll dribble for hours). Then jack it up high and support, remove the lower brakcets and the air dam (if fitted), undo top hose, then udo the top brackets (long spingly pressed metal things that stick up at 45degrees from the chassis rail).

Replacement, as they say, is the reverse of removal.

Worth treating it to new Jubilee clips and possibly new hoses too depending on the state of your existing ones. (Buy a length of 32mm diameter hose and chop up as necessary).

Keep an eye on the dribble first though, they can self-heal, I had a drip on mine which went away, the plastic end tanks are only crimped onto the body of the rad. They seem to dribble if whumped but soon silt up again! You should be able to bend the lower bracket back into shape too.

[Rich Hanlon]

(Just realised I had fogotten all about the A/C heat exchanger which is bolted to the rad. The nuts might be tricky but not impossible. Obviously separate his from the rad to remove the rad, don't depressurise the A/C system unless you have to!)

[marwood82]

Rich Hanlon Wrote:(Just realised I had fogotten all about the A/C heat exchanger which is bolted to the rad. The nuts might be tricky but not impossible. Obviously separate his from the rad to remove the rad, don't depressurise the A/C system unless you have to!)

Yes, I was about to ask this. The exchanger is it attached to anything else?
Is there a trick to keeping this in the car so I don't need to remove the tubes.

Also, the fan is bolted to the other side. From what I could see, it just needs unbolting?
Is it best to take the rad out with the fan attached and then remove it once its out?

1 more thing, what's the best way of refilling it? I need to repressure it yes?

[Rich Hanlon]

Hmm, it's been a while but from what I recall the fan assembly just unbolts. Don't waste your time trying to remove the fans from the cowl assembly first, there's a flange around the motor which means that the cowl and motors have to come out together.

As for refilling, once everything is done up, pour coolant in through the expansion bottle. Bleed the air out of the system hrough the bleed point at the base of the water pump, or get one of Martin G's self-bleed kits. (Basically a line that goes from this location to the feed into the coolant bottle.)

Park the car facing downhill and run the engine, all the air bubbles should rise to the bleed point. They don't seem to be a tricky system to fill unlike some systems, you don't seem to get air locks too badly.