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Hi guys, I recently discovered a coolant leak but don’t know where it’s coming from. Seems to be around the foam area. I just replaced the cap and the hose going to the reservoir but those didn’t help. Is my radiator done for? You can see coolant pooling around the foam area. Any help is greatly appreciated
yes a few days ago I lifted the hood and noticed dried coolant everywhere (mostly on the driver side, little on the passenger) and the reservoir was empty so I wiped everything, did a complete flush, and filled back up the radiator and reservoir. There’s still some dried coolant I missed, you can see in the second pic.
Common once mileage starts to get up there as the plastic end caps start to get brittle and break. Happened to me around 80k miles, too. Replace it. Koyorad and CSF are good alternatives if you don't want to go with the OEM one again.
Common once mileage starts to get up there as the plastic end caps start to get brittle and break. Happened to me around 80k miles, too. Replace it. Koyorad and CSF are good alternatives if you don't want to go with the OEM one again.
yeah I guess it’s about that time to replace the radiator @138k miles right now. I wanted to stick with OEM but don’t want to spend $300 for it so I’ll probably get the Koyo OE one. This may be a dumb question: do you know if the OEM cap will fit the Koyo OE radiator? Just spent $25 on that at Honda so would love to not have to buy a new cap.
Common once mileage starts to get up there as the plastic end caps start to get brittle and break. Happened to me around 80k miles, too. Replace it. Koyorad and CSF are good alternatives if you don't want to go with the OEM one again.
My car is a '00 and I'm pretty sure my radiator is original. I figure once it goes I'll be going with a Koyo. It doesn't come with the foam though so I guess you have to do a little retrofitting to it.
yeah I guess it’s about that time to replace the radiator @138k miles right now. I wanted to stick with OEM but don’t want to spend $300 for it so I’ll probably get the Koyo OE one. This may be a dumb question: do you know if the OEM cap will fit the Koyo OE radiator? Just spent $25 on that at Honda so would love to not have to buy a new cap.
Let me know where you end up ordering the Koyo from. I'm also looking to replace my rad with a Koyo as well and it would be awesome to find it for a decent price.
It might be premature to think of replacing the radiator, I wouldn't rush to replace it just yet.
The coolant is sitting on top of the foam, that tells me it is leaking from a source higher up, like the cap or that one hose connection. The metal to plastic crimps which leak on failing rads are located below the foam, if leaks start there it would not cause fluid to sit on top of the foam, so I don't think it is leaking at the plastic to metal crimp zone.
Check the hose clamp on that one upper hose, it looks like fluid has been leaking in that area, the clamp and hose may need adjusting. The other source of leakage can be the rad cap. The radiator may need to be bled of air, if there is excess air in the system it can cause the rad cap to leak due to excessive pressure in the radiator. The cap can puke fluid while driving if pressure in the rad gets too high. A bleed procedure may help if you have air in the cooling system.
Let me know where you end up ordering the Koyo from. I'm also looking to replace my rad with a Koyo as well and it would be awesome to find it for a decent price.
04-24-2021, 11:23 PM
Radiator leak
