so ive been having coolant issues with my 94 concours for quite some time now. a year or two ago i stopped driving completely becasue i thought i had a "hole" in my engine block. ended up i needed to replace my water pump because of the weep hole. anyways, led me to replace everything from the water pump all the way to the lower radiator hose. after that i still am having leaking issues, but obviously much less and it doesnt cause my car to overheat unless i fail to fill my radiator up every few days.

so my question is two-fold really. first of all, when i replace the radiator i am worried about doing it myself. this is because of the oil and transaxle lines that come out of the radiator. are these actually filled with the respective fuilds, or are they just pumping coolant to those areas? the reason i ask is cuz i dont want to f* up my car by not doing this correctly, and not having those portions of my car cooled.

secondly, when i look online all the radiators are just the one long tank. on my car it looks like there are really two radiators. the larger one i see online, and then there is a smaller one in front of the radiator that also has a line coming out of it. (im thining this is my oil coolant line) so is there really two parts to the radiator that i need to replace, or is going with just the large tank going to do me good?

oh, and the reason i know its the radiator is when i had my oil changed so i could start driving it again they pressure tested my coolant system and tols me it was the radiator i needed to replace. also, everytime i drive the car there is a noticable smell of coolant when i get out of the car. i dont have coolant in the oil though, was told that by the shop.

thanks guys, i look forward to hearing the intelligent responses i always get from here.

 

so i kind of answered my questions already... i talked to a mechanic in town about some of this and he told me that the lines do carry only coolant to the specific areas the lines go, not their respective fluids. Also, he told me that the smaller radiator in front was actually for the a/c system and not the coolant system.

this actually brought up another question though. he had told me that when i pull the radiator i should be replacing that smaller one has well. he also told me that i would have to discharge the a/c completely to do so... is this correct? also, i was wondering if it is a good idea to replace both at once, or a requirement at all. in the chilton manual it says nothing about a/c in the section to replace the radiator so im wondering if he just wants me to spend more money.

thanks guys, ill be waiting to replace my radiator until i have a little bit more information.

 

Small rad should be for tranny cooler should it not?? Lines should have oil in them and not coolant, unless of course things got changed somewhere along the line that I'm not aware of. Rad change should be no problem for you just don't get the oil contaminated in the process.Trace all the lines to where they go and it will all make sense.

 

hmmm, this sounds quite odd!

i am not familiar with your model but in my experience, the standard radiator with a transmission cooler is all one unit .. the lines to the transmission carry transmission fluid.

the small radiator up front is or should be part of the A/C system and i certainly would not disconnect that one unless you are also doing a A/C overhaul (another $500 - $900) .. in my opinion, if your A/C is working, do not open up the system. carefully work around it, protect the fins (a sheet of cardboard) while you pull the standard radiator.

the standard radiator these days has a transmission cooler either on the side or on the bottom - these do not run coolant but simply cool down the fluid being pumped by the transmission to the radiator by being in contact with incoming air and sharing a common wall with the coolant section itself.


as cadsforfun above stated, take great care of those trani oil lines to the transmission .. cover the ends for sure, and use EXTREME CAUTION when both removing the nuts and when re-attaching .. if you screw that up, you will damage the new radiator and face buying ANOTHER radiator. I should know!!!


maybe the mechanic was not able to explain it? I cant see any mechanic thinking that unless you got a CUSTOM job .. but you didnt say that.

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And there in is where my problem lies... I've been told by a few different mechanics at shops that when i pull the radiator that the lines coming off it will have coolant running throught them... even the chilton manual says nothing about having to cap or worry about the fluids to the respective lines, so i may have to do some calling around and see if anyone will detail their radiator removal procedures for me so i can get a better idea here. this is the one step that is holding me back from doing the replacement myself. i am comfortable doing this if i know im not going to be mixing anything, or run the transmission fluid too low and f* my tranny or anything like that. otherwise the cheapest place i found would be like $225 after coolant to replace the radiator, and thats only if i bring in a radiator to them and dont have it warranteed...

the one thing i noticied is that i only can see 1 line coming out of the radiator on the drivers side. the onther line runs to the a/c condensor which is the smaller radiator that i was talking about. so i guess i have a new question...

if i do end up doing the replacement myself, how would i go about capping the lines to make sure no tranny/ oil fluids are introduced to the new radiator/ vice versa with coolant in the oil/ tranny fluid?

thanks guys, i always get good help here. makes me think more than just answering my questions

 

1. sounds like a re-core of your own radiator.

2. A/C component, dont disconnect. its not only expensive, its dangerous.

3. that's just common sense .. if you dont have caps, put a zip lock bag over the ends, wrap a rubber band, that is just to keep them clean .. you are not going to drive it anyways.



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that is actually the price i got to put a brand new radiator in my car, with the coolant to top it off. the only thing is the place wont warrantee anything if they dont buy the part to make money off me...

yeah, i was wondering if i would just have to jimmy rig something to cap them. the reason i asked is because i thought maybe there was some procedure so that im not just unscrewing the lines and just have oil or tranny fluid start shooting out. but i definitely have plenty of ziploc bags and rubber bands if that will actually work to keep everyting serperated.

i appreciate the help guys. im gonna give the dealership a call this weekend and see if i can get one of the guys to tell me how they handle radiator changes. but either way i still have to order my new radiator so it'll be at least a week til i have time to get it in there if i go and do it myself.

so... is there a specific brand that anyone out there would recommend i use, or stay away from? also, obviously im gonna do some measuring before i buy it, but could anyone tell me why the dimensions on radiators that say will fit my concours vary widely in the opennings? thanks again guys, always get great answers from here

 

the $225 is to install, not including the radiator? i'm in the wrong biz!

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