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ATOT car repair guru help! I have a radiator problem

N

NeoPTLD

Platinum Member
Hello all,

I am having a car problem and I would like to get some advise from car repair gurus. I was going up a hill in the hilly terrains of western Portland with a few friends with combined weight of 300lbs or so. When we got the place pretty high up in the hill, my friend commented about some weird smell. When we got out of my car I noticed a hiss coming from my car and a bit of inspection revealed a coolant leak.

We drove back to my place and left my car and walked over to my friend's place. The next morning, I looked for a leak. I saw a leak on the top part of radiator which is made of some kind of plastic. There was a crack in the part with numbers written on it. I took it over to a tech savvy friend carrying a several gallons of water and running the heater full blast the whole time and he said the top hose wasn't hot all, so my thermostat must be shot. We changed my thermostat, filled the radiator with new coolant and this Stop-Leak thing that looks like glue with glitter in it.

Cooling system appears to work fine, except it leaks. It leaks slowly to moderately, but steadily. When I do anything beyond gentle city driving, coolant sprays everywhere from the crack making it necessary to top it off. The cooling system cools fine, yet there's not any pressure at the radiator top and I'm assuming it's losing all the pressure through the crack.


I think plastic parts in high temperature, pressurized section of the cooling system is uber stupid! Ford's known to use plastic radiator parts and from what I hear, they're notorious for developing leaks.

The car is 92 or 93 Mazda van and it has a V6 3L engine, which shares many designs with Ford. Is there a way this crack can be fixed?, albeit I'm not hoping too much on this. Should it need to be replaced can I replace the plastic part separately or must I replace the whole damn radiator? I need all kinds of advise and all are appreciated from how to fix, where to get parts cheap and basically anything that might be helpful.

These are some pics:

Engine bay
Crack
Another shot of cracked area
 
Originally posted by: Roger
The only cure is to replace the radiator.
Click to expand...


Are you serious? 🙁

I'm looking to sell the van soon, so something that will patch up for 6months is good to go.
 
Before you freak out see how much a new radiator cost.
autozone will work
I had to buy one for my caravan and it was only $80 but yours will probably be more expensive. A lot of the car companys run plastic end tanks now I guess to save money. It usually pretty easy to replace a radiator and while your at it replace the hoses and thermostat.

You can try some more stop leak but I wouldn't hold your breath.
 
Originally posted by: NeoPTLD
Hello all,

I am having a car problem and I would like to get some advise from car repair gurus. I was going up a hill in the hilly terrains of western Portland with a few friends with combined weight of 300lbs or so. When we got the place pretty high up in the hill, my friend commented about some weird smell. When we got out of my car I noticed a hiss coming from my car and a bit of inspection revealed a coolant leak.

We drove back to my place and left my car and walked over to my friend's place. The next morning, I looked for a leak. I saw a leak on the top part of radiator which is made of some kind of plastic. There was a crack in the part with numbers written on it. I took it over to a tech savvy friend carrying a several gallons of water and running the heater full blast the whole time and he said the top hose wasn't hot all, so my thermostat must be shot. We changed my thermostat, filled the radiator with new coolant and this Stop-Leak thing that looks like glue with glitter in it.

Cooling system appears to work fine, except it leaks. It leaks slowly to moderately, but steadily. When I do anything beyond gentle city driving, coolant sprays everywhere from the crack making it necessary to top it off. The cooling system cools fine, yet there's not any pressure at the radiator top and I'm assuming it's losing all the pressure through the crack.


I think plastic parts in high temperature, pressurized section of the cooling system is uber stupid! Ford's known to use plastic radiator parts and from what I hear, they're notorious for developing leaks.

The car is 92 or 93 Mazda van and it has a V6 3L engine, which shares many designs with Ford. Is there a way this crack can be fixed?, albeit I'm not hoping too much on this. Should it need to be replaced can I replace the plastic part separately or must I replace the whole damn radiator? I need all kinds of advise and all are appreciated from how to fix, where to get parts cheap and basically anything that might be helpful.

These are some pics:

Engine bay
Crack
Another shot of cracked area
Click to expand...


You can try to take it to a radiator shop. They may be able to replace the tank, which is the plastic part that's broken. That would be the cheapest. The second cheapest thing would be to contact a salvage yard.

BTW, if you loosen your cap so the radiator doesn't build pressure, the leak won't be so bad. That's a temporary fix at best, but it's enough to keep you from walking several miles.
 
Originally posted by: thedarkwolf
Before you freak out see how much a new radiator cost.
autozone will work
I had to buy one for my caravan and it was only $80 but yours will probably be more expensive. A lot of the car companys run plastic end tanks now I guess to save money. It usually pretty easy to replace a radiator and while your at it replace the hoses and thermostat.

You can try some more stop leak but I wouldn't hold your breath.
Click to expand...

Can you explain a bit more about Autozone? If I'm not getting a new radiator, what am I getting at Autozone???
 
I've had good success with JB Weld. If you clean the area really well, and follow the directions of the JB Weld precisely, it will work. It only has to hold about 16 lbs of pressure, which really isn't that much.

As far as the comments on Ford using plastic, give me a break, the japs first came up with that brain child back in the 70's!
 
Be glad you're getting rid of it that stop leak stuff is horrible, it fills the cooling passsages in the engine has been known to help clog heater core's, etc.
 
Originally posted by: Soybomb
Be glad you're getting rid of it that stop leak stuff is horrible, it fills the cooling passsages in the engine has been known to help clog heater core's, etc.
Click to expand...
But it will get you down the road in a pinch. Every car should have one in the trunk for emergency, IMHO.
I go with#1 cheapest Salvage yard for a straight out replacement, although that's a crap shoot and you gotta look around.
#2 Radiator Shop for repair of your tank next best. If they replace it, it 's the most expensive.
#3 Replace the whole thing with a new one , yourself.



 
Originally posted by: AlienCraft
Originally posted by: Soybomb
Be glad you're getting rid of it that stop leak stuff is horrible, it fills the cooling passsages in the engine has been known to help clog heater core's, etc.
Click to expand...
But it will get you down the road in a pinch. Every car should have one in the trunk for emergency, IMHO.
I go with#1 cheapest Salvage yard for a straight out replacement, although that's a crap shoot and you gotta look around.
#2 Radiator Shop for repair of your tank next best. If they replace it, it 's the most expensive.
#3 Replace the whole thing with a new one , yourself.
Click to expand...
I will have my car towed before I use that stuff. 😀
 
I wiped down the area best I can with water. I don't have access to running water at our basement parking garage. I finished it off with alcohol to remove oil residue. I put some JB Weld on it and it is just left sitting there to let the JB Weld cure. Hopefully, this will keep it from losing coolant. It's only a band aid though. Gawd, car problems piss me off :disgust:
 
I've never heard of a successful repair of the plastic tanked radiators.

It should be replaced. If it were to fail completely and you overheated the motor you'd be looking at thousands in repairs as opposed to a couple hundred.
 
Originally posted by: Tominator
I've never heard of a successful repair of the plastic tanked radiators.

It should be replaced. If it were to fail completely and you overheated the motor you'd be looking at thousands in repairs as opposed to a couple hundred.
Click to expand...

And how long have you been working in the automotive business? I've seen it done dozens of times. I've seen lots of stuff repaired with JB weld. Is it the best repair possible? No, but it will get you through a pinch if you have little or no other choice. I've been in the auto repair business for 25+ years, so don't tell me what you've heard of.
 
When you look at the pics, you'll see two screw holes on top of the radiator. That's where intake duct sits. With the plastic duct(not manifold) removed, I caught a puddle of anti-freeze in the air filter assembly. The coolant leak spraying out must have got sucked in by air intake.

For now: I JB Welded

New radiator: $220 at AutoZone.com. I will probably have to replace it myself with a help of friends.

RossMAN: I was going up the hill on SW Vista St all the way to Council Crest area.
 
Originally posted by: jemcam
Originally posted by: Tominator
I've never heard of a successful repair of the plastic tanked radiators.

It should be replaced. If it were to fail completely and you overheated the motor you'd be looking at thousands in repairs as opposed to a couple hundred.
Click to expand...

And how long have you been working in the automotive business? I've seen it done dozens of times. I've seen lots of stuff repaired with JB weld. Is it the best repair possible? No, but it will get you through a pinch if you have little or no other choice. I've been in the auto repair business for 25+ years, so don't tell me what you've heard of.
Click to expand...

I've seen a cracked John Deere transmission casing sealed with JB Weld, it still goes strong and doesn't leak. I crashed my R/C airplane and ripped the tail off. The screw holes were stripped out, so I JB Welded it back on... still works 😀
 
When are you people going to learn ?

JB Weld is for the back yard hacker, Yes it good if you are stuck on the side of the road and need a quick fix to get you home, but as for a permanent repair ?

Never

The only proper way of repairing this is to replace the radiator, why chance a blown headgasket or cracked cylinder head ?

It's people like Jemcam that keep me in business.
I suppose you use coat hangers to fix exhaust problems as well.

 
Originally posted by: jemcam
Originally posted by: Tominator
I've never heard of a successful repair of the plastic tanked radiators.

It should be replaced. If it were to fail completely and you overheated the motor you'd be looking at thousands in repairs as opposed to a couple hundred.
Click to expand...

And how long have you been working in the automotive business? I've seen it done dozens of times. I've seen lots of stuff repaired with JB weld. Is it the best repair possible? No, but it will get you through a pinch if you have little or no other choice. I've been in the auto repair business for 25+ years, so don't tell me what you've heard of.
Click to expand...


I am not a mechanic, but to answer your question, my first job in the automotive field was in 1972.

My father was an aircraft mechanic in the Army.

My father-in-law was a Pontiac mechanic for 15+ years and service writer/ service manager for Cadillac for 20+ years.

I've built my own motors since before 1972 and still do both motorcycle and automotive work as a hobby. Until late last year I was involved in maintainence of the nation's largest over the road Class 8 carrier. They would not allow JB Weld in the shop!

It is cheaper to enact the proper repair than a patch job. If you were to sell the van and then have the repair fail I would think a small claims court visit is in your future.

The is a right way and a wrong way to do damn near anything. The only right way to repair a plastic topped radiator is with a new one.
 
Originally posted by: jemcam
I've had good success with JB Weld. If you clean the area really well, and follow the directions of the JB Weld precisely, it will work. It only has to hold about 16 lbs of pressure, which really isn't that much.

As far as the comments on Ford using plastic, give me a break, the japs first came up with that brain child back in the 70's!
Click to expand...

ditto, try JB first.
 
Originally posted by: Roger
When are you people going to learn ?

JB Weld is for the back yard hacker, Yes it good if you are stuck on the side of the road and need a quick fix to get you home, but as for a permanent repair ?

Never

The only proper way of repairing this is to replace the radiator, why chance a blown headgasket or cracked cylinder head ?

It's people like Jemcam that keep me in business.
I suppose you use coat hangers to fix exhaust problems as well.
Click to expand...


I respect your thoughts Roger, but I was trying to give the guy a cheap alternative until he can find something better. I did say it's not the best repair, but it can and will do just fine until he can do it properly.

I've seen it done dozens of times. I've seen lots of stuff repaired with JB weld. Is it the best repair possible? No, but it will get you through a pinch if you have little or no other choice.
Click to expand...

What's with the coat hanger comment? I'm just trying to give the guy another alternative. I don't know if he's a college student or what, but I've been dead broke many times and have had to make do with substandard repairs, so I was just passing on something to him. I fully realize that JB weld isn't the type of repair you'd attempt and then jump in the car for a cross country trip.

NeoPTLD, what did you ever come up with?
 
I don't know if he's a college student or what, but I've been dead broke many times and have had to make do with substandard repairs, so I was just passing on something to him.
Click to expand...
Flat broke or not, it always costs more in the long run to do a hack-job. In some instances it's necessary when a proper repair costs more than the car is worth (ie, my floorpan repair on my Accord using a piece of scrap tin, pop-rivits, and lots of silicone, real repair would have been a couple thousand dollars), but in this case it just doesn't make any sense unless he's going to replace the radiator in a couple of weeks and absolutely needs the car in the mean time.

ZV
 
NeoPTLD, what did you ever come up with?
Click to expand...

For almost a month, JB Weld + Stop Leak thing have kept the radiator from rapidly losing coolant. It is starting to leak quite a bit again. The time has come for replacing the radiator and I have purchased a aftermarket Modine radiator, NAPA upper and lower hose all from NAPA Autoparts in Beaverton.

I haven't had the time to change the radiator. Is it a good idea to use Modine radiator in place of OEM? The Modine does not have plastic tank and it's all metal construction.
 
I haven't had the time to change the radiator. Is it a good idea to use Modine radiator in place of OEM? The Modine does not have plastic tank and it's all metal construction.
Click to expand...

Modine is one of the best radiator manufactures in the world 😉

Read the thread again, what was my advice ?

 
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