After noticing a coolant smell near the upper radiator hose area, and taking it in and having a pressure test reveal nothing, the leak got bad enough that the underside of rubber radiator mount was wet all the time. I took it in today and I'm being told the radiator is cracked and needs replacing (I was hoping, of course, that it was just the draincock O ring). The quoted price is about $520 total US before tax.
I checked the NAPA website and the price I'm being quoted for the radiator from the dealer is actually less than NAPA, and from the shop manual I know it's a pretty involved job, so I'm not too shocked at the cost.
The question, though, is this a common thing to have happen? Are there any particular causes of this kind of failure? Anything I can do to prevent it in the future? Any chance of getting GM to split the cost with me (yeah, right :)?
Car is an 02 Impala LS, about 49K miles.