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radiator crack?

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.

Reply to
gad
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Reply to
Shep

Common enough that radiator shops stay in business. Try one of them for a price. It may be repairable rather than just replaceable. They come apart and cores or housings can be replaced rather than the entire assembly.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

The $520 was total, parts/labor/fresh coolant. The actual rad price was $275, figured that was reasonable given what I found online.

Reply to
gad

Reply to
Shep

Try

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they have one radiator with 5/8" core for $179.19 with free shipping. The one with 1" core is $239.57 with free shipping. A little time under the shadetree and a couple gallons of anti-freeze and you get by for half price of the dealer.

Reply to
Doug Adams

Reply to
JRL

Thanks for all the replies. I just had the shop do it.

Question remains, though: Is there a known cause of this kind of thing, or just time + bad luck?

Reply to
gad

Check the motor mounts for excessive movement. Engine movement pulls on the hoses and flexes the radiator.

Reply to
pauL

A similar thread cropped up not too long ago. As others mentioned, it might just be a defective radiator that finally failed, and the tip on movement of the engine is also something to check on.

I seemed to remember that that was another issue about mounting the radiator itself that sometimes causes failures in these radiators. Maybe someone here remembers the details.

Reply to
<HLS

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