Radiator is leaking again. Right around where the lower transmission cooler line goes into the plastic side tank.
Tightened it one more time but that probably won't fix the problem. So it's either replace the four month old radiator with a new one or throw in a bottle of barrs stopleak and hope for the best.
(should have gotten one from radiator barn, but the old one was leaking too badly) The only option was Napa. Rad looked good, only had a few minor problems fitting it.
I'm tired of messing with the radiator, it's such a pain in the ass. Probably going to pay the $ and have a shop fix it.
Guess I got a bad one because the leak doesn't look like it will stop. Got a few options here since the leak is not bad enough to worry about unless I'm driving very long distances. To/from work doesn't build up enough heat to do diddle.
1) Take the radiator out, have it fixed, put it back in. (seems NAPA waranty is only 30 days) But if it's just the gasket, that's easy enough to do without splitting the tank off.
2) Take the ZJ to a local repair shop and have them put a new lifetime waranty rad in, fix the old core and either keep it or put it up on ebay.
3) Put in some Silverseal from westco and see if that fixes the problem without crudding up the heater core or passages. (recommended to me by a local wrencher that uses it on older vehicles)
I'm tempted to put 1/4 oz of the sealer in there and see if that fixes the problem. Not enough to clog anything. What I've read also suggests putting the whole thing in, driving for about a week, then flushing the system.
Last time I put anything like that in an engine it was that RESTORE stuff. Got to say it worked well enough to get another five years out of the old truck. Nothing builds compression like filling the rings with solidified junk. :)
OK, I MAY have to stand corrected here. Our NAPA store gets their radiators from the same place my friend gets them for his shop. If they are the same where you are from, then the NAPA store is giving you a line of bull, because the supplier gives a limited lifetime warranty, again assuming all NAPA stores use the same manufacturer. Most of the radiators in the USA are supplied by a company called SPI which is based in Canada, but has assembly facilities and distributors located throughout the US. I sold many of their radiators on EBay and they even drop shipped for us. They do stand behind their products, so I am surprised your NAPA store is only giving you a 30 day warranty. If you have another NAPA store in your area, I suggest trying them for a warranty, since all NAPA stores will honor warranties from any of their stores. Maybe I am spoiled here with a good NAPA store, but more than once I have brought parts back that were slightly out of warranty, and they always went good on them. I would also try talking to the manager of the store you bought the radiator from. Again, I have been very pleased with NAPA's warranty policy, even though I haven't had to use it very often.
I'll drop in and ask. The 30 days I got off the sales slip and napa website. Come to think of it the ECH parts are lifetime so it may be the rad is under waranty. Still might pay the local shop to do the swapout since they usually get parts from NAPA.
I'm just tired of messing with it. Even though it's an "easy" fix. There comes a time when it's worth it to pay someone to take the problem off your hands. :)
Napa has a two year waranty on that part so I have a replacement on order and will pick it up tomorow. They will charge me for the part but refund it when I return the defective unit. That's cool.
Also decided to let a local repair shop I know do the R&R since it's too darn cold to work outside and doing the radiator in the garage was no fun and left one hell of a mess. Besides, they have given me enough free advice it's about time I give them some work.
Only problem I have with this is the radiator surrounds are darn tricky to get right and there are literally twenty friggin fastners to remove. Learned this when I did the harmonic balancer and the last radiator. ..sigh.. if only it was a nice warm 80F outside :(
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