Two more questions for the wizards of the Watercooled VW newsgroup:
- I've been needing to replace my radiator for a while, but have procrastinated until now. Now I am losing more coolant than I was before and actually had the dash coolant idiot light come on once recently while on the highway. Apparently there are two radiators that will work- the 253B has a metal tank and the 251C has a plastic tank. The 253B is used in the
2.0 16V A2 and the 251C is used in the 1.8 8V A2. And the 253 B is $45 more than the 251 C at Parts4VWs. Anyway, is there any benefit to installing the
191 121 253 B OEM Radiator instead of the 191 121 251 C OEM Radiator? And will it indeed work/fir? What else besides the radiator, hoses, thermostat, and thermoswitch should i replace at the same time?
- When inspecting the underside of my car, I noticed that the boot going from the power steering rack to the tie rod end is split concentrically about half way down. Is this a huge deal? Can I just get a new boot and repair it? Or is there probably already damage done and I should replace the boot and the tie rod end? Or is it no big deal? Can I just wrap the boot with duct tape for now and deal with it in three years time? (I'm putting the car into storage while I transfer to Japan for three years and I really don't want to spend any more money than I really need to right now.)
Ciao, Craig Smith aka Kaji Shun