radiator renewal

[D Squared]

took my car for its MOT today, and although it passed.....hurah...the radiator started leaking...doh ;-(

What are they like to change? any useful advise? mine has A/C so a little bit more involved perhaps?

Cheers

DD

[sharpie]

pull off hoses, pull off the ghey mk3 cowling that goes around the lights and everything just to waste your time, remove old rad and batter in the new one.

piss.

[Paul86S2]

took my car for its MOT today, and although it passed.....hurah...the radiator started leaking...doh ;-(

What are they like to change? any useful advise? mine has A/C so a little bit more involved perhaps?

Cheers

DD

You will need to remove front grill, (possibly front lights), front bumper, and metal bumper iron. Unscrew a/c rad from normal rad and angle it out of the way. Unbolt normal rad (4 bolts), disconnect top and bottom hoses and temp sensor wiring, then pull the old rad out. Fitting is the reverse of removal. It takes a while to properly bleed the system.
Hardest bit is angling the a/c rad without damaging the pipes and connections, all the rest comes off very easily.

Paul

[D Squared]

sounds joyful....! thanks guys.

[bmouthboyo]

hi guys, im in process of doign this but im stuck at the draining system bit.

haynes manual says to drain a 2 liter engine i need to "disconect the heater return hose"?? Is this the middle of the 3 attachments to the pump?

Also is it worth flushing the system? I cant be arsed removing belts etc so not really keen on taking thermo stat out to do it. It always had coolent before the leak so im hoping nothing really needs flushing, just drain, replace radiator and fill with new coolent?

cheers

[gazpowells]

just pull off the bottom hose from radiator mate it
will drain just fine 
dont really need 2 flush