Changing Radiator Pt1

Transcription

1 Changing Radiator Pt1

2 I dont know if any of you owners of a year 2000 (W Reg) Phase 3 (with air-con) have attempted to change your radiator (the type with the thin clip that secures the bottom hose) but, let me tell you now, its a really fiddly job and (if your unlucky enough, like me) you may come across some unforseen things that will need to be rectified!!! Things like bolts that sheer off because they constantly get soaked in water and get rusted into the threads over time!! AND THIS IS BEFORE WE GET TO SWAPPING THE RADIATOR PART! If you want to do some preventative measures to stop yourself having this kind of crap

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4 In the future - thoroughly wire brush the rust off the threads of the 2 captive bolts (that have 2 10mm nuts on) that secure the bracket

5 which holds the main air intake pipe to the chassis rail. Once cleaned, (at your own risk) spray with WD40, get a ring spanner and gently try undoing it - watch carefully as you slowly turn to see if the threads move aswell as the nut - if they do, I'd say leave it; if not, then tighten back up again, then undo again etc whilst applying a bit of WD40 each time. Eventualy, it should start getting easier and undo. Once you've got it off - grease it up and put it back on and nip it up. Cover with grease all over!!! Do this for the other securing nut aswell. The next bolt to do is the 10mm bolt that goes through the plastic feedpipe at the end of the air intake which is attached to the slam panel

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7 Unfortunately, there isnt a lot of room under the slam panel to get a wire brush on the threads as they are sandwiched between the slam panel and another plate of metal. I'd say try and get hold of a thin wire brush or just cover in oil or grease to protect it in case you ever have to undo it!! Mine snapped off despite all efforts to prevent it!!! MAKE SURE THE CAR IS COLD take the radiator cap off and then undo the small drain plug located on the bottom of the n/s of the radiator and drain the system. To take the rad off, you must undo the top hose off the radiator, move the air filter box out of the way, (some of the pipes attached to it are not jubilee type) so rather than disturb the factory crimped fitted clips, just carefully move the airbox assembly over the engine by folding the pipes and then tie it with some string so it doesnt keep dropping back into the area your working in (Be careful aswell not to break the small black plastic air pipe going into the area near the throttle linkage.) Next, remove the air filter box mounting bracket, the intake pipe c/w plastic end piece and also undo the largest of the 2 wiring blocks that locate under the main n/s chassis rail and the wire runs near to the bottom of the radiator, otherwise you will not have enough room to withdraw the radiator out from its location.

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9 Once those jobs have been done, the the next job is to free the air-con radiator from the water radiator!! The air-con rad is located and secured onto the front of the water radiator (the part of the rad you cant see that gets blasted with air at the front). Carefully lift the 2 spring clips up (located on the top left and top righthand corners of the water radiator) and whilst holding them up, push the radiator slowly and carefully towards the engine and you will then see the air-con rad mounted against it. BE CAREFUL - AIR-CON RADS AINT CHEAP!!! You will see that the air-con rad is secured to the water rad by prongs

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11 Those prongs push into these clips

12 There are also clips further down the water rad for the air-con rad to clip into (on my car, for some reason, the air-con rad didnt have the prongs to slot into these so it was a bit easier) so take note.

13 To separate the air-con rad from the water rad I got a screwdriver and gently prised open each plastic clip (never point the screwdriver towards the air-con rad cos if you slip and puncture it - its expensive) and whilst it was open I sprayed WD40 onto it so it ran down the prong and made it slippy. The plastic clips can (and do) break easily as they go brittle with heat and age. Once you've made them all slippy, carefully lift the water rad up towards you (mind the spring clips) whilst gently pushing downwards on the aircon rad - the water rad should slide up the prongs and off them. There will be a bit of resistance because the water rad locates on the crossmember at the bottom with 2 pegs that stick into rubber bungs and you are effectively pulling the water rad out of its locating holes at the bottom.

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15 Once they are separated the the next job is to remove that bottom hose. Be under no illusions here, this job is irritating!!! OK, I found that if you get a long thin screwdriver (about 1.25 feet long) and carefully put it through the lower front valance grill, (near to drivers side spotlight) you can lever the little thin clip off the bottom hose (be careful). Once clip is off, spray a little WD40 onto metal lip of bottom hose (this lip is pushed against bottom hose connection of rad) BOTTOM HOSE LIP (HOSE OUT OF RAD)

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17 BOTTOM HOSE CONNECTION OF RAD

18 and use the long screwdriver to (carefully) start prising the hose away from the radiator (by pushing it between the lip of the bottom hose and the part of the rad its pushed against). Its a bit tedious but I assure you that eventually it starts to move - once it does, spray WD40 on it and work around the lip from top to bottom and it should come apart. My rad was the original rad fitted from new so I didnt have any advantages of work being done previously. CAREFULLY LIFT OLD RAD OUT!! Please read Pt 2 for rest of the article