Well, my years of solid performance despite lack of maintenance has come to an end. This weekend I noticed a puddle in the trench of my driveway near my Eclipse. I thought it was from the recent rain, but it turns out I was wrong. As I drove to work this morning, I noticed the heat wasn't working (first time I've needed that this year). Then the temperature gauge started to climb! Instead of going to work, I went to a nearby grocery store as the needle hit the red line. I bought some coolant (pre-mixed, I know a rip-off but just wanted something quick). It cooled down a bit while I was in the store and it was enough to get to work as the needle approached the red line again. After work, I filled it with coolant and got it home. As soon as I parked, I popped the hood and watched as my coolant sprayed (mix of liquid and gas) all over the driveway.

Now for the questions: as far as I can tell there is a leak in the radiator. There is a very clear line of wet/dry mid-way down the radiator. I'm wondering if there's a safe way to patch/plug it or do I have to go ahead and buy a new radiator. By the way, the radiator is in very bad condition anyway, as you can see in the picture below. There's a lot of leaves between the a/c condensor and radiator that I can't get out and after years of driving through the snow/ice/sand/salt of New England, it's pretty rusted up and clogged up. Somehow it continued to keep the engine cool for many years though.

So what do you think? Plug the hole or replace the radiator? (Here's the best picture I could get tonight after dark. Notice how below the lower fan blade is wet and above it is dry and gunked up.)

 

I would replace it.

 

Glad to hear it... I picked up a new radiator (and some hoses) on my way home from work. It looked pretty bad, so I thought I'd go ahead and junk the old one, especially when I found out I could get the new one for $105, not bad. Now I just have to find time to do the replacement. Meanwhile I get to drive the Volvo to work.

When I saw you'd replied I got nervous that you'd have some suggestion for cleaning and repairing the hole.

Thanks for giving me a bit of extra confidence.

 

And I would also replace as many rubber hoses as possible, as well as giving it a full tune-up. Does it have timing belt or chain? If it uses belt, be sure to follow scheduled maintenance.

Good luck,


JPN

 

Yeah, I bought the upper and lower hoses (you may remember the PCV hose cracking a month or two ago). I'm definitely due for a timing belt (and water pump) change, it's been just over 4 years since I last did it. Not looking forward to that. When I do that, I'm planning on changing the other belts too.

There's actually a coolant line that runs from where the thermostat is across the front of the valve cover and into the engine. The paint (or whatever) is all peeling off and it looks really bad, but I can find the part anywhere. This would be a great time to change that out too. It's some sort of metal, not the flexible rubber type hose. Any thoughts on where I could find that?

 

All right, I've got it out, but unfortunately they gave me the wrong radiator at Advance Auto - looks like it has lines for an automatic transmission and mine's a standard. Anyway, I thought someone might like to be disgusted by the condition of the old one... So here are some pics: 1) New radiator; 2) Old radiator; 3) Leak point; 4) Enhanced photo of the leak point to make the colors a bit bolder... Pretty nasty, huh?

 

I don't see anything wro.... OMG!
[sm=jawdrop.gif]

 

Oh wow,,, its an 01 isnt it?

 

You got me pinned to the floor, good job!!!

I hate it when shops give you wrong parts. AutoZone right by O'Hare Airport was extremely sharp and I always enjoyed shopping there. They knew exactly how to look up the right parts and were extremely pleasant to deal with.

I wonder if your Eclipse came with US mfg for OEM radiator. I know Honda, Toyota & Nissan buy many components from local suppliers in the US but not sure about Mitsu.

Anyway, RIP for your original radiator.


JPN

 

Eclipses are built here. It had a US radiator... especially certain in 3Gs.

 

It's a '99. I think the problem started when the exhaust pipe broke off a 18-wheeler in front of me on the highway. I swerved and just hit it with the right front fender. That popped the splash shield off from around the tire. Now there is nothing to stop water, snow, salt and sand from spraying into the engine compartment. I've looked into fixing it but all of the attachment points were snapped in the process, so I haven't figured out how to replace it. That was in 2001, so I've had 6 years of moderate driving (~100,000 miles) through a lot of snow, sleet and rain without the splash shield. I think that rusted out a large part of the passenger side ofthe radiator.

So, the moral of the story is: splash shields do serve an important function.

Glad I humored you guys. I was considering putting some other nasty pictures from underneath where all the surrounding components were sprayed with coolant (and were already pretty rusted out). I didn't want to make anyone lose their lunch though.

P.S. According to my VIN and documentation, my Eclipse was built in California and has a large % of US parts (I think it was 86% or something like that). It's a Chrysler engine.

 

Did you get the new one yet?
Most company's will make them for Automatic's and leave the lines capped if you use it in a manual car.

WOW on the old one!!!

 

Hey tech,

I got a wow out of you too... I thought you would have seen everything by now.

Anyway, I didn't get the new one yet. There are little rubber caps on the lines but I can't imagine that they'd hold up to the pressure. They come off very easily.

I'll call the AAP tomorrow, but do you think that one's ok? How should the lines be capped?

 

Is it a 420a, 4g64 or 4g63t?

 

Should be a 420a (RS model).

 

Yup its a 420a. Just cap the bonus outlets/inlets, you should be fine. The 4g63t motor tends to blow caps off if done that way...

 

Only the tranny fluid goes through the side.
Cap them nothing will go through it.
The coolant is in another chamber.

 

Awesome. Thanks guys. I'll try to install it tomorrow or Sunday and post some new pictures of the final product.

 

OK, I got it done today. Changed out the upper and lower radiator hoses, attached the old fans to the new radiator (pic #1) and then installed the new radiator (pic #2). You might be able to see that I need to get some new bolts/screws still though. One of the ones attaching the fans was rusted/stripped (I left the one of the top middle attach points open so that it'll be easy to put a new one in) and one of the four big bolts that hold the top of the radiator to the car snapped in half - I'm not sure if I'll replace this since I'll have to drill out the rusted old bolt. Anyway, here are the pics.

Oh yeah, I drove about 80 miles after installing it and there wasn't any problems!

 

Cool glas all is well.