Radiator - What to do
 

2001 Volvo S80 2.9 130k miles

During weekly underhood check, noticed very faint coolant smell (put head right next to radiator to smell). Looked closely, and found a coolant crust buildup at the hose where it comes out of the radiator and runs to the overflow tank.

Monitored this for almost a month - no change in coolant level that is measurable, though crust looks slightly wet.

I like the car, it drives great, avg of $2k/year expenditures on it annually (everything - tires, brakes, batteries...) - but we are likely to sell it soon and move on to something newer.

So - is this more likely to be the hose/clamp, or the radiator? Should I have radiator replaced regardless, due to age? Older Volvo radiators tended to fail dramatically I am told - do these radiators do same? Can the level in the overflow tank be deceptive and somehow mask the coolant being lost?

A picture is attached.

You can try compressing the clamp more and cleaning the dried coolant to see if it was just the clamp.

Like Damien says, it's a good chance the clamp is not tight enough. You can replace it with a regular screw clamp, careful when tightening as it goes over a plastic piece. The radiators are quite long lasting but are plastic build so sensitive to cracks.