jfawcett10

Well, first off, six months ago, i guess my radiator decided to crack which spewed radiator fluid to the ground. $75 later i had it repaired and i put it back in. Now, six months later and only 4000 miles, the car and radiator were doing fine, and nothing was wrong. So i purchased a chrome radiator cap, put it on, and the next night, the radiator hose was completely flat, and i dont know why. Then, the next morning, while i was driving it around, the radiator blew up and much worse than last time!

So my question is, does know what might have caused my radiator to blow up, could it be the chrome cap i put on? Should i get the radiator fixed again or should i just buy a new one?

I am confused on what to do, and would like to know what is going on, because i dont want to buy a new radiator, or get this one fixed and have it blow up on me again!

Thanks for anyone that might be able to help

Jarrod

MdFormula350

for that 75 bucks u paid to get it fixed the first time, you could of gotten a new stock replacment one from advance auto parts for like 120 bucks.

what pressure rating did the cap have?

jfawcett10

i know, but 75 is cheaper than 120, and the place said that by fixing it, it will be as good as new...

so i am going to take the radiator back, with the receipt, and see if i dont qualify under some sort of warrenty or something...

i am unsure of the caps rating, i will have to find out when i get off of work and get home.

how high would the caps rating have to be to cause the rad. to blow up, because it really blew up. I probably am going to end up replacing it because it was so bad.

i also replaced the water pump recently, and have a 180 thermo...

thanks

jfawcett10

looking online says that it is a 16# cap, but when i get home i will check the official cap, maybe i got the wrong one and i got one thats really high, i dont know...

thanks for the help

Danno

The hose collapsed because the cap was not letting the coolant back into the system from the recovery bottle, simply opening the cap should have brought it back. A far as the repair, if it was a stock Harrison radiator or OE, fixing it was was fine. 120 bucks buys you nothing but junk anymore. I just got done replacing 2 chain store units in my daughters 91 Lumina Z34. The old one has the typical crack at the top of the side tank, I used high temp epoxy and it was fine till she got the bucks for a new one, went the chain sore route against my advice. Not one, but 2 new unit both has leaks along the seal where the side tank is crimped. The chain store stuff is junk anymore, if you need one get an AC Delco.

jfawcett10

See, i figured that the cap was not woring correctly, so what you say danno makes sense.

The thing is though, i took the old stock cap and pressed against it, and it was fine, then i pressed against the chrome cap and it pressed as well, so what should i do with my chrome cap?
Is there some sort of test i can do to test the chrome cap to see if it works?

Is there anything i should look at besides the cap as being the reason why pressure is not being released and coolant flowing into and out of the overflow tank?

Well, the shop fixed the radiator for free, because it was under warrentee, so i will just put on the stock cap because it worked before.

I would sell the chrome cap, but i dont want to feel bad about selling someone a defective cap, but i dont know if it is even defective or not

thanks danno,

jarrod

breathment

you get get the cap tested at autozone for free. other parts stores might have the equipment to test also, im not sure.

Danno

Get rid of it or return it. Caps do 2 things, they hold system pressure to the recommended amount and also allow a backflow of coolant into the system as it cools and develops a backflow or vaccum from the recovery bottle back to system when cold. The hose will collapse and I have seen it, when for some reason the return path is clogged or maybe not there. On older systems the cap simply opened at a certain pressure and allowed coolant to get discharged thru a tube at the top of the rad. That was back when no one cared where fluids went. Newer closed systems constantly move it back and forth. I would not waste time with testing it, it's not worth the grief.

Captain C

If bucks are no problem (yeah right) go with the "Be Cool" radiator. It has twice teh cooling capacity and it's all aluminum. Also runs $500...... After three times repairing my old unit and it broke again, I decided it would be cheaper in the long run to buy the good radiator. Not to mention in Bakersfield you need all tehradiator you can get!!!!!

BTW, a major reason for the cracking is that you are low on water in your radiator. It's usually the return side of the radiator that gets the cracks. I'm really surprised that someone hasn't made an aluminum tank to replace that left side plastic tank.....

jfawcett10

Well, here is a follow up...

The place where i took the radiator to fixed it for free, so i put it back into my car...

i took the cap to autozone and had it tested and as it turns out, it held pressure at 9 not 16 so the cap was faulty...

thanks for all the replies and help!

jarrod