What's your guys thoughts on eBay radiators? I'm considering getting a half rad off eBay and most likely will but I wanted to get some opinions and feedback about what you guys think about them. Thanks

 

You get what you pay for. I have used one on a budget setup before and it held together, but the car did have some slight overheating issues. Not to bad, but enough to where I wouldn't use one again. I wouldn't recommend an ebay radiator to anyone.

 

I just tried driving the car and it immediately started to over heat. Now I'm in desperate need of a radiator. What would you recommend?

 

Any thoughts on the spectra radiator from autozone?

 

1800 radiator

 

I had a half size ebay radiator on my turbo integra with no overheating issues at all. Not the greatest option because its a bit of a crap shoot but I can honestly say I had a $50 ebay radiator keep my boosted integra cool just fine.

 

It's hard to mess up a rad but what is mostly the case is it's off just a bit in terms to a misimoto/koyo etc, for a rad i'd say fine it's a VERY basic design. I wouldn't personally but that's cause I put out fancy build threads so that wouldn't go over well.

 

Every radiator I've used from ebay has been spot on fitment wise. Personally normally when my own have failed I just picked up ones from Advance Auto and used the coupon codes for order online and pick up in store:

TRT30 - 30% off
TRT41 - $40 off

 

You should be fine. Spectra is a known manufacturer of radiators and comes with a warranty.

 

Is there a reason why you want a half radiator as opposed to a full size replacement?

 

i'm all about denso and the price is a steal:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DENSO-221-3211-Radiator-/401000043795?fits=Model%3AIntegra&hash=item5d5d771513&vxp=mtr

 

Just an update. I ended up getting one from advance auto. It turned on to be the same as the old one that was in before so I know it'll last a while and since it came with warranty I'm not to worried. But I have noticed that now when I turn the car on in the morning white smoke comes out the exhust. Not a lot but is noticeable when I look at exhaust. Also when I put the new radiator In and started up the car I noticed a little smoke which I believe was the coolant that had fallen on the heat shield burning.

 

Every car will put out some visible "smoke" on start up especially now that it's cooling down, even in the summer both my diesel(stock) and tsx dis a bit on start up. Any steam coming from inside the bay should be run off any time I filled up on coolant or messed with the rad coolant spilled, it's not a new car it's going to run a little dirtier cant be too picky.

 

Why should an older car run a little dirtier if it's well maintained?

 

It's going to start burning oil there's no denying once you get into the 200k+ range, the compression is not what it was from the factory all this is assuming just average wear and tear on an untouched engine. Sure if you want to rebuild the thing/new cat once those start failing sure it would be on par for the most part of a newer car, granted a 2015 focus will have way more emissions control components than a '96 integra".

note NOWHERE did i specify of how well maintained this car was taken care of I'm assuming going by this guys other posts, in which case i'm more than likely right.

 

"You get what you pay for" is certainly the case. I would just make sure it has the mount holes for the AC fan, if you have AC. My Fluidyne did not and I had to make some.

OP, sounds like time to do a leakdown test and see if you have any obvious problems. If you're overheating and the radiator was not cracked, you probably have other problems (HG).