WTF is up with all the plastic they're putting on cars these days? Of all vital pieces of the engine WHY do they have to put plastic on the radiators?

Driving around town a couple days ago when I get this ever so faint white smoke and sweet coolant smell. Pop the hood and there's a hairline crack close to the radiator cap.

Just curious has anyone else encountered cracked radiator problems. The guy at the radiator repair shop seemed like it wasn't that uncommon.

 

Yeah, my radiator on my accord had hairline cracks a month ago.

Also my old CRX Si had the same thing after I sold it to my friend.

 

why do you think hondas are so affordable? they arent gonna make a car outta titanium for the price they sell em at! plus, how old is your car? nothing on a car lasts forever... NOTHING... not even the driver

 

they are just as reliable as aluminum or bass OEM radiator.

not only honda, most of the import i worked on have plastic endtank, even on turbo model.

radiator fail/die over time just like every other part on the car.

well, get some toyo if you want some good one

 

call me cheap but i might be onto something here...

i have a manual transmission and obviously have no need for the ATF cooler (correct me if i'm wrong that's what i think it is). would it be possible for someone (not me) to retrofit that cooler to work as a radiator?

 

What are you talking about?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Schmitey &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">call me cheap but i might be onto something here...

i have a manual transmission and obviously have no need for the ATF cooler (correct me if i'm wrong that's what i think it is). would it be possible for someone (not me) to retrofit that cooler to work as a radiator?
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dont quote me but...arent those things small as all hell? why the hell would you even want to try and do that? good god alimighty!

 

change your coolant every year and the plastic radiators will last you 10 years easy ...

the one on my 96 civic has 200K on it and is still in good condition but i change the coolant every 30K


besides how can you complain the radiators are so cheap ... 65-90 bucks is my cost on a quality radiator

 

I have to say that I am pissed with the plastic sh** too. I was racing someone the other night, and afterwards, I popped my hood only to find coolant had sprayed from my radiator. Fun Fun. Now I'm looking for a cheap but nice aluminum one... Tell y'all how that goes

 

plastic radiators are just as good as aluminum ones as long as you just do regular maintanence to em.

 

the number one reason for the plastic end tank to crack is from vibration, check the little round rubber mount, if the mount starting to have some play in it, get a new one from HOnda.

the ATF cooler on the bottle of AT equiped honda is SMALL as hell, the fitting is less than half inch. how you suppose to squeeze the radiator hose there? nice idea but no

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 2+2=5 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">the number one reason for the plastic end tank to crack is from vibration, check the little round rubber mount, if the mount starting to have some play in it, get a new one from HOnda.


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your wrong most of the time they leak from the seam


- stripped honda who changes 8-10 radiators a week at his shop...


and trust me you would rather have a plastic/aluminum radiator rather then brass one ... they tend to have alot of corrosion in them so they are not much better ... like i said as long as you maintain your car you will have no problems with it

 

I did do ******* regular maintence on them. Just flushed it out with cleansor and took out the block plug 3k back. The radiator WAS NOT PLUGGED!!! My temp sensor reads exactly the same temp. I also just replaced the water pump at the same time. Don't tell me its due to bad maintenance, its due to bad design. It was a hairline crack, yeah that's caused by bad coolant since we all know its corrosive...NOT!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Schmitey &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I did do ******* regular maintence on them. Just flushed it out with cleansor and took out the block plug 3k back. The radiator WAS NOT PLUGGED!!! My temp sensor reads exactly the same temp. I also just replaced the water pump at the same time. Don't tell me its due to bad maintenance, its due to bad design. It was a hairline crack, yeah that's caused by bad coolant since we all know its corrosive...NOT!</TD></TR></TABLE>

all we were saying is good maintenance keeps it alive longer... we werent accusing you of anything... calm down...

 

My 95 Accord EX was maintained at dealership like clockwork. Had to have the radiator replaced two years ago due to hairline splits. I was told that it was almost as common as the master brake cylinder going bad.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Schmitey &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I did do ******* regular maintence on them. Just flushed it out with cleansor and took out the block plug 3k back. The radiator WAS NOT PLUGGED!!! My temp sensor reads exactly the same temp. I also just replaced the water pump at the same time. Don't tell me its due to bad maintenance, its due to bad design. It was a hairline crack, yeah that's caused by bad coolant since we all know its corrosive...NOT!</TD></TR></TABLE>

wow, you have a really short fuse. I've already encountered that in another thread but damn man. I read this twice just too make sure I didn't miss something. I didn't see, anywhere, FatJoe say anything about "your radiator failed because you didn't take care of it". He merely said "regular maintenance keeps it alive longer". So you really need to relax.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Schmitey &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">WTF is up with all the plastic they're putting on cars these days? Of all vital pieces of the engine WHY do they have to put plastic on the radiators?

Driving around town a couple days ago when I get this ever so faint white smoke and sweet coolant smell. Pop the hood and there's a hairline crack close to the radiator cap.

Just curious has anyone else encountered cracked radiator problems. The guy at the radiator repair shop seemed like it wasn't that uncommon.</TD></TR></TABLE>

lol. I have the exact same crack you do right next to the cap. It's slowly leaking out small amounts of coolant that ends up puddling on the fan housing. Shitty deal, but .. that's life. Get a new radiator. I would suggest a honda one.

Mine is a '97 with 124,000 miles.

 

A very common thing is to see cracks near the cap or where there is a bracket bolted to it. If you lean on the wrong place it is very easy to crack the plastic radiator. I've had to replace customers radiators several time because a tech put his hand the wrong place. But the most common thing is seepage between the tank and the core. Happens with metal tanks as well.

 

YAH THEY BREAK EASY

 

I used some jb weld to fix the leak that was in mine. Permatex even makes a kit just for radiator repair. Both are under$7.