Tonight I noticed something evaporating from under the hood. Took a look under there and there is coolant leaking from my radiator. It seems to be spilling over from the top or something. The coolant bottle is empty. I'll get more coolant tomorrow but obviously this won't fix the problem. The car is not overheating, which is why I didn't notice the problem until tonight.

Recently I've had to park my black car outside in very baking hot california sun and then drive it with the AC on. Could this have anything to do with it? What could be the problem and what could have caused this?

I'll have pictures up soon.

Edit: Here are pictures. Sorry about the quality, it was late at night and taken with my cell phone.

Front of radiator


Passenger's side


Driver's side


Small puddle of coolent in the engine bay splash guard



Modified by Smeeg Heed at 12:07 PM 8/8/2004

 

the ac has nothing to do with it... they usually crack or leak at the seams ... a way to prolong the life of your radiator is to do a simple drain and refil of your radiator every year .. it really makes a difference


this radiator isnt too expencive about 100 or less .. buy a koyo oem replacement they are good quality

 

This just happened to me, but my car was overheating big time. I just bought some radiator leak fix at autozone, and it fixed the leak. Haven't had a problem since. Best 3 bucks I've ever spent.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Ti3d in &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">This just happened to me, but my car was overheating big time. I just bought some radiator leak fix at autozone, and it fixed the leak. Haven't had a problem since. Best 3 bucks I've ever spent.</TD></TR></TABLE>


i saw that stuff theo other day..


your best bet would be to do the above ^^ or get a new rad. or look around and see if you can find a good price on a aluminum rad.

 

Bump. Just added pictures and want to make sure they don't change the situation.

 

I thougt integra radiators were aluminum, except with plastic end tanks...

 

the radiator leak fix will come loose, it's not meant as a permanent fix, you should only rely on it for a month or two. I would hook up you up with like a $100 oem replacement, but my parts place doesn't have any GSR's right now. Know of any local shops that can soft soder?


Modified by G1_TEGGY at 10:04 PM 8/8/2004

 

it seems like a common problem in integras....it just happened to me too. right after i drove in stop and go traffic in the hot heat. just buy the radiator and install it yourself.....it's very easy.

 

at 100k miles my radiator's top plastic tank cracked (2" wide crack) and the seal where top plastic tank connects to aluminum core leaked after i revved to some 6000 rpm in 1st and 2nd. it's a common thing for our cars at 100k miles to bust out the radiator. i epoxied the crack (epoxy didn't hold up very long because of the pressure of hot coolant and flexing in the cracked plastic), but i also used this leak-stop powder thing and that held the coolant from coming out of the seal and partially out of the crack. ended up getting oem replacement for 100 bux some 3 months later

 

so if my radiator is busted, should I just replace with OEM or go for a nice shiny fluidyne or something? I will eventually take the car to the track so I'll want something that can hold up under a few hours of racing.

 

OEM radiator is fine if you're on a budget, and don't have crazy HP goals in mind. However, it will break again, so why not just pay like 350 for a nice Fluidyne.

 

common problem in G3 tegs my friend. my oem rad crapped out on me last year and the same leakage problem you're having. the plastic on the top of the rad goes bad over time, i suggest buying an OEM replacement from like http://www.radiators.com they work fine and very inexpensive. mine was $118 shipped. They're not hard to replace either, just takes time. You could also invest in all metal radiator as well from that same site... theyre a bit more but, the reg OEM replacement is a good buy...good luck

 

i'm in o.c. and have a used(less than 30K miles) OEM gs-r radiator. i'll sell it for $50. it is in great shape with no leaks. lmk and good luck.

 

noticed the same thing on mine the other month. after driving for a good five minutes a nice little stream of smoke would pour from under the hood. turns out fluid leakin out of the plastic piece of junk radiator. if you plan on havin the car a long time mise well invest in a metal one. i did the same thing. dont think ill have the problem again. yet ill remove when i go turbo soon. oh well. but go with a decent one so u dont have to deal with it again. gl