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A Leaking Radiator
I brought the Maxima home on Wednesday
night. Thursday afternoon we put it on the road, and Friday
morning I drove it to work for the first time. Friday and Sunday
nights I drove it, then Monday morning I used it for work again.
It was pretty cold Monday morning, and I turned on the heat only to find
that I didn't have any. I had noticed a bit of steam coming from
the front of the car Sunday night, and it smelled like antifreeze, so I
figured that there must be a leak somewhere. Monday morning when I
didn't have any heat, I figured that the leak needed to be taken care
of.
When I got home from my first shift Monday morning, I set out
to find the leak. It didn't take to long. The leak turned
out to be a crack in the plastic top tank of the radiator. A new
radiator is a couple of hundred dollars, so I decided to take a shot at
a cheaper alternative. The crack was directly adjacent to the
passengers side mounting post. I removed the metal mount from the
car, then dried the area with paper towels. I then roughed up the
surface with a fiberglass cutting wheel on the Dremel. I followed
that with a good cleaning of the area with rubbing alcohol.
Finally, I mixed up a batch of QuickSteel plastic repair epoxy, and
worked it into the crack, and over the entire area. When I was
sure that the epoxy had cured well, I used a zip tie around the upper
radiator hose mount to pull the radiator against the core support,
taking the strain off the mounting post. I then bolted the metal
mount back in place, and filled the radiator, and overflow tank.
That was several days ago now, and it doesn't appear to be leaking, the
antifreeze level doesn't appear to be going down, and the heat is still
working, so with a little luck I've got the problem licked.
As of January 25, I've noticed that there is the slightest
leak still in the radiator. Actually, it is more of a wicking
action than a leak. For now, I'm just going to keep an eye on the
atifreeze until spring gets here. I might then try heating up the
tank, and "welding" the crack together. If that doesn't do it,
then I guess I'll try one of the radiators from ebay. |