Eeeek! Radiator Needs Repairs or Replacement!

[gr3k0sLaV]

SHIT!

Need to get my radiator repaired.....

Problem 1. Crack on the top part of the radiator near the cap. Small fracture where liquid is oozing out, causing the radiator to loose pressure.

Problem 2. Big radiator fan is completely stuffed, cant figure out how it got damaged, but its completely jammed and needs replacement.


1. will cost me $140 to repair, ASSUMING the core is OK. Which I pray it is.

2. will cost me about $66-$160 to get the replacement fan. Can't find any of other wrecks. Does anyone know if fans from other makes of cars will work on ours?

OR

Will other radiators from other cars fit ours?

[ELM'sLX+CHL'sDX]

Hi:

There's a guy on Ebay selling a Koyo radiator that he claims fits our cars for $95. I've seen the same radiator advertised online as well for our 3G Accords.

As for the fan, if the motor is blown it's an expensive part at the dealership. I'm certain you could find it a junk yard though. Replacing the radiator wasn't too difficult. I replaced one about a month ago. The hardest part was sliding those dam clips off the hose fitting.

Claude

[DBMaster]

I got a replacement radiator for mine almost two years ago for $99, including shipping. I know that radiator.com also carries them for about the same price, lifetime warranty. I would not spend the money to repair it at this point.

I fixed one of my fans once by taking the motor apart and replacing the internal wiring. You might play with it a bit. Once it is opened up you can replace the brushes and bearings.

The other thing you can do if you want to go cheaper is buy one of those universal radiator mount fans at the parts store. They are only about $50-60 for the ones without a thermo switch. You would be splicing right into your factory plug which is already conneected to a thermo switch. I put one of these on a friend's 85 Accord Sei and it worked great.

I thought about this after the fact, but you could probably figure out a way to use just the motor out of one of those if you want to keep your factory bracket and shroud.

[Lester Lugnut]

I replaced mine with a METAL radiator a few yrs. ago. No plastic. Local radiator supply shop had one. I would never replace with the cheap plastic kind.

Lose a radiator and you can kiss your head gasket good bye and maybe the whole engine.

3G radiators are not hard to replace.

[Jareds 89 LX-i]

What part of the cooling fan do you need? If it's just the motor, I've got both cooling fans (the main one, and the smaller A/C fan). I don't have the metal shroud thingy that they attach to because they were all rusty and bent up (and only 1 has a blade - other was cracked). Both motors work perfectly though. If the motor is all you need, you pay shipping and their yours! I really need to get rid of all these extra car parts I have sitting around anyways, lol

[gr3k0sLaV]

I need the larger motor, how much would you want for shipping?

it'd prolly be pretty expensive to send it over to aus...

if you can give me an idea of how much, then ill let you know

Thanks

Chris

[DBMaster]

Lester,

My replacement radiator is also all-metal, however, I do not think there is anything wrong with the plastic/metal type. Hell, the original in my car lasted for 180,000 miles. If you can get one that has an all aluminum core and plastic tanks go for it. The factory unit was copper core with plastic tanks. The aluminum core stays very free of corrosion.

BTW, I have seen a lot of solder joints on metal tanks fail and very few gaskets on plastic tanks. The factory radiator in my old Pontiac (which was all metal of course) needed replacement at 180,000 miles as well.

[POS carb]

I have experienced similar. You can patch the radiator with this stuff called Quiksteel, it is kind of like an epoxy putty and it handles 500 degrees continuous and tries as hard as steel (trust me, I couldn't snap a 1/4" thick wafer of it). That will work on holes up to about 1/2" diameter, I wouldn't try it on anything bigger because that would be a substantial sized hole in your radiator to make buying a new one a wise choice.

Mhen my car overheated once it warped the blades of the large fan and they folded in and got stuck on the radiator, jamming it from spinning and it left a round gash in the fins. The little fan is retarded, the two replacement fans (the original was lost in a wreck) I got at the junkyard have this thing where I need to bang it a few times with something to get it to start moving. I've tried WD-40 and noting is happening, I think the contacts are worn out

[DBMaster]

POS,

It was the little fan motor I was able to fix about four years ago. It was not running when the A/C was on, but I noticed that when you jiggled the wires coming out of it, it would come on. I pried open the motor case, desoldered the oringal wires, and replaced them. It has worked fine ever since.

A single fan with dual speeds is simpler, but if it goes out I guess you just overheat. My little fan was not working for who knows how long and I never even ran hot. I am prettty sure that it was because I use synthetic oil because the friend who had the 85 Sei was running hot with the little fan not working.

I think you could probably get one of the big aftermarket electric fans to replace both of the factory fans. I don't know what the total CFM rating is on the two fans, but you can get some pretty hefty aftermarket fans for a lot less than a factory Honda fan motor.

Now that you mention the liquid steel it makes me wish I had tried to repair the small crack in my tank before replacing the original radiator. It was still pretty clean and a bitch to replace.

[accordlx]

My radiator went out 3 weeks ago.

The junkyard trip yielded the following results:

Radiator - Found a new one that someone had just replaced before blowing the head gasket $30

Fans on radiator in excellent shape $5

Flush and fill about $7

Antifreeze $10

New spiffy front seats from a Mazda 626 GT $25

Put it all in myself in about an 3 hours (2 for the seats) $$Free$$

Total cost- $$77

Outcome - EXCELLENT

Would I do it again- HELL YES

[1988starter]

yea I replaced mine recentlv it was easy. My old one looked like this.

[DBMaster]

That radiator seems to have a lot of crap blocking up the fins, or is that just the picture? I enhanced it with vueprint so I could see the details.

When I took my original out it looked pretty good (except for the leaky tank)

You might want to get into the habit of hosing it off every couple of car washes. Hosing off the condenser will ensure you continue to get the coldest air from your A/C, too.

Later!

[gr3k0sLaV]

Isn't that small fan for the air con as well?
My little one runs all the time....
Actually speaking of the Air Con unit, i dont think mine is functioning.

When it was summer, i'd switch it on, and nothing would happen. If I had the car idli'ing and in neutral and i activated it...nothing would happen....Im sure it's out of coolant, but I have a feeling it isn't working anyway.

I will go tomorrow and try that plastic sealant stuff for the tank, if it works it'll save me $140 bux.....

With my fan, the larger one....i reckon ill need to replace the not just the motor, but the whole plastic part. The plastic housing for it, is damaged, cracked. !

Im thinking about an aftermarket single fan...any suggestions?

I was looking at a mates Commodore today....V6, and it had in the just one hugh-jass fan....I was thinking about adapting one like that, but cutting it down...since commodore parts are as common as water.

[1988starter]

if you enhance it enough you will notice that all the fins for the bottum five inches or so are gone. Also it did not have much crap in it just lots of discoloration.

[CoAsTeR]

buy a new rad, pickup a fan at scrap yard.

it only takes about 20 mins to change rad/fans. I just did mine 2 weeks ago. cost me 170 bucks canadian.

[gr3k0sLaV]

Ive managed to seal up the crack, it was only a small micro-fracture....prolly about 0.5mm wide. That's sealed with epoxy, i bought like quiksteel. That's trying atm moment.

Ive ordered a replacement fan motor from a honda spares place, $75 inc couriering down form melbourne.

Now I need to know, how do i remove the radiator and all that?

I know i need to drain it all first...other than that...well I dont know.

I dont want to be paying a mechanic.

[gr3k0sLaV]

Help.........

Alright, I need to know how to firstly remove the radiator, and how difficult is it?

Also.........next, draining, flushing and refilling the radiator.

I know you have to remove the drain bolt, drain the radiator. Then what?

How do you flush it and do everything else?

[1988starter]

Get a chiltons or hanes manual it will tell you what to do and they come in real handy lots of times.

[CoAsTeR]

all you need is a 10mm and a pair of pliers.

take out like 10 - 10mm bolts from body above rad

remove top hose, and any brackets holding PS or AC lines that are attached to rad....

slide rad out, remove bottom hose and disconnect the two fans.

voila
slide new one in in reverse

[rocky2]

Radiator leak fixer:plumbers puddy
Where do they sell it: hardware store
Is it easy to use? its a jelly roll. Just cut it off and you have the exact amounts ...no guesswork
It hardens like steel

HONDAS do have rusty coolent problems bigtime.
Why? cause the coolent is differant from the norm from factory.

[gr3k0sLaV]

well i solved the leak problem, im just waiting on my replacement fan which is costing me %85 dollars .....

next w/end we will be draining and replacing i all...


if u font already know im fucken off myh ead