Went to pick the Mrs up from work about an hour ago and had some trouble getting the car off the drive as the brakes were completely stuck! Anyway finally got it moving followed by a massive cracking sound from the brakes.. got out to check them but they look fine, but did notice a load of water running from the front of the car..

Popped the bonnet and could see coolant slowly dripping from the bottom of the radiator. Turned it off straight away, left to cool down and checked coolant tank and yep lost about an inch..

Is the brakes sticking that bad normal? I did wash it yesterday and hadn't driven it since, so could it just be that?

Also does anyone have any recommendations as to what radiator I should replace it with? I've been through the paperwork and this rad was only changed about 20,000 miles ago..

Don't want to spend loads ideally, about £100-120ish?

Pic of rad:
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...a/IMG_0449.jpg

cheers

 

Get an alloy one on eBay for that, don't want to use a blocker on a alloy block, my Brakes stick a little after being washes but shouldnt be that much resistance

 

Brakes: leave car in gear after washing, handbrake off. Mine does it too.

Rad: e-bay, they are about £50 or less, delivered, identical to the OE ones.

DO change top hose at same time

 

Used mine today for the first timein 3 weeks. Its been parked up with the handbrake off and i still got a crack as the brakes freed off. suprising what damp can do

 

Cheers for the replies, will try leaving the handbrake off hopefully that will help

Going to attempt to change the radiator myself although have never done anything like it before! Been reading up and your how-to's (Alcazar ) make it seem pretty easy!

Two questions: what coolant should I be using? Is Halfords ok?

And should I replace the hoses with Samco's or simliar?

Thanks again - and sorry for the dumb questions!

 

Use any coolant, diluted 50/50, that is sold for ALLOY engines and WITH a corrosion inhibitor.

Mine has standard hoses.

DO replace the bolts holding the fan etc in place with stainless, if my memory serves me, M6 30mm, might have been M8's.

A local bolt and nut stockist will supply a few for cheap.

 

ive a good rad complete off a v5 sti £20 picked up, but im in york.

 

Cheers Alan, but think I've secured a big core alloy one. Thanks anyway mate

Alcazar: Will be nipping out this weekend and getting a handful of bolts, got some hammerite in the garage aswell for the brackets

 

whilst the rad is out might be a good idea to remove and paint the crossover pipe that feeds the oil heat exchanger, looks very rusty in your pic.

 

Yeah wondered what that was. Is it a messy job to take off etc? Also whats the big thing behind it? Sorry to sound thick, still learning, these engines baffle me!

 

its easy to take off. held on with one bolt near the thermostat and the hose clips each end. the big silver thing is the exhaust heatshield.

 

Thanks, will be doing that once I've got it all removed

This antifreeze is widely recommended on here, but when I put my reg into their website it recommends g30?

I know colour doesn't really matter - but have green in at the moment and don't want to risk it reacting so will the G48 be fine?

 

Coolant colours do matter, they tend to indicate difference types of coolant, with green and blue being enthylene glycol and red/orange being organic/OAT.

You should aim to not mix the colours.

If you are changing the coolant and flushing out the old then you can use whichever type you like so long as its suitable for alloy engines and has corrosion inhibitors. But as its never particularly easy to remove all the old coolant I recommend using the same type that is in there already, which sounds like it is ethylene glycol.

 

Comma are trying to tell me that I have the wrong type of coolant in my car lol (green), I'm sure it was last changed by scoobyclinic!!

As you say, it's unlikely I'll be able to flush all of the coolant out, and I'm paranoid it will react if i put red/pink in.