Bought a radiator today

[bmiszuk]

When I bought the Suburban, I did a ton of maintenance on it including water pump, hoses, etc. I took the radiator to a local shop and asked him to fix any leaks (there were a couple) and go through it. He recommended I replace it since the core was getting old, some tubes were closed off, etc but I didn't have the money. So for $100 it was band-aid'd up and I ran it.

A couple of months ago, I started to notice coolant on the drivers side of the engine but could never figure out where it was coming from. Well, two days ago after I got home from work, I noticed a huge puddle of antifreeze. Since it wasn't the upper hose it had to be the radiator so I pulled it out.

Pulled it out last night. This morning I found out that my regular radiator shop was closed for vacation so I took it elsewhere. The radiator split one tank seam wide open. It looks like it was seeping for a while and finally gave up completely.

Rather than try (again) to band-aid it up, I bought a new radiator. Online they were $250-300. The local place sold me one for $300 with lifetime warranty. It hurts, but hopefully it'll help avoid breakdowns in some far distant place someday.

Hard to justify spending so much on an older vehicle for one single part, but there doesn't seem to be any other option.

[john8662]

Bummer you had to replace it, but you knew in your gut that you'd have to. When the core starts to leak, it's usually not repairable anyways. Now you'll have a reliable radiator for quite some time now...

[NH2112]

I wish I'd gotten pics of the radiator I recently took out of my pickup - there were absolutely NO fins left, and there was a huge pinhole in the right tank (probably due to my multiple repairs.) The amazing thing is that no matter how hard I worked the truck it would never overheat. I guess they just have a lot more cooling capacity than they need.

[85-m1028]

I just had my my radiator done the guy put a new core with larger tubes for $368 and its good as new, now its more efficient than b4