'05 Sedan - Aftermarket Radiator Experiences?

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Q451990
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So the wife's '05 is leaking coolant. I bought a new cap for it at the dealer yesterday, but I'm still getting a leak near the filler neck. I'm thinking it's the upper tank or tank seal.

At this point her car is the "road warrior" of our fleet - with a lot of cosmetic issues. Mechanically solid, but the paint is in horrible condition - and the rear bumper cover is damaged from getting rear-ended at a very low speed. I'm debating on having it fixed or just pocketing the $$ and driving it as is. Without a full re-paint it's not going to match anyway.

She still loves the G, but I'm waiting for her to decide that she's ready for something else. At $450ish for a new OEM radiator, vs. sub $100 for an ebay aftermarket, I'm tempted to go cheap on a replacement radiator.

Has anyone here had any experience with an aftermarket radiator? There's a Denso on Amazon and eBay that has my eye... supposedly an exact OEM replacement. Plastic end tanks are fine with me for this car... I'm not looking for a higher performance replacement, just something that'll work as well as the OEM one did for a few years.

Heath


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ezb57e
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Well, you already know the factory one is the best but there are some very good aftermarket ones too. I have installed many with no incident.
If I didn't live in an area with extreme weather conditions or mountains, I would be tempted to use a non-oem one.

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Q451990
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No mountains, but it's pretty hot here...

The Denso should arrive on tomorrow, so we'll see how it looks.

Heath

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audtatious
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Don't forget to do a how-to on install :)

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RED_DET
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Sometimes there is fitment issues with those after market radiators.

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Q451990
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Joined: Tue Jul 23, 2002 8:21 am
Car: 1990 Q45 - 118K, 2022 Toyota 4 Runner, 2004 Frontier M/T - 108K, 2012 Xterra (Mom's), 2023 Rogue (Inlaws)
Location: Columbia, SC
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Well I got the Denso installed today. It looked to be a pretty comparable replacement to the OEM one - probably not quite as good - but no worse than the old one with the amount of road debris that was packed in there. I think there's a small sample of every leaf, bug, and bird feather that we drove past in the last 122,000 miles on my garage floor right now.

The Denso unit was a very good fit. I think the studs that fit into the bottom spacers might be slightly smaller, but that's the only real difference I noticed. Overall, I was very happy with how it all went back together!

The best part is the price... I paid less than $17 for it on Amazon :biggrin:

It was listed under "Amazon Warehouse Deals" which I think is their division that deals with returns. The box had a little damage, and a couple of fins were bent - but the damage was very minimal.

Here's the write-up.
05-sedan-denso-radiator-install-writeup ... 92207.html

By the way... the problem with the OEM radiator was a hairline crack on the front side of the top tank.

Heath

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RED_DET
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Can't beat that deal...

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audtatious
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Excellent! Don't forget to "articlize" it. I will then add it to g35club.org


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