While changing belts/hoses found this!

[Pathy415]

Ok so while performing some routine maintenance changing out my belts and hoses I found this on my radiator(original).




Was a bit shocked to see this but I guess it's to expected for a 12 year old radiator. Luckily I caught this so I wasn't stranded on the side road at some point with a blown radiator. There were pieces of the old radiator in the old upper hose that broke into pieces and what remained of the upper portion of the radiator inlet felt very brittle! So I called a local radiator shop and bought a replacement. Looked practically identical to the OEM radiator except for no Nissan part No.'s and no "OEM" foam around the border or the radiator

New radiator



So for those of you out there running on the original radiator (for at least 10 years) probably a good idea to swap it out for peace of mind.

[Towncivilian]

You're fortunate to have found that before anything catastrophic happened! The new radiator and hose seem to be of high quality, nice find. I have a completely original cooling system save for the overflow tank hose - I might want to look into replacing the main hoses, at least.

[yngw13]

thanks for the pics...

Was it a simple install? I mean did you have to remove several parts to remove the radiator? And how much was the new rad?

[Pathy415]

You're fortunate to have found that before anything catastrophic happened! The new radiator and hose seem to be of high quality, nice find. I have a completely original cooling system save for the overflow tank hose - I might want to look into replacing the main hoses, at least.

Town, I used Gates brand hoses except for the upper. I had to go buy a new OEM for the upper since the Gates came up a bit short for some reason and didn't want to take a chance with less hose to clamp.

The Radiator looked like OEM quality so I went with it. Not sure how much dealer charges for these things but I'm sure it was more than what I paid.

Yeah, I definitely lucked out. If I had gone for long road trip and it blew I would totally be SOL. Yeah, the only reason I decided to swap out the hoses was because they were all original. The belts were changed at about 70,000 miles but I decided to change them out as well since portions of the belt had a few small missing chunks. Better safe than sorry!!

[Pathy415]

thanks for the pics...

Was it a simple install? I mean did you have to remove several parts to remove the radiator? And how much was the new rad?

The radiator was actually really easy to take out. Just a simple removal of the upper and lower hose along with the transmission cooler lines(two small clamps) and removing the two alignment brackets on top. Also you need to remove the lower portion of the shroud to clear the fan. The rest of the shroud and the radiator came out in one piece. The only thing that the new radiator didn't have was the foam lining but it doesn't affect functionality whatsoever. Probably the easiest install I've had.

The radiator cost me $150 with tax so I felt it was a decent price.

[GRNMACHINE]

Thanks for the post and pics. Will be looking at mine ASAP. $150 sounds like a great price for the radiator. I like to go OEM when I can, but Nissan is pretty "proud" of their prices. $150 may get you a Genuine Nissan Radiator Cap....

Thanks Again, great info

[Pathy415]

Thanks for the post and pics. Will be looking at mine ASAP. $150 sounds like a great price for the radiator. I like to go OEM when I can, but Nissan is pretty "proud" of their prices. $150 may get you a Genuine Nissan Radiator Cap....

Thanks Again, great info

No problem! If yours is original I definitely suggest taking a look at it.