Sbeghan
Veteran Member
Coolant can inhibit epoxies from sticking but they make aluminum epoxies that will work great on this. You can aluminum solder using zinc rods and a propane torch. Look up alumiweld. Messy stuff though. I would do epoxy.
I had an aprilia motorcycle that I laid down and it pulled an embossed radiator mount from the radiator. I used jb weld to plug it and it worked fine for 6 years. I do not recall the material the radiator was, but would bet aluminum.10 years ago I had a car with a pin hole in the AC evaporator. Called a friend in the appliance repair business and he said 'they make special epoxies for that'. Did not want to wait till the next day and used JB Weld. It was 10PM at night and I needed the car the next morning. Still have the car and the repair is fine.
I would think an aluminum patch could be made and glued on with JB Weld. But you have to ask yourself - Do you feel lucky? If the repair fails you could overheat the engine.
Shall we add the "radiator" to the growing list of long term challenges on a CR equipped vehicle? I just don't hear of radiators as being issues with other makes of cars...another fail long term. I love vws...under warranty!Bump for the latest victim!
My 2010 Golf threw the low coolant warning over the weekend. Topped it off and the light came back on yesterday. Pulled the fan shroud and yep, one holed radiator. Guess I'll be performing some surgery on the shroud before putting it back in.
I may look at adding some grommets to the mounting screws to put some clearance between it and the (new) radiator.
At least the radiator isn't that expensive ($228 at my local dealer)
Yay for me!
Jim
2010 Golf TDI 6MT, 112,000 miles
There is no reason to replace the coolant at 51k mi. Most VW coolant looks pristine at 100k mi intervals when the water pump is replaced.Since I'm going on a trip soon I removed my fan shroud yesterday to discover mine is nearly rubbed through also. I filed down rub spot on shroud and glued on some thick metal washers for additional spacing. Wanted to replace my coolant(51K Miles) but having difficulty getting lower hose off...any tips? Took clip off the quick disconnect but dosen't seem to want to budge. Might just take it to dealer to let them change coolant and give them an earful about this whole mess of an issue.
Well that wasn't so bad.
My local dealer had the radiator in stock (coincidence? ) and I installed it today. Took about 2 hours start to finish (I had removed the fan shroud previously, so that saved some time)
A couple of things. First, those stupid radiator quick connects are a pain in the rear to get off. I managed to wiggle the top one off after a while but the lower one was not going to budge and I couldn't figure out a way to get more leverage on it. In the end I decided to simply cut the radiator outlet off as close to the radiator as a I could using a mini hacksaw.
Once that was off I removed the radiator from the car. It came straight up and out, no problems.
Once the radiator was out I removed the lower outlet from the hose and put the cut off end in a vice with a piece of pipe stuck in it to prevent it from collapsing. Then I just tapped on the quick connect with a soft faced hammer and it popped off.
Putting the new radiator in was straightforward. I put some cardboard over the inner face of the core to prevent damage to the fins and it slipped right in. I put a tiny bit of lithium grease on the quick connects and they went on as easy as you please.
I added some spacers to the shroud to try to prevent a recurrence of the problem. I had a plastic drill size guide lying around and cut some spacers out of that. I glued 2 per hole location to give ~1/8" additional clearance.
Filled it back up with coolant and took it for a spin. No leaks so far, so fingers crossed.
Jim
They do charge you extra for the sand and Vaseline service, don't they?this whole thing stinks as much as my ongoing freying seat threads debacle, but I grabbed a $200 http://www.nissens.com OEM radiator and learned how to do it myself, so something came good out of it and I think I actually found a solution to the problem as well. The other thing was I wasn't going to bend over and let them do me with their $950.