tonight on my way home from school i noticed my temp gauge was way hot so i pulled off the freeway and checked my fluids...well they were bone dry so i added radiator fluid only to have it leak out all over my shoes! meanwhile...im in some hoodie area and a good 20 minutes from my home. i finally made it home with my temp gauge melted to H!!!! my radiator has a leak somewhere on the bottom and i was wondering if anyone can recommend help or steps to replacing it! this sucks! 3 days before my birthday and 6 days before my gf's bday! i really dont need this right now!

 

Hmmm, let's see if I can remember when I did this. First, drain the radiator fluid by pulling the drain plug located on the bottom of the radiator. If you have a splash guard that goes across the bottom, remove it to gain access.

Then, disconnect your hoses. The metal clamps can just be moved up a short length of the hoses. Use a pair of pliers. Next, you might have a hard time getting the hoses disconnected from the radiator (only 2 btw). I used a thin flat head screw driver gently pushed in under the edge of the hoses to pry them away from the radiator. Eventually they come lose.

Next is removing all of your electrical connections to your fans. This will take some time, but make sure all electrical connections are disconnected.

Next remove the metal brace that holds the A/C line to the front of the frame. Then undo the radiator brackets by unbolting them. Now, with the fans electrical connections undone, and the upper radiator brackets removed, the radiator should just lift out, with the two fans attached.

Lay the radiator down, simply unbolt the fans, and you have yourself a naked radiator. Replace in reverse order, and be sure to use OEM Honda Radiator fluid. It comes pre-mixed now with 50/50 anti-freeze and coolant. I want to say it has the number 2 on it, but I'm not sure.

Any questions, please let us know!

 

as far as obtaining a new radiator promptly, just go to radiators.com and they will overnight it for 9 bucks. I just went through this whole fiasco about a week ago, but it's all very easy. the only thing I can think of to add to the above post is if your car's an auto, you will have 2 tranny coolant lines to disconnect from the bottom of the radiator. when disconnected, a little bit of motor oil will come out, but that's ok. other than that, it's really easy. Basically, if you can change oil, you chould be able to change out your radiator in about 2 hours max.

 

:thumbup: thanks for the help...btw, its a manual so i wont have to worry about the extra lines...i already called in sick for work tomorrow morning (first time in a year and a half ) and im going to the radiators.com warehouse tomorrow morning and hoping to have my lil teg back on the road and going to school byt 12:30...wish me luck...if i start at like 8:30, i should be ok with time, dont you think...i mean i change my oil on as regular basis
thanks again

 

yeah, you should be fine. Also, both radiators I ordered from radiators.com came w/ bags of candy so make sure they don't get stingy on you!

 

Dude, Acura needs to start using all-aluminum radiators. This crap seems to happen alot.

I don't know about the other guys but for some odd reason it was a total pain in the ass trying to disconnect the radiator fans on my '97 GS. I could disconnect the main connectors but both ends of the connectors (this happened on both the left and right fans) were like GLUED onto the fan, meaning disconnecting would just free up a little slack and totally freeing the fans were out of the question. I ended up just taking the fans off while the radiator was still in the car and flipping them out and resting them over the engine then I yanked the radiator out. Still worked though.

Oh and about the Honda/Acura Antifreeze, make sure you only use the genuine stuff. I screwed up and used Pestone in the yellow bottle. A week later I ran across a thread about silicates being a no-no in Japanese cars. I emailed Prestone and they told me to flush my cooling system thoroughly then only use Honda OEM antifreeze. If you go to a Honda dealership you can get the full concentrate which is a better buy than the premixed stuff. I thinking 1 gal of premix is like $16.25 or so and 1 Gal of the concentrate is like $18.25.

 

honda/acura switched to better radiators after the 94-96's had major issues

my swap took about a hour though not that long...hardest part was getting lower rad hose back on tight and draining and flushing

 

ok, ill make sure i get my bag of candy:thumbup:

 

Yes, some of those electrical connections are a BITCH, so make sure you know what to press and how each one needs to come out before doing something dumb like I did and bending metal where metal shouldn't be bent, so I had to in cutting...

 

well im all done with replacing the radiator :yay: the only problem i ran into was those damn electrical connections. but after awhile, i got them off. i noticed when i put the new oem fluid in, the radiator was leaking again but not in the seam like it was last time. this time it was the lower hose which i thought i didnt have on right when putting it all back together...so i took the lower hose off and reconnected good this time and let it run...it didnt seem to overheat like it was yesterday and now im off to school. going there wont be a pronlem because its a straight drive with no traffic. its coming home in the middle of rush hour when ill see if its ok. thanks again for all your help. and hey, i didnt get my bag of candy oh well. wish me luck!:thumbup: