Hi,

Been losing a little bit of coolant for a couple of months now, re-filled a couple of times and all seemed well. Today noticed steam rising from the front of bonnet, opened bonnet to see a fine mist of water coming from bottom corner of radiator on drivers side. I can't see well enough to determine exactly where the leak is coming from and will jack the car up tomorrow and investigate further.

Looking on here is seems that leaky radiators are fairly common, I wondered if anyone has had or known of a leak on this edge of the radiator (bottom drivers side). Does anyone know how much of a job it would be to remove and replace the radiator? First inspections I reckon it's not too griefy a job...?

Car is a 2001 Bugeye WRX 51 plate.

Help appreciated.

Marc.

 

It'll be a crack on the side. Very easy to change rad, I've done it on mine. And i'm no mechanic

 

Could just be the bottom radiator hose, where your describing..

 

Cheers folks I'll bare both in mind when I freeze my little fingers off "playing" about with it tomorrow!

Marc.

 

Must be different to a classic then, bottom hose is on nearside on classics.

If it is a rad swap, it's only an hour's job and that includes draining, refilling etc.

Might be worth replacing the top hose at the same time, all new coolant etc. Use decent anti-freeze, stuff for alloy engines and with corrosion inhibitor.

I gave the top and bottom brackets of the rad a couple of coats of Hammerite too and replaced all the bolts with stainless at the same time, M6 x20.