Radiator Replacement

When I purchased my Jeep it had 74,000 miles on it. After driving it for a short distance I would catch a faint smell of antifreeze. I started to look around and sure enough, there was antifreeze coming from somewhere. Just a very small amount, but still there. The question was, where was it coming from: the water pump, the radiator cap, the radiator? Well, the easiest, and cheapest fix was to replace the radiator cap. Before doing this, I put a pressure tester on the cap and found that it gave out at 12 psi which was less than the 18 psi stated on the top of the cap.

I replaced the cap and figured everything was alright so I drove the Jeep to work the next day. It was a cloudy looking morning and I had to turn on my wipers several times because I thought it was raining. When I finally got to work, I got out and found that what I thought was rain was actually antifreeze all over the hood and on the windshield. The smell of antifreeze was a little more than slight by this time. When I popped the hood I found antifreeze everywhere in the engine compartment. Well, it wasn't the cap, but interesting how putting a correctly- operating cap on the radiator caused more antifreeze to come out. Not exactly requiring FBI- type skills, I deduced it must be the radiator itself. When I looked at it there was antifreeze all over the rim of the radiator.

So, a new radiator was in order. The first place I looked was AutoZone and they said they could have one for me in a week. I then checked NAPA and they said they didn't even carry one. I finally found one, in stock, at our local CarQuest in Cedar Springs, MI. It cost approximately $180.

At the time of this repair, this web site was in the concept stages, so I didn't take pictures of the entire process. Stu Olson's web site (http://www.stu-offroad.com) has a very good write-up, if you'd like to refer to his web site for detail. I don't think I can do much better than what he described, so I suggest just linking to him.

Before following Stu's site, I'd like to point out a couple of areas to be cautious of:

1.) I removed my fan and shroud to make life a little easier. Stu didn't do this, but to save myself from damaging the radiator fins (which I've done before) this was an easy step. To remove the fan and shroud the steps are easy:

Remove the bolts holding the shroud in place. Then remove the fan by using a large crescent wrench. Other articles suggest a fan wrench, but to tell you the truth, I'm not sure why. The standard crescent works just fine. The fan goes on like a normal nut. When you are facing the engine, if you turn the fan clockwise it will tighten, counter-clockwise will loosen. They call this a right- handed thread.

Here's a tip, hold a bolt in your right hand and look at the direction of the threads. If they point to your right hand then it's a right handed thread!

When reassembling everything, attach the fan first and then the shroud. To put the fan back on, just take your time. It took me a little while to get the fan lined up correctly with the threads. You definitely don't want to strip the threads, so patience is the key. When I removed mine, I had a friend help out which made things much easier because he held the shroud as I played with the fan.

2.) Good luck finding the exact hoses you need for the upper and lower radiator hoses. I would suggest going directly to a Jeep dealer to get these parts. I, and others that I've talked to, have ordered the hoses from various places and found them to be wrong. Save yourself the trouble and just go to a Jeep dealer.