How to replace the radiator - guide

[komichal]

Thanks for the detailed description!
My respect for doing this in -15 degrees Celsius. I would not do ANYTHING on my car in such conditions unless the risk of having unmovable car would be imminent.
Actually - my radiator also has this pink/white crust on 2 places but as long as I do not need to fill anything in the reservoir I do not care. Well... once I started to think about changing the radiator (just to be sure) but that A/C radiator next to it scares me. I still cannot imagine how to take the engine radiator off without harming the A/C one, even with your DIY.

[zoidberg444]

Solid DIY mate. Pretty easy job. It wouldn't worry me. Pulling the bumper off all the plastic clips and getting a hose on the petcock to make draining less messy and save your coolant is the hardest bit.

Originally Posted by komichal

Actually - my radiator also has this pink/white crust on 2 places but as long as I do not need to fill anything in the reservoir I do not care. Well... once I started to think about changing the radiator (just to be sure) but that A/C radiator next to it scares me. I still cannot imagine how to take the engine radiator off without harming the A/C one, even with your DIY.

My car was in a rather nasty collision with a very large boulder in September 2016. I was actually 1000 miles from home in Denmark at the time. The collision damaged the front radiator support, popped the radiator out of its rubber mount on the drivers side and bent it back slightly. There was a noticeable bend in my radiator and AC condenser. With some cable ties, tape and some wire i was able to drive the car another 6500 miles to the northern tip of Norway, back to England and drive another 13,000 miles commuting before I repaired it and as far as i could tell the radiator wasn't leaking and the AC still maintained pressure. Although I replaced with with used ones when I repaired the vehicle.

Its not all that detailed but i have a thread on the repair i did to mine here:
http://www.yarisworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58345

The entire front end of the car was disassembled on that one.

[tmontague]

Originally Posted by komichal

Thanks for the detailed description!
My respect for doing this in -15 degrees Celsius. I would not do ANYTHING on my car in such conditions unless the risk of having unmovable car would be imminent.
Actually - my radiator also has this pink/white crust on 2 places but as long as I do not need to fill anything in the reservoir I do not care. Well... once I started to think about changing the radiator (just to be sure) but that A/C radiator next to it scares me. I still cannot imagine how to take the engine radiator off without harming the A/C one, even with your DIY.

-15 definitely wasn't fun, especially with no garage and a ton of wind that day. I had snow blowing off roofs and landing all over me and my coolant, not fun. I wanted to get the rad fixed and I hadn't wrenched on my car in a while since I've been studying for a board exam. The exam is now done and I needed some car time.

If I wasn't so meticulous of my car and didn't do track/autox days then I probably would have left the radiator for another couple years. It was leaking very very slowly and was never dripping onto the ground just staying on the rad and drying into a crust there. You're likely fine leaving yours but just keep an eye on it and the overflow reservoir. The Yaris's cooling system isn't sealed like some cars are so you do normally have a bit of evaporation every few months.

The a/c condensor isn't anything to worry about just move it slowly and lift it off of the rad. The a/c lines allow some movement which is more than enough to remove the rad, you just need to be cautious.

As Zoidberg stated, it isn't really that big of a job, it is just more involved than most cars that people are used to working on. If you look for the normal rad brackets that most cars have you won't see them and think it is super complicated.

[atomic_hoji]

Originally Posted by tmontague

-15 definitely wasn't fun, especially with no garage and a ton of wind that day. I had snow blowing off roofs and landing all over me and my coolant, not fun. I wanted to get the rad fixed and I hadn't wrenched on my car in a while since I've been studying for a board exam. The exam is now done and I needed some car time.
...

I didn't catch that first read through.. for hardcore wrenching. lol

-- Adam