Cheapest place to buy an OEM Honda radiator?

[kimokalihi]

Any of you guys drive hondas? My GF has a 2000 honda civic LX and her radiator just started leaking. I bought a pressure tester for it and found the leak right away. There's a crack at the top of the radiator and I'm sure it'll get bigger if she keeps driving it.

A new one from all the OEM honda parts sites I visited ranged between $202-237 plus shipping. That's a lot of money for her.

I'm thinking about finding a used one around here somewhere.

Some guy is selling an SI radiator with fan and hoses for $80 on craigslist with 45K miles on it.

Any ideas?

[smh0101]

Check the honda forums to make sure the Si radiator will work then get that!

[kimokalihi]

I'm assuming it'll work but I'm not sure. I did check the honda forums and tried to make a WTB add but they wouldn't allow me to make any classified adds. Bunch of BS.

[kimokalihi]

And the winner is......craigslist!

Found a 2000 (same year!) honda civic SI radiator (turned out to be the same exact radiator, part # and everything) with only 45K miles on it for $80 picked up. The radiator had almost zero bent fins which is amazing considering the one that just came off her car had the entire bottom half of the radiator was nothing but bent pins. I can't even see any air being able to make it through the bottom half. I guess over the last 142K miles all the shit that flew through that gap in the bumper there did a number on that radiator.

Anyways, I signed the early out list last night at work and got off 2 hours early (@ 1:45am) and headed home. Got my shitty clothes that reak of oil on, ate a bunch of chicken nuggets with 2 frozen burritos and a couple scoops of 100% natural whey protein in a shake and headed out to my parents house to use their garage.

Got the radiator in fairly quick. It was SOOOOO easy. OMG you have no idea. Or maybe you do. This would make the subaru look like the hardest thing ever compared to how easy it was to replace.

I'll break it down for you guys.

Drain radiator (I used the pressure tester pump to speed things up a lot)
Remove one 10mm bolt holding the single top bracket on.
Unhook fan connector.
Unhook the two hoses.
Pull the radiator out.
4 10mm bolts hold the fan on, remove these.
Bolt fan up to new radiator.





Hahaha! I hate you haynes! I found a site that sells shirts that say that.

http://www.jimbotimbo.com/tshirts_hoodi ... emoval.htm



The part that took the longest was flushing, draining and filling the cooling system. And waiting forever for that stupid thermostat to open.

[kimokalihi]

Pretty stoked that I found out where all the coolant was leaking from, located and purchased a radiator and installed in 2 days.

Weird coincidence happened when I picked up the radiator.

I called the guy who lives over an hour away in auburn, WA. Told him the only place I know of around tacoma area was the krispie kreme at the tacoma mall. We used to go there to find all the street racers (bunch of ricers mainly but I saw a few fast cars there).

So I get there and park my car facing a parked Integra with several asians in it. After a minute of sitting there one of them gets out and walks up to my window and he's carrying 3 skunk2 boxes and says to me,"You want to see them?"

At this point, I'm thinking he's mistaken me for someone else in a drug deal or something. Haha!

So I said,"What? See what? I'm here to buy a radiator from someone."

He says,"Oh, you're not the guy?"

"Nope."

Just then another car pulls up with what appears to be a youger guy with his parents driving. Turns out this is "the guy" and they sell him 3 honda cams brand new. Must have been another craigslist sale.

Crazy, the one place I pick happens to have another craigslist deal going on within 5 mins of the deal I was doing.

[ericem]

lol scary shiz man.

Eh as a temporary fix you should have tried JB weld JUST out of curiousity to see if it would hold at all, then again if the system pressurizes and it breaks, 13psi of steam and hot coolant will go spraying up there.

[kimokalihi]

I'm totally not a fan of JB weld lol. I drove the car to work and back and it did not overheat and I'm pretty sure hasn't leaked a drop of coolant since. I will check it when I wake up today when it's cooled down.

I did check it yesterday before work and it had sucked up half the resevoir on the side but wasn't leaking at all. I also pressure tested it to 15psi with my totally cool new radiator pressure tester and it held it without leaking any pressure.

That honda sure gets up and goes better than the metro. Even with an extra 1,000 lbs of weight, that fuel injection along with an extra cylinder and .6 liters of displacement more makes a big difference. Not to say that it's fast, it's definately not fast but after driving that 3 banger around all the time it sure seems fast.

I keep wondering if I'm really going to be able to choose to drive the metro over the subaru to work every day when it's running....

[ericem]

pretty sure you will be driving the ss regardless of fuel economy might as well have some fun everyday