Mk Ii Coolant Radiator

[Chard1966]

I have just found a damp patch at the bottom of my radiator(this would exsplain the coolant loss)

The local ford garage said 2.5 hrs to change the radiator plus 0.9hrs to regas

they say the front bumper,panel,fibreglass panel and various other bits have to come off.

Has any one got any exsperiance of Radiator change with aicon?

Can you take the radiator out leaving the aircon radiator in situe?

How long would it take

[sepulchrave]

You cannot leave the aircon rad in place since it is screwed to the radiator itself and one of the aircon pipes needs to be disconnected from it because it passes through the front panel which needs to be removed to gain proper access. The labour sounds reasonable, it's not a fun job.

[mk2vr6]

IIRC you have a MK1, so it is possible to do it without disconnecting the condensor

[dipsomaniac]

i replaced my rad on my mk1 recently without disconnecting the air con. it was very tight when attaching condenser to rad but it is possible

[sepulchrave]

No professional garage will do that though, it dramatically increases the difficulty and therefore the time taken.

The 0.9 hours will be the standard charge for regas, not how long it takes!

 

Chard, are you considering doing this work yourself or simply trying to find out if you're being over quoted?

[peasey]

i have just replaced my rad and its definately doable without touching the air con but bear this in mind that i have a sharan with a vw engine(could be smaller than the ford engine)and it was a breeze a little fiddley yes but i didnt remove the front bumper just the headlights indicators grill fan and rad shroud then pushed the whole lot back enough to get to the air con rad bolts that attach it to the rad and slid the rad out from underneath.the job probably took me about 6 hours but i have got a smashed right leg with a metal frame around it.one tip i would give you is to leave the card board packaging on until you have got it roughly in postion as you want to avoid as much damage to the fins as possible.hope this helps mate.

[dipsomaniac]

as ford charge approx