[Joel96]

No signs of overheating temp gauge in normal range car was running and driving like normal. However as I was closing my door I heard a loud pressure hissing sound and water blowing out under my hood by the expansion tank.
After looking I could see coolant sprayed over the top of the engine but it does'nt look like hoses are blown?
Any ideas? The car did not overheat, I am not sure why this would happen.
If this has happened to anyone else please let me know what caused this.
Thanks,
Joel

 

[CarpeCyprinidae]

Happened to me - look at the narrow heater hoses going from end of engine block back to the bulkhead. they tend to get weak, and the weakest point is the inside of the bend of the front most pipe. Its a common fail on these cars....

 

[Joel96]

This morning in the light I was able to see what actually happened. The hissing sound was coming from the passenger side of the radiator. It has a large crack that split down the side. I am guessing 150K it finally gave out, hissing through a small crack then busting.
I never had cooling issues, is this how radiators fail?
Thanks,
Joel

 

[Minirex4777]

your lucky it failed like that as opposed to breaking internally and having coolant enter the tranny.ive lost a tranny this way .its a time consuming job to change the radiator but no difficult .

 

[Joel96]

Yeah! I know I could of also been on the road or in traffic. I will order up a new one today. Any suggestions as to what else I should replace while I have the radiator out?
Upper lower hoses, water pump, thermostat?
Thanks,
Joel

 

[jvanabra]

If you don't have a history on the cooling system, I would definitely consider replacing all of that stuff. The system is drained so upper hose and thermostat are no-brainers, but if you have 150k on the water pump I would STRONGLY consider replacing it at the same time. From experience, replacing the water pump with the radiator out is MUCH more pleasant work! Replace the lower hose and heater outlet elbow at the same time.

Pretty sure you must remove the front bumper to get the radiator out (various things are hooked on it, only accessible from the front) so you might consider replacing the oil cooler O-rings while you're there, maybe even cleaning out the oil cooler. It's cheap and easy, not really any additional work.

 

[Joel96]

OK thanks that is the info I was looking for!
Thanks,
Joel

 

[Minirex4777]

Ya you've got to remove the front bumper,headlights,headlight wipers.the front bumper will come out easy enough.when putting it back make sure both sides are connected by the front of the wheel wells .they kind of slide in before you bolt it back up you'll need to remove the cooling fans which also have one bolt on both side and slide in .battery will come out .Ive never been able to get to the drain on the radiator drain so pulling the bottom cooling hose will suffice although catching it all will be a challenge .I just did a water pump and ended up having to do the housing as well because the water pump bearings had failed and the impeller had eaten into the housing.had to move the power steering pump for access.you should have more room as Javanbra said with the radiator out of the way.youll have to remove the plastics underneath.if you do the waterpump I would change the small u shaped bypass hose as well

 

[jvanabra]

Yeah, that "impeller eating into the housing" is a REAL reason to make sure the pump is replaced before it fails in a catastrophic way. Replacing the pump is cheap. Replacing the housing is not.