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Hi, I just discovered the cause of my disappearing water. The top tank of my radiator has a pin sized leak.

Is it hard to change the radiator. How long would it take an amateur?

Anyone got a new one they want to sell?

Borked wrote:Give yourself the weekend with a few mates around, include a BBQ and a slab or five, pending numbers, and have a good weekend

Now you are scaring me . I was hoping someone would say its an hours job at the most !!

One more question I had in my ever probing mind Is it safe for me to continue driving for the next few days with this smallish leak or is it likely to become a catastrophic failure soon.

Where did you get the radiator and how much was it. Are you getting the hole plugged or just replacing it.
There are only a few nuts and bolts to remove and maybe the hoses need replacing.
System drained and flushed out. Fans removed etc.
Could take 2 hours depends on how fast you work.

Easy peasy.

Assuming you have AC, you have 2 fans to disconnect and remove.

Remove your intake to make the job easier.

Drop the lower hose and drain coolant. Remove the bracket holding the metal portion of the lower hose to the chassis rail to give you more room.

Remove top hose and coolant overflow tube.

Then remove the four 10mm bolts securing the radiator to the mounting brackets and carefully slide the radiator out - left side first - it should then come straight out the top.

Install in reverse, fill and burp cooling system, win.

An hour should kill it.

snshami wrote:One more question I had in my ever probing mind Is it safe for me to continue driving for the next few days with this smallish leak or is it likely to become a catastrophic failure soon.

Oh one thing I forgot - obviously you will have to swap the fans over. Removing them before you pull the rad will make the extraction much easier.

I would not drive it until it is fixed - certainly not very far. But that's just me.

With little mechanical experience, I changed mine in about 2hrs. It's fairly straight forward.

Thanks everyone. Why can't I remove the fans after I have taken the radiator out. Is there something preventing me doing that.

Also do I need to jack the car up at the front for access underneath?


And what type should I buy. There seem to be four broad choices for the standard size radiator. Mazda OEM for over $600. Chinese including Ebay for around $200, Indonesian ADR brand ones in the $200s and Australia made Natrad for $248. What are your experiences with these.

To save money, Take the rad to a repairers for a new top tank.
As for how hard the job is, I can't remember as it was so easy and straight forward. Pretty sure the rad came out with fans on. I have an NA

Just keep it topped up and you should be fine, obviously keep an eye on it to see if the leak gets more dramatic.

Replacement should take around 1/2 an hour of work, plus 1/2 an hour waiting for things to drain etc

I did a coolant system flush on mine when I replaced the radiator (same reason, pin sized hole in the top tank), that added an extra 45 minutes...

I had never thought about getting the existing radiator repaired. Apparently a new top tank would cost $140 while a new one would cost $240. The 140 would only involve changing the top tank not the bottom one. According to the person I spoke to the lower tanks are never a problem..

Are there any disadvantages of repairing an existing radiator over getting a new one.

Not if the rest of the rad is OK, They usually crack opposite where the water hose joins. Had mine done about 3 years ago, still fine

snshami wrote:Thanks everyone. Why can't I remove the fans after I have taken the radiator out. Is there something preventing me doing that.

Also do I need to jack the car up at the front...

Taking the fans off makes it easier to slide it out. It gives you more space to maneuver the radiator out and slide it out of the mounts.

Once you start the job you will see what I mean

Shouldn't need to jack the car up but doing so, and removing the lower tray, will definitely make it easier to access the lower hose.

I thought snashami worked in the auto industry- don't the engineers know these things. All these questions are just absolute basic stuff. Some of us just owned bombs when young and had to do repair things and picked up some info on the journey- I think very hard these days as to whether it is worth the hassle of diy and technology has moved on. Anyone thinking about DIY has to buy a repair manual and do some reading and knowledge will never come overnight.

OEM is generally the safest route for parts but maybe a reputable maker does a aftermarket unit. OEM units are designed for the car and they work and everything will bolt up correctly etc. The MX5 factory is not far from Doreen and they are a source of info and pricing etc.

If a radiator gives a prob them take it to a repairer and ask questions of the experts and get quotes etc. For many just paying to get something done is best esp if you do not have the tools the facilities or basic knowledge. Even changing a radiator can end up with a system which is not refilled correctly and then overheats which can be disastrous- but a manual like Haynes should give pointers.

viewtopic.php?f=76&t=37363

not certain if the links are still active.

the Mazda manual covers a lot more than a Haynes etc, although it often says you need SSTs (Specialised Service Tools)
often you can make do with standard tools, might just take you a few more minutes.