Any idead as to what went wrong here?

[Chris142]

This radiator is out of a customers 2006 ford Explorer with 36,xxx miles on it. According to the customer it's only been serviced by the local dealer so coolant contaminaion is not very likely.

Ford would not cover it under the 3/36 warranty because it was 3 weeks out of warranty.....They wanted over $800 to replace the radiator. We did it for $550 and it's a major job since the condensor and radiator must come out as a unit which involves recharging the AC.

It looks like it has been leaking a long time.

Coolant Should be Ford Gold/GO-5 and it tests good with our test strips.

No electrolosis.

Cooling system is reasonably clean internally.

Thoughts as to what caused this? I'm not sure that I'm sold on Go-5. I'm seeing more and more of these problems.

 

[Colt45ws]

Pictures are too small as to see anything.

 

[Chris142]

How small are they to you? They are 3x3 for me.

 

[Colt45ws]

About the same, but I cant see anything. I see a growth of some sort on it, but I cannot tell anything else. Might have been a defective unit. If I was the customer I would bring it to Ford and raise heck. (figuratively speaking of course) Might not get anytinhg, but then again they might.

 

[Chris142]

Ya all you can really see is the dried go-5 all over the core. The last pic is just the inside of the radiator after I took the plastic tank off to show that it's not full of rust or other nasties.

 

[BuickGN]

Grounding problem? Otherwise I would think it would have to be a manufacturing defect assuming nothing hit it and put a hole in it.

 

[tomcat27]

Bad solder joints. where was the OEM part made? I'm not sold on any of the acid coolants - but most cars are just fine. (except a boat load of GMs) People do need to realize that the coolant needs to be replaced, regardless of the "long life" sales pitch. Obviously with such low miles and only 3 yrs, I think Ford shoulda ponied up and fixed it. I, as a customer, would not expect that kinda failure so early.

 

[bdcardinal]

normal, we replace tons of those radiators. i would not look too deeply into it. same as the 6.4L radiators, they just leak.

 

[onion]

G05 tends to dry into big crusty boogers- more so than lots of other coolants.

As far as whether or not the failure was caused by G05- I have no idea. But I would look for a pattern failure. Repeatedly seeing the same failure mode would be pretty convincing- especially if it's unique to the particular coolant (Dex-sludge comes to mind as a good example).

What exactly failed here? Have you seen similar failures in other G05 systems? Did the tank gasket just leak?

 

[Chris142]

Originally Posted By: onion


What exactly failed here? Have you seen similar failures in other G05 systems? Did the tank gasket just leak?
Tube to header joints failed. Looks to be all the way across on both ends. My voltmeter showed no electrolosis with it off and with it running.

We replace alot of plastic/alum radiators but they usually make it to 80k or more before we see them. This was the newest vehicle I have seen at our shop and the 1st with these GO-5 boogers although my personal jeep had it's Go-5 turn to a brown mess in 2.5 years/28K.

 

[pcfxer]

It "just" leaked man. I'd telling your customer to push for Ford to cover the costs. That is unacceptable and clearly due to a long term leak that is caused by a design FLAW (not defect).

Replace it with a triple core after market, well worth the money every time I have (Y)

 

[Chris142]

Originally Posted By: pcfxer


Replace it with a triple core after market, well worth the money every time I have (Y)
No all metal rads are available for this truck. It's been our experiance that the all metal rads are really trouble compared to a plastic/ alum ones. We won't sell an all metal one because we lose $$$ when we have to warranty it 4 or 5 times.

I put an "imported" rad in the truck.........It cant be any worse than the factory Ford one.

 

[wander2039]

I'd say it was just a defective radiator. Have 37k on the Ranger and 89k on the Escape running G05. I do flushes every 2 years on the Escape and 3 years on the Ranger. No leaks and the overflows are clean.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: Chris142
No all metal rads are available for this truck. It's been our experiance that the all metal rads are really trouble compared to a plastic/ alum ones. We won't sell an all metal one because we lose $$$ when we have to warranty it 4 or 5 times.

I put an "imported" rad in the truck.........It cant be any worse than the factory Ford one.


Agree, my all metal CSF has a hairline crack and slowly leaking coolant at a young age of only 70k.

Just replace the plastic tank ones more frequently, at least you can detect it when it fail.

 

[Steve S]

Remember all late model [regardless of opinion] cars are built to the lowest quality possible. The metal or plastic is as thin as possible. I remember when radiators would clog from lack of service now radiators fail because they are paper thin.

 

[Sayjac]

I've been reading this board for well over a year now, and based on the that, the consensus seemed to be that G-05 was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Of course I exaggerate, but I have seen it consistently recommended for more applications than any other coolant.

Meanwhile, Dexcool and/or the universal coolants, which some call Dexclones because they too(allegedly) have 2eha are death ie., Deathcool, for one's cooling system.

I have used the all makes long life, Prestone and Peak, with a total flush(es), in two import vehicles, with no issues.

I've reached the conclusion, as has been said many times on this board, that regular maintenance of the cooling system, no matter the coolant, is the most important factor.

To the OP, an 06 Explorer with 36k, using only G-05, should not, it would seem, go bad. Son has an 05 Explorer with ~60k, that I recently drained the radiator and filled with MC Gold and distilled water. Previously we have had to add a very small amount of make up coolant from time to time.

I wonder if it's just bad luck, or something else. Ford parts guy above said it's normal. If that is so, that's hard to accept with cost(s) involved.

 

[bullwinkle]

Darn shame the customer didn't pay closer attention to coolant levels-they could have caught it when it was still under warranty. Then again, my 6.0 has lost coolant slowly since DAY ONE, the first trip to the dealer they put friggin' stop leak in it (!), even after all the work it's had done (including head gaskets, EGR cooler, and radiator, of course)-it still loses coolant to this day! They'd have bought it back under OH's lemon law if it was mine! Wonderful Ford Customer Service!

 

[bullwinkle]

Originally Posted By: Steve S
Remember all late model [regardless of opinion] cars are built to the lowest quality possible. The metal or plastic is as thin as possible. I remember when radiators would clog from lack of service now radiators fail because they are paper thin.
And, you have hit the reason for GM & Chrysler's bankruptcy SQUARE on the head!! If Ford hadn't mortgaged everything they owned-they'd have had to file too!!

 

[Kruse]

Originally Posted By: Chris142

I put an "imported" rad in the truck.........It cant be any worse than the factory Ford one.


I'm not sure how to define an "imported" radiator anymore. The last couple of Modine radiators that I bought were imported.

 

[onion]

Originally Posted By: Chris142
This was the newest vehicle I have seen at our shop and the 1st with these GO-5 boogers although my personal jeep had it's Go-5 turn to a brown mess in 2.5 years/28K.


You've mentioned your jeep before- and I'm not saying I doubt you. But I have to wonder if there was an issue with the engine ground- I've seen several cases where this causes electrolysis and wreaks havoc on a cooling system within just a few years. I've seen it cause multiple radiator failures, turn the coolant rusty, and even eat holes in the engine block.

My main experience with G05 was at a John Deere dealership. So this was mostly in diesel engines, anywhere from maybe 30 to 500 hp. Deere switched to G05 and to plastic/aluminum radiators in the early 90's. I worked at Deere from roughly 2003 to 2007, so lots of these systems were well over 10 years old- and we rarely saw ANY cooling system problems on 'third generation' machines (Deere lingo for early 90's and up). Leaky radiators, cavitated engine blocks, and the like were pretty common on the older machines- but that's to be expected on neglected equipment that's between 15 and 40 years old (we commonly worked on machinery dating back to around 1960). Overall, I was really impressed with the performance of G05 when I worked at Deere. But their agricultural equipment IS some of the highest quality stuff available (can't say about their construction equipment), so I'm sure that was a factor.