Leaking radiator gasket?

[Saturn_Fan]

1995 Nissan hard body pickup with 5-speed and 3.0 V-6. I have been noticing coolant on the ground. Traced it to the very top of the radiator along the entire top. There is coolant resting on the top upper crack the entire length of it.

I don't anything about radiator construction, but my neighbor said it is probably the radiator gasket that is going bad.

1. Does this sound right. I mean to radiator gaskets go bad over time?

2. neighbor recommends a new radiator. No big deal moneywise (90 bucks at Rock Auto). Is replacing a radiator fairly easy?

Thanks guys!

 

[John_K]

On my 91 Dakota it was a piece of cake. Sits in the bracket, tighten two screws, attach hoses, refill. Yours might be similar.

John

 

[ThirdeYe]

Check the radiator cap. My KA24DE (I think that's the same engine your truck has) had the same problem. Turned out the cap wasn't holding very good pressure (look anything like this?):

Replaced it with a Stant radiator cap and it was good to go from then on. Good luck!

 

[Chris142]

Ya it has a rubber gasket that seals the tank to the core. It gets old and hard then starts leaking. Sometimes you can pull the radiator out and crimp the crimps tighter and it will seal again for a while.

The lifespan of a radiator with plastic tanks is 100K. If your near that or over that don't bother with repairs just replace it with a new one.

 

[Gary Allan]

I've also had the clamp loosen on the top nipple/bib and have it leak a little until warm up.

There's a local rad guy who replaces the gaskets. He seems to do a good business with them. I can't shake the fond familiarity of the brass/copper rad w/metal tanks. I don't care if it's yesterday's news

 

[Shannow]

I don't like them resealing the o ring, as it doesn't last real long.

When I replaced the rad in my 4Runner (ages ago), I paid the extra couple hundred and got a nice brass replacement.

 

[Saturn_Fan]

ThirdYe,

I've got the VG30E, but that photo is a carbon copy of what my leak looks like! I'll start with a new radiator cap and hopefully that is it!

Thanks for posting that.

Thanks for everyone's comments. I appreciate the help.

 

[AcuraTech]

Happens often on older Acuras. The radiator tank starts leaking. After that, its game over. Needs a new one. There might be some radiator shops around that could repair it, but those days are mostly gone with the advent of aluminum radiators with plastic tanks.

In fact, I just replaced the radiator not too long ago on my personal car (92 Legend) because the top tank was leaking.

 

[Saturn_Fan]

Well, thanks to ThirdYe I just saved a hundred bucks. It turned out that it was the radiator cap. Promptly replaced it with a Stant 13 psi cap and no more coolant loss! It had the original cap on it (13 years old).

 

[Eddie]

GM has sealing tabs that seem to work very well as curing radiator weepage/seepage. My Subaru did the same at the same place as yours. I bought Subaru's fix-in-a-bottle for $2.00 and it was good for the additional 80,000 miles I drive it.

 

[onion]

The "hot" tank on the wife's '94 Chevy Corsica's radiator started leaking around 2001 or so. A new radiator was $260 at the time. I took it to a radiator shop and had the gasket replaced for $70 (also had it rodded out to remove dex-sludge... no more overheating!). It's been about 7 years and 60k miles... no leaks, no overheating.