Here's the story...
Sometime last weekend, my mom walked into the garage in the morning and found coolant all over the ground. So, my dad took the Saturn to my mechanic (the same goofball who keeps messing up the van's A/C) and he replaced the radiator and refilled it with Dex-Cool for $250.
Without any further details, I called my mechanic and he told me that the radiator had basically "exploded." Maybe it was missing a few chunks or something, but I'm not sure what he means by "exploded." It was definitely a rapid leak, as it was fine the day before and a major leak developed over the course of the night.
The Saturn is 13.5 years old and has 127,000 miles on it. It has had three coolant changes over this period of time. Is this a normal life for a plastic tanked radiator? The only thing they may have caused this radiator failure to occur sooner (rather than later) was that I installed a new radiator cap recently.
Also, my mechanic wasn't sure what brand of radiator he used. He told me that he got it from Factory Motor Parts (FMP). I called FMP and the rep wasn't sure what a Saturn was, but finally came back and said that they stocked "Midwestern" branded radiators. I called a different FMP location and was told that most of their radiators were SPI branded. But FMP's website doesn't show that they carry SPI branded radiators, so who knows what radiator was used.
Anyway, are there any major differences in quality between these aftermarket radiators? Are they all about the same? Will the radiator brand be stamped somewhere on the radiator? Is there any easy way for me to tell what brand the radiator is?
Thanks!
Sometime last weekend, my mom walked into the garage in the morning and found coolant all over the ground. So, my dad took the Saturn to my mechanic (the same goofball who keeps messing up the van's A/C) and he replaced the radiator and refilled it with Dex-Cool for $250.
Without any further details, I called my mechanic and he told me that the radiator had basically "exploded." Maybe it was missing a few chunks or something, but I'm not sure what he means by "exploded." It was definitely a rapid leak, as it was fine the day before and a major leak developed over the course of the night.
The Saturn is 13.5 years old and has 127,000 miles on it. It has had three coolant changes over this period of time. Is this a normal life for a plastic tanked radiator? The only thing they may have caused this radiator failure to occur sooner (rather than later) was that I installed a new radiator cap recently.
Also, my mechanic wasn't sure what brand of radiator he used. He told me that he got it from Factory Motor Parts (FMP). I called FMP and the rep wasn't sure what a Saturn was, but finally came back and said that they stocked "Midwestern" branded radiators. I called a different FMP location and was told that most of their radiators were SPI branded. But FMP's website doesn't show that they carry SPI branded radiators, so who knows what radiator was used.
Anyway, are there any major differences in quality between these aftermarket radiators? Are they all about the same? Will the radiator brand be stamped somewhere on the radiator? Is there any easy way for me to tell what brand the radiator is?
Thanks!