Newish upgraded Radiator is leaking. Bugger!

[Baytown]

Gday everyone.
Ive been away but back now, and my upgraded 18 month old Australian made radiator is leaking at the fins.
Not disastrous, but a bloody nuisance. I’m not about to drive 4000kms to get the installer to look at it, so ball park figure, what is a minor ish radiator repair on a Puma worth?
If it’s got to come out and at least an hours soldering, pressuretesting etc, I’m thinking over $300.
Im toying with just replacing it with a quality Allisport performance upgraded Alloy radiator from the UK for $1200 landed. This one has lost my trust. Good enough for the Dakar, good enough for me!
Thanks for any advice and best wishes all.
Ken
134806134807

[Marty90]

Get in touch with the manufacturer. Probably has a distributor in your area. These things happen. Unti you pull it out you won't know what caused it.

[Baytown]

Well, I got on to MRA in Redcliff, who advised that the radiator manufacturer didn’t want to know about warranty for my failing radiator. (There’s an surprise😒.)

My local radiator repair place said it’s not repairable as it may rust out at other places and the leak was too close to the plastic header tank.

So, I purchased an AlliSport full aluminium radiator from AlliSport in the UK in mid January.

8 Weeks later and it still hadn’t been produced, at which point I had an sense of humour failure and requested an refund. They were very good about it and apologetic. They had staff off sick.

I got onto 4x4 Tuning in NSW who were brilliant to deal with. They got an AlliSport unit from the UK for me within two weeks, at little more cost than me importing one.

Ill fit it on Monday and I must say, it’s a thing of beauty, approx 35% more efficient than OEM and SO LIGHT WEIGHT!

Best wishes all.

Ken
138820
138819
138818

[djam1]

My Allisport Defender radiator did the same as your old one after about 4 years, not quite that bad but on its way to that condition.
Cheaper to use genuine and change over every few years


Well, I got on to MRA in Redcliff, who advised that the radiator manufacturer didn’t want to know about warranty for my failing radiator. (There’s an surprise😒.)

My local radiator repair place said it’s not repairable as it may rust out at other places and the leak was too close to the plastic header tank.

So, I purchased an AlliSport full aluminium radiator from AlliSport in the UK in mid January.

8 Weeks later and it still hadn’t been produced, at which point I had an sense of humour failure and requested an refund. They were very good about it and apologetic. They had staff off sick.

I got onto 4x4 Tuning in NSW who were brilliant to deal with. They got an AlliSport unit from the UK for me within two weeks, at little more cost than me importing one.

Ill fit it on Monday and I must say, it’s a thing of beauty, approx 35% more efficient than OEM and SO LIGHT WEIGHT!

Best wishes all.

Ken
138820
138819
138818

[Robmacca]

What Brand was this one? PWR by any chance?




Gday everyone.
Ive been away but back now, and my upgraded 18 month old Australian made radiator is leaking at the fins.
Not disastrous, but a bloody nuisance. I’m not about to drive 4000kms to get the installer to look at it, so ball park figure, what is a minor ish radiator repair on a Puma worth?
If it’s got to come out and at least an hours soldering, pressuretesting etc, I’m thinking over $300.
Im toying with just replacing it with a quality Allisport performance upgraded Alloy radiator from the UK for $1200 landed. This one has lost my trust. Good enough for the Dakar, good enough for me!
Thanks for any advice and best wishes all.
Ken
134806134807

[Baytown]

Yes, PWR.
Never again.

[Robmacca]

Yes, PWR.
Never again.

Bugger.... I spoke to a fella that also installed a bigger (apparently better) Alloy PWR radiator and it too started leaking. He took it back for a warranty claim and after a multitude of tests to see if there is any current flow, etc that may have caused it, they warranted it and gave him a "new improved" one that they said would fix his problems..... but also he would not be able to claim again if anything else happened. It's been in for 6mths w/o problems, but u gotta wonder what would happen if u spent a few days driving on corrugated roads as to what might happen.....

[Beery]

Is anyone who is using these uprated radiators getting any improved cooling in their opinion? I.e. are they worth it?

I'm having pretty good results with the standard radiator by lowering the glycol concentration and blocking off the heater line, which allows coolant to constantly bypass the radiator.
Cleaning the fins with a condenser coil cleaner / aluminium cleaner every now and then helps heat transfer as well.

[Marty90]

Bugger.... I spoke to a fella that also installed a bigger (apparently better) Alloy PWR radiator and it too started leaking. He took it back for a warranty claim and after a multitude of tests to see if there is any current flow, etc that may have caused it, they warranted it and gave him a "new improved" one that they said would fix his problems..... but also he would not be able to claim again if anything else happened. It's been in for 6mths w/o problems, but u gotta wonder what would happen if u spent a few days driving on corrugated roads as to what might happen.....He can claim for the remainder of the warranty period.

[Baytown]

It it would be hard to tell without exact metrics to compare.
All I know is that I have an heavy 110, tow an 2 1/2 ton caravan, have reflashed the engine to 170hp via BAS and all the usual upgrades such as to the bigger intercooler, oil catch can, EGR blank etc and have not had an overheat problem in the hot Aussie environment.
An advertised 35% better cooling from AlliSport can’t be a bad thing.
It’s worth the angst for peace of mind in my opinion.
Ken


Is anyone who is using these uprated radiators getting any improved cooling in their opinion? I.e. are they worth it?

I'm having pretty good results with the standard radiator by lowering the glycol concentration and blocking off the heater line, which allows coolant to constantly bypass the radiator.
Cleaning the fins with a condenser coil cleaner / aluminium cleaner every now and then helps heat transfer as well.

[rick130]

FWIW, stray current will take out an aluminium radiator in a matter of days.

I've had it happen to two GU Patrol radiators, in that case it was a loose negative battery terminal, but all you need is a poor earth somewhere (and we're talking Defenders here, they have a multitude of them) to allow current to try and travel back through the coolant.

To check use an old fashioned analogue multimeter (a digital one won't work) switch to low DC volts, plonk one end in the coolant and the other on a good earth that goes back to the battery.
I can't remember the numbers, maybe 0.2vDC?, but anything above that go checking all earths.

Probably best to google the critical voltage as I really can't remember atm

[Beery]

It it would be hard to tell without exact metrics to compare.
All I know is that I have an heavy 110, tow an 2 1/2 ton caravan, have reflashed the engine to 170hp via BAS and all the usual upgrades such as to the bigger intercooler, oil catch can, EGR blank etc and have not had an overheat problem in the hot Aussie environment.
An advertised 35% better cooling from AlliSport can’t be a bad thing.
It’s worth the angst for peace of mind in my opinion.
KenIt'd be great if someone could do a scientific, side by side comparison.