What's a good, lower cost radiator for a MK III?

BillW · 12-09-2009, 10:12 PM

As it turned out, the Koyo radiator from Partsgeek looked ok (no leaks) after I drove the car a bit. What happened, I think, was I spilled some coolant filling the radiator, and after test driving I saw steam coming out of the radiator, and jumped to the conclusion the radiator was leaking. Duh. In my defense, I did have a coolant line that was bent in shipping, that I had bent back, and I guess this got me thinking the radiator had been damaged and was leaking.

Anyway, the Koyo from partsgeek.com works fine, about $180 total with shipping. The radiator includes the AT cooling lines. You just need to move the fans from the old radiator to the new one, and maybe buy a new radiator cap, upper and lower hoses, and AT cooling hoses, if you have AT.

The only issue with the Koyo radiator was the transmission cooling lines were something like .33" OD for the Koyo, versus .38" OD for the stock radiator, so I replaced the factory hose clamps with worm drive clamps, and tightened down on the clamps to really squash the hose onto the lines from the radiator. I didn't feel too great about doing that.

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12-09-2009, 10:12 PM	#6
BillW Stock Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: East Brunswick NJ Posts: 16	As it turned out, the Koyo radiator from Partsgeek looked ok (no leaks) after I drove the car a bit. What happened, I think, was I spilled some coolant filling the radiator, and after test driving I saw steam coming out of the radiator, and jumped to the conclusion the radiator was leaking. Duh. In my defense, I did have a coolant line that was bent in shipping, that I had bent back, and I guess this got me thinking the radiator had been damaged and was leaking. Anyway, the Koyo from partsgeek.com works fine, about $180 total with shipping. The radiator includes the AT cooling lines. You just need to move the fans from the old radiator to the new one, and maybe buy a new radiator cap, upper and lower hoses, and AT cooling hoses, if you have AT. The only issue with the Koyo radiator was the transmission cooling lines were something like .33" OD for the Koyo, versus .38" OD for the stock radiator, so I replaced the factory hose clamps with worm drive clamps, and tightened down on the clamps to really squash the hose onto the lines from the radiator. I didn't feel too great about doing that.