2002 Chrysler Town & Country Radiator Questions
 

Trying to fix a leaking radiator for a friend.

It looks like the cooling fans mounting bracket attaches to the end caps on the radiator. The driver side is dry. The passenger side is wet. When I look into the radiator, it appears the water level is at the height where the mounting bracket attaches to the cap.

Do these things leak there? If so, why the hell was this thing engineered that way?

Is replacing a radiator in one of these things something I want to try to do in my driveway? cough:SAUTO:cough

Dinny

I'm wondering if we need a general car care sub.

I'm really sorry, eD. It's the off season and I couldn't figure out how to work poop in the thread.

I knew I was going to offend someone's sensitivities. If I posed the question in one of the other car threads, someone would cry about derailing a thread.

Sue me.

Dinny

No no no man. I'm not complaining. AT ALL. It's just that there are a lot of these and I think it would be a good sub and have them all in one place. Just threw it out there.

Home stuff too. No big as I understand that they would get lower response totals as well.

Poop threads can **** right off.

Probably leaking from where the plastic tank is crimped to the aluminum core. Pieces of shit.

I wouldn't do it at home but I'm spoiled lol

Well, yeah, but.

Do I have to disconnect any air conditioning pipage that will require refrigerant issues? Is it going to be too hard for a crippled old fart with no time constraints? I can work on it a while, go in the house and sit down for a while and go back out and work on it some more after I get done cryin' as many times as it takes 'til the damned thing's fixed.

I don't give up easily, that's just the kind of son of a bitch I am.

Dinny

Pretty sure you can pull it off. I remember the s10

And pretty sure after you pull the header you can get the condenser off with out disconnecting the a.c.

Very well, then.

Cover me, I'm goin' in!!!!

Dinny

Lease

That would be just ducky. Unfortunately not an option here.

This poor old woman is a friend of my mother's. Her husband died a while back and she has more cats than money. She is a very kind and gentle soul.

I fixed her old ford truck for her a couple weeks ago. She said her van needed a new alternator, so I told her I'd put a new one in for her. When I was puling the alternator out, there was antifreeze dripping on my head.

Now here I am.

Dinny

You are a grand man Dinny Blues.

Like I always say, woe is the son of a bitch that I can help.

Dinny

Good man. Working it off in trade?

I can assure you this is very funny.

I am not, however, her type.

Dinny

You think you're having fun now, wait until she asks you to replace the spark plugs in that thing.

I can do it in 20 minutes

Well if the wires don't act like assholes

Speaking of replacing spark plugs -

My friend has a 92 3000GT VR4, (which breaks down at least once a week). I'd rather learn to do brain surgery than replace the spark plugs on that thing again.

I thanked some lucky charms when I saw the plugs.

No way.

No ****ing way.

Dinny

From underneath? I assume the 4th gen is just as bad as the 3rd?

Yes sir. From underneath on the rears with an air ratchet and a four inch extension.

Isn't that mid engine? If so, **** doing anything on that.

So do I want the one at the auto parts w/limited lifetime warranty for 140 bucks or take it to the radiator repair to see what they charge?

Dinny

Nah, but it's still a real pain in the ass. A 3.0 v6 doesn't sound like a big motor until you strap on 2 turbos and then cram it into a space that looks like it should hold a little 4 cylinder. That allows for absolutely ZERO maneuverability. You practically have take apart the top half of the motor to get to the plugs.

Fun car though. It's also teaching us to become mechanics in our spare time. LMAO

My Liege.

That's the way the back three on the Caravan are, you have to take the entire wiper tray and engine intake off. Front three took me 10 minutes, back three were a couple hours.

Unless your hands are triple jointed like Sauto's must be then you do it from underneath.

SAUTO cheats. SAUTO has a lift. He has another lift, two.

SAUTO has a driveway, as well. He parties there, he doesn't wrench on cars.

When I grow up.....

Dinny

yeah I used to just pull the upper intake. Not too bad of a job but they put all those stupid support brackets on the back side and the egr valve iirc.

Antifreeze. Hey, for once it fits!

You poor bastard. That sounds like a total pain in the ass.

Speaking of which... I have to replace the power steering pump in Lumpy's '04 Jeep Liberty. I checked it out and it's going to be a total cluster ****.

Why? Which motor ?

Just rent the pulley remover installer from the parts store, O'Reilly usually had a good one.

6 cylinder. I don't recall the CUI.

I have most of the tools needed to do it. It's just a helkuva pain in the ass.

3.7 is fairly easy iirc. Hell they even give you holes through the pulley to get the bolts out lo

Got the radiator out. Repair shop said broken at outlet, can't be repaired. Got the new radiator today. That's the good news.

There's even better news. When I told her I would replace the alternator, I asked her how she knew the alternator was the reason her battery light was on. She said a member of her church congregation had looked at it and determined it was the alternator. I guaranteed her I would replace the alternator, but not that the light would go out.

Went to get the new alternator today. Just to keep from wanting to, I had the auto zone guy throw the old one on the tester. It checked good, so I don't have to buy a new alternator, which is ~$180.00 worth of even better news.

The bad news is...why in the hell is the battery light coming on and what (outside of a piece of electricians tape) can I do to make the damned thing go out?

Dinny

Antifreeze, you ask?

Yes. I picked up two gallons.

Dinny

OBD2 tool might tell you why the battery light is coming on. Go back to the parts store and ask them to borrow their OBD tool and hook it up and check the codes.

There's a battery temp sensor that might be bad, if the battery and alternator are fine.

Thanks, Fish. That's a great idea. I have a scanner, but I never associated it with the battery light, just always the check engine light.

Cool.

Dinny

99% of the time its the alternator on those rigs...

I got one of these http://www.amazon.com/ELM327-Wireles...dp/B00VE8GUEW/ and it works kick ass for reading codes and flashing the check engine light aka clearing codes. Works on phone with obd car Doctor free app

Used it for a while before finally fixing the actual problem. Not sure if it will work for battery lights though

Dirty terminals?

Man...

I was hoping you would have something to say that would make all my Chrysler troubles go away.

All I wanted to do was help this old woman out. ****ing Chryslers.

I'm going on break.

Dinny