radiator repair

[really?]

so i bought a new radiator on the bay, genuine valeo for the td estate. unfortunately it has arrived damaged. the core is fine but the buttom hose outlet is in two pieces. the supplier cant find another,being end of line, which is why it was cheap. does anyone know if it is repairable? its that horrible brittle type plastic. as an alternative i already have my radiator with unbroken header tanks, could the broken one be swapped? replies much appreciated.

[Tinkley]

Bad news is that the plastic is probably not glueable. I would put money on it being one of three plastics, polythene HD, polypropylene (high temp one), or nylon. The latter 2 being the favoured with nylon about 3 X the cost of polypropylene. You MAY be able to weld it though if you can find a way to do it. There are some more modern adhesives for PP (polypropylene) but in my experience they are not very good in a stressed part. The constant heat/cool and expansion in the cooling system means it is a stressed part.

If you look at the moulding it might have a material designation. These days almost everything has the recycle triangle with the basic type of polymer designated by 2 or 3 letters.

Right PIA that it got damaged in transit. Can you not claim off the courier?

[rutter123]

post up a pic of said broken rad so we can get a better idea.

[Kitch]

so i bought a new radiator on the bay, genuine valeo for the td estate. unfortunately it has arrived damaged. the core is fine but the buttom hose outlet is in two pieces. the supplier cant find another,being end of line, which is why it was cheap. does anyone know if it is repairable? its that horrible brittle type plastic. as an alternative i already have my radiator with unbroken header tanks, could the broken one be swapped? replies much appreciated.

Not much you can do, other than have the cores switched over, but then you might as well have had the thing reconditioned in the first place cost-wise.

[Mothman]

Are the sides of the rad crimped on? If so, a radiator specialist should be able to swap them from your old one. Watched my local guy do just that last year with a BX heater matrix.

Andy

[BX Bandit]

Gonna say, it's between the seller and the courier to fix it, but you may need to actually prove the damage was done by someone other than yourself. As long as you notify eBay soon enough they should reimburse you, or you could strike a deal with the supplier and ask him to pay a recore with your original sides. You know I had exactly the same happen to me only it wasn't via eBay.

[Thread Bear]

If you can get a duff one you can experiment on adhesives or welding it before committing yourself to a course of action. If glue I would be inclined to line it with an inner and bond the lot together. It wants to be a material, if not the same, that has a similar expansion rate. Must be something at a scrappy to do that. The inner core can take the pressure of the clip so the outer only then needs to remain stable so that the joint with the standard pipe is good. TD rads are to rare to bin for no attempt to fix ignoring any claim back - unless they demand the damaged Rad.

[citronut]

Not much you can do, other than have the cores switched over, but then you might as well have had the thing reconditioned in the first place cost-wise.

the rad reconditioning guy i use will not usually re/con rads with plastic tanks, as he says, the core ends have to be criped onto the tanks and the old plastic tanks will have become brittle

regards malcolm

[Tinkley]

Well said Citronut. You can sometimes sort of anneal the polymer by heating it but it has to be very precise and you need to know the Vicat softening temperature of that exact grade of material. If you can do this in a controlled oven you stand a chance, otherwise it may well be too brittle. BTW you will probably loose a little bit of the materials ultimate tensile strength if you do warm it even to a safe temperature.

[Thread Bear]

Well if it becomes surplus I will try and do something with it and I am only just down the road from you.

[Mothman]

Just aquired a NOS BX turbo rad with the tanks either side of the core being made from metal. These are crimped to the core in the usual manner.
Did Citroen produce both metal and plastic tanks? Its not a Valeo one but made by Kuhler.
Looks just the job.

Andy

[Tinkley]

As far as I am aware for petrols, both the Valeo and the Serck ones are OK.

[Mothman]

The one i got was a Kuhler.

Andy

[citronut]

Kuhler.

Andy

and it made Glorias Auto box run Kuhler than before also

[Mothman]

Oh, you are so droll Malcolm.

Back to work!!!!!

Andy