Radiator Removal

If you ever happen to work on the coolant system, and have yet to do this, remove the radiator and have it flushed/cleaned out. After 15 years of use, the rad can get quite nasty, especially without proper regular coolant flushes. It's very easy to do if you already have the coolant system drained.

1) Support the front of the car on jackstands.

2) Drain the coolant out of the radiator. Either do this directly via the radiator drain, or use the draincocks in the coolant pipes running beneath the car. I chose the pipes, since my drain valve was clogged (the reason I did this repair).

3) Once you are sure the coolant has drained from the rad, disconnect the two hoses running to/from it.

4) Remove the coolant temp sensor above the bottom rad hose.

5) Remove the four 10mm bolts connecting the bottom of the rad fans to the radiator.

6) Disconnect the 2 rad fan plugs (green) and remove the 10mm bolts attaching the fans to the rad. The fans should now be loose from the radiator. However, you won't be able to remove them from the car just yet. (If you have the car jacked up high enough you could remove them from the bottom.)

7) Remove the horn by disconnecting the plug and the 10mm mounting bolt (red). And then remove the two 10mm bolts attaching the rad to the body of the car.

8) The rad and it's fans should then be loose. Remove the radiator first by pulling it straight up, then remove the fans.

9) Pics of the fans

Before taking the rad to a radiator shop, I attempted to clean it myself. After using the water hose & air compressor here's a sample of what came out of the thing.

So I decided to have a radiator shop do the job properly. It cost $60 for them to disassemble the rad to clean & pressure test it thoroughly. They also painted it for me:

10) Installation is just the reverse of the removal. Insert the fans first if you don't have room enough to put them in from underneath the car.