If it ain't broke...

[Harold]

Then maybe don't touch it!

I spent a few hours on Sunday changing my radiator as it was seriously crusty, not leaking but it was 19 years old so I thought it was time for a new one. I was bleeding the car and noticed a few drips coming from the front end, I'd had enough so went inside and left it. Had another look tonight and there's a tiny hole in one of the radiator hoses! I'm guessing I was probably a bit too enthusiastic whilst trying to remove them, bu88er. They don't look too cheap from toyota either.

Feel free to share stories of your own mistakes to make me feel better.

[2mad]

Fitted a hybrid turbo, fired the car up and oil started pouring out the oil feed pipe.

It must have split while I was installing it , I Could have cried

[Tekkigizmo]

This was on an SD1 3500 rover,
As it was October/November I thought I'd change my antifreeze, nice simple job should only take 45 mins max so off I go and undo the drain plug to get rid of the old stuff and then refill, easy but! Now I never touched the fan, didn't need to.
So I'm running the engine to blead the system upto about 3-4000 rpm, i close the bonnet coz I'm done one last rev of the engine and BANG the fan explodes sending bits of it into the screen washer bottle, the battery, the radiator and into the bonnet leaving a sizeable dent.
Now to put it mildly I am not impressed it's not like the engine isn't revved up that high every time I use it. I've now got screen wash, antifreeze and battery acid pouring out all over the place.
I've now got to find all of these bits but have no car but somehow manage it, I bolt all the new bits on and solder the radiator and refill with new antifreeze AGAIN! Now nothing else can go wrong can it?
So I start the engine and I've got a massive oil leak not a drip drip drip but this stuff is gushing getting picked up by the new fan and thrown everywhere my once clean engine bay is covered so is my windscreen I stop the engine and find the oil leak is between the block and timing chain cover just above the oil pump it must have happened when the fan exploded but there were no signs of an oil leak when I was replacing all of the bits that were destroyed.
So after taking the front of the engine off I find I've got oil in the coolant and coolant in the oil so I've got to change both, but I'm thinking now that this car don't like antifreeze, every time I put some in it is finding a way of getting it out and if it don't like it I'm not gonna force it so I just fill the rad with water and it works just fine.

[Slarty]

Had another look tonight and there's a tiny hole in one of the radiator hoses! I'm guessing I was probably a bit too enthusiastic whilst trying to remove them, bu88er. They don't look too cheap from toyota either.

The two shortish intermediate rubber hoses that go from the rad to the metal pipes? If so, they're actually not too bad, less than £15 each I seem to remember.

[nickg07]

Selling my corolla t sport they were due to pick it up that afternoon I thought I'd do an early morning clutch bleed..

Cue hugely scraped knuckles and I couldn't get any fluid back in with my home made bleeder kit. And pedal just limp as a biscuit. Panic ran to Lt dads at 9am he still in his vest and underwear - dad I need help its urgent!

Buggers didn't buy it till the next day anyway!

[Harold]

Had another look tonight and there's a tiny hole in one of the radiator hoses! I'm guessing I was probably a bit too enthusiastic whilst trying to remove them, bu88er. They don't look too cheap from toyota either.

The two shortish intermediate rubber hoses that go from the rad to the metal pipes? If so, they're actually not too bad, less than £15 each I seem to remember.

Yep those two hoses, i've got some from stoney racing now, only £23 so not too bad. Just a pain in the ar$e that the rad has to come off again, though should be a lot faster this time as i don't have to deal with all the horrible rusty fan housing bolts. I had to dremel/hacksaw a couple of them off, not especially easy when lying on your back.

[Slarty]

Hmmm pretty sure the rad doesn't have to come off to fit them.....

[Harold]

Will have a crack tomorrow, if I don't have to remove the rad then all the better. Replacement hoses are quite stiff so not sure if they'll flex enough to put back on.

[Harold]

All done now, the new hoses are quite a bit thicker than standard ones and didn't really flex much at all so rad had to come off. But it was so much easier and faster this time.