Well, that didn't take long...

P

PowerHead

Member
Location
Key West, FL
Name
Rick
Last night after the family came home I noticed my wife and daughter acting a bit strange. Just before dinner the 2 of them couldn't take it anymore and my wife speaks up, "Baby, you know how much I love you right?"

I said, "What did you do?"

"Well, when I was dropping Patrick (Daughter's boyfriend) off after school today I didn't notice the Boulders his father put next to the driveway to keep cars from turning around in their yard and I ran one over….But it's not that bad!! Some little scratches."

I just sighed and shook my head. After the day I already had this was about par for the course.

So, we eat dinner, I do a few things and basically forget it even happened for a while until my daughter asks, "How bad was it dad?" Then, I remembered, got my shoes on and went for a looksee.

Cracked fog light, skid-plate all crumpled to hell, various scratched & broken plastic parts and to top it all off the radiators leaking..

The boulder was at least a foot to foot & a half!

I’d post some pics but I’m not that familiar with this site yet and I haven’t met my 10 post minimum to be able to do so any ways.

I guess I’m just glad it wasn’t new Maxima we lease.

Question: Besides the plastic pieces which seem to be a DIY project, what do you guys think about taking on the radiator issue on my own?

Your experience & comments are greatly appreciated!
 
Ouch sorry to hear that.
Did you get a good look to see if the radiator is cracked? Hopefully, the leak is coming from the hose or clamp. If it's coming from the rad, that's going to take a lot of effort to replace.
 
"how bad was it?" lol.. Check it asap, it might of damaged the tranny line that goes to the radiator and if that starts to leak, then your tranny is out as well
 
I did the radiator on my first gen, piece of cake. I dont let my wife drive my fx she has her own car but if needed she can use my daily driver anytime she wants [emoji106]
 
All of that sounds easy. The radiator is not a problem. There's a decent amount of room in there to work. As someone said, make sure it's not something like a hose. But since she took out the foglight and part of the bumper, it's probably the radiator itself. It's really as simple as taking off the intake, taking out the fan, unplugging hoses and draining, then pulling the radiator. Transmission cooler is in the bottom of the radiator, but it's not a big deal. Just hang the hoses higher than the pan, you'll only lose the fluid in the cooler itself. Of course make sure to top off the transmission after.

Even if you are losing transmission fluid right now, it probably didn't do any damage on the drive home. As long as there wasn't a huge warning light and it didn't go into limp mode. If it was a small leak in the transmission line, no permanent damage done.
 
Thanks for all the replies.

Man, I really hope it's not the Tranny line too.

After looking at the pictures again I see a small line, maybe a 1/2 inch or so next to the 2" lower radiator hose. It's not damaged that I can see. The leaking appears to be coming from the area above the main 2" hose. I'm going to pour some Stop Leak in there tonight until I'm able to get a better look at it this weekend.

Unless of course you guys tell me that's a bad idea.
 
Sorry to just to clarify i didnt mean the tranny is damaged, what i ment if its leaking bad and you drive it that way, it might
 
Don't use stop leak. That stuff will leave residue and can lead to issue down the line. It's not just staying in your radiator, you'll have it throughout your entire cooling system. Just don't drive the car if possible. Stop leak isn't a good solution.
 
take off the front bumper and see what's going on. Maybe the rad support is cracked too. I hit a snow bank and had to replace the rad support, AC condenser, and radiator. Pain in the ass to replace the rad support. If it was only radiator, it would have been a breeze
 
Well, She ran it over, it got stuck in by the wheel. Then, instead of calling me to come with a jack from 1/2 a mile away she backs off it and tears more stuff up.

Unreal...

---------- Post added at 05:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:47 PM ----------

And Thank you for the heads up on the Stop Leak Shadow191 ;)
 
I feel your pain I had almost word for word the same conversation with my wife when she ran over a rock about the same size in the parking lot at Von's up here.
Luckily I only had to replace the crumpled lower engine cover.
 
Got her up on a lift this weekend for a look see.

*Tranny cooler fluid leaking
*Coolant / Radiator fluid leaking
*Front skid plate trashed
*Drivers side plastic wheelwell cowling trashed

I’m still undecided on the plastic under bumper piece. I might just try to shave the scratched pieces off….
If I remember correctly, someone on this forum sells a custom aluminum skidplate for a decent price. If you know who it is please pass their name along. I think that would look nice.

Thanks
 
That doesn't sound too bad overall. Replacing the radiator should take care of both leaks. And the aluminum skid plate isn't in production yet, but you can drive without an undertray. Mine has been off for a few months now, car was so low I tore out some of the mounting bolts on a speed bump.

Pics of the wheel liner? It may be salvageable; there are quite a few mounting points and you don't need all of them.
 
Thank you for the quick link GEE50FX!

You say they aren't in production yet? Any idea on a timeframe for them?

Will try to post a picture today. Have done that yet.

---------- Post added at 01:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:40 PM ----------

Here's a good one.

As soon as I get it on the lift and start looking around I notice a good amount of oil on the bottom of the oil pan.

I wipe it off and see it's coming from the drain bolt. The mechanic with me says it may just be a bad seal or O-ring.

Just before I'm ready to lower it about 2 hours later I see more oil has come out. I reach up and turn the bolt and it's not even finger tight! I mean it was literally shaking lose from not being tightened at all!

I put a wrench on it and it seems fine now. But, I’m sure glad it didn't shake lose on my trip south or when the wife was driving around in it.

Needless to say I sent the salesman a tasteful message this morning concerning his mechanic's inability to tighten an oil drain bolt.


Haven’t heard back from him yet.
 
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