car advice

[zimeric]

Hi guys

so after spending two weeks in sunny Bali and spending our life savings, we came back to car service hell.

my rav4 (2001) transmission control unit went = $2000 (thats a whole story in its own right)
but then as part of the work done i asked Toyota to do a full service on her as well =$400
they found that there was a crack in the radiator hose mount and i needed a new "top tank" unfortunately there are no new top tanks without buying the whole thing = $2000
F@# that!! ....(this is being polite) i naturally declined.


so anyways i call some mobile radiator guy who said he could get a top tank for her for $250
i thought great installation maybe $400 and thats what he quoted.

so anyways he comes out while im at work to sort it out and i call him half way through the day to see how he's going. he complains i never told him it was such an old rav4 (he asked me its age when i first spoke to him) and then he spouts some shit that radiators only last 5years on average and that the car still has its original radiator.. he has pressure tested it and found a leak in the main tank as well (toyota pressure tested it too and found nothing there) i said that maybe he should have said this to me before quoting his first price (now im getting angry)
anyway total price for new radiator from him was $1072

i get home and have a look and notice that the radiator coolant vanes are still the same ones from before..

so my question... (before i unleash hell)
is, when a radiator is replaced do they just replace the tanks inside or the whole thing?

[Happy]

you can do both but fairly rare these days for a repair center to remove and replace the tanks .. usually they don't give a very long warranty on a reconditioned radiator so they prefer to fit you a new one. However I haven't worked on your car before so don't know how hard it is to replace but it seems very expensive!! I think you're getting ripped off - without knowing the facts about how rare bits for you car are!

[Lonzy]

ummm I have no idea ... my dad spent 20 years in the radiator industry and I can only remember two things he has told me about them ... 1) a two cent piece will fit snuggly in to the hose hole thing that isnt really needed ... and 2) when checking a radiator make sure the car opposite is securely parked ... or you may get squisshed in between both of them ... hehehehe my dad learnt the hard way :p