So, on Saturday, it came time to change my oil. Actually I really needed to check all my fluids since I hadn’t done so since I bought my car. So, while I was at it, Dave (my brother-in-law) suggested flushing the radiator. Turns out my coolant reservoir was pretty much empty so it was a good thing we decided to do the flush. We detached the upper hose from the engine to let it drain from there as well but we noticed a lot of gunk caked on the nozzle (like leaked coolant…might explain the empty reservoir) so we cleaned that off as well. Once we got the hose re-attached, coolant leaked slightly out of the hose where all the gunk had been. The hose must have stretched. So, Dave suggested replacing the hose.

The next day, I got up bright and early (around 10:00) and headed over to Checker for the new hose. While removing the old hose from the radiator, not only did I lose the old clamp somewhere in the bottom of the engine bay but part of the nozzle broke off with it (we never removed it from the radiator, just the engine). So I probably spent an hour just looking for the clamp but gave up (since I was trying to do this quickly in the apartment parking lot). I went back to checker for new clamps and a funnel. There was still enough nozzle left on the radiator to attach the hose to so I clamped it on, re-added the coolant and test started the engine. Everything seemed fine.

We headed over to Sarah’s parents house for lunch and when we got there I wanted to check everything just in case. Sure enough, the upper hose was leaking where I had re-attached it to the radiator and when I tried to remove it, the rest of the nozzle came with it. Needless to say, I need a new radiator. I called around and to my surprise Checker has one for $100 (praise God for Checker haha). So I borrowed Sarah’s mom’s car, picked up the radiator as well as a new lower hose and more coolant. I stopped by my parents house to pick up my jack and my dad’s tools. Finally, I set out to replace my radiator on the dirt road outside the house. When it started to get dark, I thought I was pretty much finished. I had all the hoses back in place, the new radiator installed, and the splash shield put back on. I fired it up to check for leaks and everything seemed ok but I needed to let it heat up for a thorough test. Once it heated, up brown liquid (not coolant haha) started spewing everywhere…and I started swearing. I thought that one of the smaller hoses for the automatic transmission fluid (ATF) cooling system (which also happens to be part of the radiator) was loose or broken…which wouldn’t be good because now I’d need another hose that could only be bought at a store that was probably already closed. So I shut it off and took the splash shield back off and found out that the nut on one of the nozzles for the ATF cooling system had been loose. This was mostly a good thing because now the only thing I needed was transmission fluid…which can be found at your average WalMart. So I called Sarah’s parents (who were on the way home from church) and asked if they could pick up a quart. They got home thirty or so minutes later and I set to work tightening the loose nut. This took some time because when it started to tighten, the nozzle would turn with it and pinch the hose. When I finally got around to re-adding the transmission fluid, it guzzled up the whole quart without filling up to the fill line. Apparently I had flushed out all the fluid and my car takes 2.6 quarts. I borrowed their car again and set off for WalMart. I spent some time there trying to find the kind they had found without any luck so I just went with the cheap WalMart brand. I finally got back to the house, filled the transmission up with fluid and started the car back up to test again for leaks, this time praying. Well, it heated up and everything seemed good so I put everything back together, tested it a few more times without issue and breathed a sigh of relief. By the time I got everything cleaned up and put away it was 11:30. At least the car runs like a dream now and should be good and ready for another hot summer.

1. Alexander Says:
   
   February 25th, 2009 at 8:19 pm

   Ah the joys of car ownership. Such issues are always a good source of learning/experience, especially if you have someone whose brain you can pick when it doesn’t go the way you expect.

   I enjoyed the videos you posted on facebook. I don’t think I’d seen the webcam ones since we made them. It was fun to remember the good ‘ol days. Has it really been a decade since 1999?