Jason Murphy

IANACM: I Am Not A Car Mechanic

Jul 2, 2006 Blog General

So my wife decides to run over a giant boulder a few weeks ago (she’s known to not exactly stay within the boundaries of parking lots or painted lanes). Our explorer is running fine, except the bottom of the radiator is bent and the fan is rubbing against it. I ordered a new radiator, it got here Tuesday, and today was when I had chance to replace it.

Let me start by humbly admitting that I am not a mechanic. I’m not even close. I admire gearheads but sometimes I just can’t talk the talk or walk the walk. I’ve replaced two radiators in my lifetime, one on my sedan the other on my GMC Jimmy (Dad and Bro were there to help on that one). Neither time was it too difficult, nor time consuming. So, I felt that replacing it on a Ford Explorer would be a breeze. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I read the Chilton’s guide before starting and it said there were about 8 steps. They all looked simple enough. I started pulling hoses and unscrewing bolts at about 3:30 PM. Everything was going fine until I tried to remove two metal hoses going into the side of the radiator. The Chilton’s guide warned me about those. It said if I had an automatic, which I do, that I might have to remove ATF hoses going into the side. So I tried to do just that. They wouldn’t budge. The hollow bolt that connected the whose to the radiator would also start rotating whenever I got enough force on hose nut. I didn’t have the write crescent wrench so I decided I needed a better tool and headed to Lowe’s. I was looking for a huge 1 1/16″ Crescent and sadly they just don’t make them that big. I had the bolt from my new radiator in my pocket so I started sizing it up to adjustable wrenches and pliers. I tried a few that “might” work, but the only thing I don’t like about adjustable wrenches is they slip and loose grip easily. After a bit of searching,I found the holy grail for stuborn bolts: the IRWIN 12″ Groovelock Plier. This thing was so badass that I think I might carry it around with me. It has a patented shape shape and grip that more naturally grabs the bolt and applies the torque to all the edges. It worked like a charm and within minutes I was back in business.

After getting everything drained and all the bolts off, I was finally ready to yank the radiator out. It was now approaching 6:30 (I live a bit away from Lowe’s) and I was relieved to be at this step because those ATF hoses had beat me up pretty badly. I start pulling on the radiator to remove it, but it doesn’t budge. I check all the edges and corners to make sure that I got all the bolts, and I sure did. I tried again. Still nothing. I refer to my Chilton’s manual again and it says that at this step that it should slide right out like butter. What? That baffled me. Something else must be up. I busted out the flashlight and started intensely looking for contacts that might be holding it in. I could only see one side of the radiator so I figured their might be contacts or bolts on the on the other side. The only problem was that I could only see one side. I looked around some more and noticed an ATF hose going in front of the radiator (where I couldn’t see) on each side. Now I knew something was up. Since when do ATF hoses run in front of a radiator? I looked inside my grill and all I could see was radiator foils. So where’d the hose go?

Frustrated, I closely examined Chilton’s again. It was then that I realize that the instructions for replacing a radiator were for the 3.0, 4.0, and 4.6 liter V-6 engines. My Ford Explorer is a V8 5.0 Liter engine. Geez, so much for relying on Chiltons. I looked online and found out that there is a Transmission Cooler (basically a radiator for transmission fluid) that piggy backs on the front of the regular radiator. It looks about the same as the radiator, but it is a little thinner. Its there to cool the fluid in case of heavy towing (yeah right, like we’ll ever do that. This is a soccer-mom suburban vehicle). The two radiators were latched on so that it is intended that they be removed and replaced together.

I went back out and looked in despair at my radiator. I wasn’t prepared to work the ATF lines, I know that I know nothing about them. I wouldn’t know how to pressurize them or anything like that. I can check fluid levels, but knew nothing about the pressure. So, since I didn’t feel like any further experimentations into vehicular repair with the ATF system, I decided to manhandle the two radiators appart. It eventually worked, but let me tell you that the last place you want an arm is squeezed down in between two radiators. My arm is cutup pretty badly (all minor, paper-cut like cuts). Luckily the contacts holding the two radiators together were just a couple of clips and few plastic tracks that I could slide them out of. There wasn’t much room to work with, but eventually my radiator was free.

Putting the new radiator in was much easier than taking the old one out. Especially now that I knew what I was really up for. I snapped the two radiators together, did a little manhandling, attached the bolts, attached the hoses, refilled the radiator, and was back in business. I let it sit idle and everything purred perfectly.

Knowing what I know now, if any heavy work needs to be done on a 5.0 litre, I’ll be sure to let the pros handle it. I’m sticking to my desk job.