1998 2.5 P38 cracked radiator

Going to pick up a take away the last night and the heaters were taking ages to come on. Eventually on the way home they came on and cleared the window. Got out and could smell coolant. Checked today and coolant was low. realised i now have a large crack on the top of my radiator. Anyone know what could have caused this. There was no overheating at all and have never had overheating prior to this????

Age?

hi Nathan 1998 with 130,000 miles

theboldmonkey said:

hi Nathan 1998 with 130,000 miles

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lol, i meant maybe the rads failed cos its old? i hear they can bust when overheating occurs but your hasnt and dont overheat?

nathan5346 said:

lol, i meant maybe the rads failed cos its old? i hear they can bust when overheating occurs but your hasnt and dont overheat?

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Worst case could be pressure from a cracked head

Mine did this back in May at 70 on motorway, spectacular clouds of steam! Temp gauge went from just left of centre to far right in just a couple of seconds, and ECU cut engine power to protect it. Culprit turned out to be failed water pump.

If you've got no overheating though I suspect it's not water pump, but could be over pressured from blown cylinderhead gasket, although several Aussie sites say that over there they recommend changing the radiator every 100k, as they've had similar problems. It doesn't specify whether their problems are climate related or whether they've just found that they age poorly.

There used to be metal tanked versions of the rads around, but no-one seems to have seen one recently. Eventually found Island 4x4 were way cheaper than anyone else even taking into account delivery, (just under £150 including delivery). My local motor factor wanted £345+vat

Just though somemore on your comment about heater being slow to come on! Could be failing water pump, hence low/no flow meaning heater was slow because it was relying on convection to move water to matrix...

Had to replace rad in my 2.5 P38 few months back, had to put it down to plastic header going brittle in the end.