Show of Hands….
How many folks knew that Car Radiators are mainly plastic now?
I learned this yesterday with adventures in car repair. Tuesday night when I got home, I notices that there didn’t seem to be change in the amount of light when I pressed down on the brake peddle and released it. So using the ice brush to hold down the peddle, I took a look at the rear lights and noticed that the two lower and one upper break lights were all out.
Fun.
So I the next morning I took the Ford into the shop across the street and told asked them to figure this mystery out and also I had been smelling coolant in the morning, but not seeing any evidence of leaking.
A couple of hours later the call back came in and mysteries solved:
Coolant smell from BULDGING plastic reservoir on the side (At which point I boggled about plastic Radiators and when did this happen in the wide, wide world of car tech) with pin hole leak at the top.
Upper rear Neon Light ballast was very dead and taking the rest of the circuit with it. Ballast $179.00, Neon Light $286.00. The guys were good and tested the circuit before just plugging things in to see what was up and replacing the Ballast did the trick (new rear lights all around too boot).
New radiator, hoses, thermostat and sensor.
The Toyota needed a new Radiator at 211K, the Ford at 185K, so in the ball park at least mileage wise