Blog readers,

Be sure to watch this clip if you want to see a vivid demonstration of why a radiator is so important in a car rally. Besides that, the racing shots in this video are really fun to watch! Red Bull rally team director, Armin, doesn’t mince words as he demonstrates this point and he does it with an endearing Swedish accent. He makes it clear that if you want to get your rally car out into the elements – dirt, snow, whatever – and win the race, the main thing you need to avoid is an overheating radiator because it is the most important thing under the hood for stopping an overheating engine.

It is the radiator based cooling system that lets you plow through snow banks and up dirt mountains, just as his team car does in a few choice video shots. Armin does more than tell the viewer to avoid a hot engine. He holds an aluminum radiator close enough to the camera so we can see it and he explains the role of the radiator fins in the cooling process that takes in the hot water in one side of the radiator and cools it before it exits out the other side, which guarantees a cool engine for the race.

Even a little hole in radiator can ruin the chances for victory and out in the rally, when there is no time to replace radiator parts, he recommends plugging a radiator hole with anything that happens to be available, even a piece of chewing gum, so you can finish the race. Now, that is my kind of temporary fix!

- Susie

Goodness gracious auto repair lovers! Here’s a radiator video that you can do without. Its only redeeming factor is that it sends a clear message that some people just shouldn’t own cars – even clunkers like this car. The two guys in the video don’t have half a brain between them. I’m not sure who they are, but someone should take away their video camera along with their wreck of a car. As a viewer, you already have a suspicion that the car is in the shape it is in thanks to their idiocy. They certainly aren’t doing a radiator repair. I doubt that they could even find the radiator under the hood.

It starts out with the driver (a loose description of the guy sitting at the steering wheel) gunning the engine so hard, it stops turning over at all. Then, we have to watch him repeatedly jam the key in the ignition as the whole frame convulses in its death-throes. He has no idea what he is doing to his auto car radiator but the next things we see is the passenger who has the hood open. He is banging at the radiator with some kind of pliers, hopping back at each swing from the radiator smoking. If it isn’t clear already, he ought to know by now that he needs a new radiator. He succeeds in knocking off the radiator cap without burning himself which is pretty amazing with the engine smoking at this point. Boiling water spurts out and he jumps back, laughing like a maniac.

So there it is – everything not to do when you have car trouble. And besides that, if you ever see one of these guys walking down the street (they couldn’t possibly be driving) move to the other side of the street because they could be dangerous!

- Susie

Hello again, auto repair lovers and those of you who are just plain curious about what’s under the hood.  If you need a pat on the back before you begin a do it yourself radiator replacement project, this video is a great place to start.  You won’t learn anything to help you with the actual task, but it can help to psych you up as you get ready to tackle the job.

The gentleman in this video – Chris – is about to pull out an old radiator and put a new one into his 1998 Honda Civic.  For someone who doesn’t know what he is doing, he has a lot more confidence than I would have.  I have no idea where his cavalier attitude comes from because he freely admits that he isn’t a mechanic and that he is going to rely on his auto repair book to guide him through the process.  This is certainly not the way I would go about it for the first time, but I have to admire his enthusiasm.  I were being filmed for this radiator video about an installation, I’d want someone by my side to point here and there and give me some direction.   Faced with a leaky radiator under his hood and a new Honda Civic Radiator replacement by his side, Chris experiences none of my qualms as he prepares to launch forth following the install radiator chapter, which I hope comes equipped with a few good photos.

I can only wish Chris the best of luck.  I think I’d rather learn live from a friend – or anyone else willing to guide me through removing a leaky and on-its-way-out radiator, let alone installing a new radiator.  But as I said in the beginning, the attitude that Chris has might be contagious so check this out before you get started – particularly if you are a radiator novice.

- Susie

Want to hear about my holiday season? I just bought myself a well-deserved automobile, the Mitsubishi Outlander. It’s beautiful, it’s big and it’s all mine. I’ve worked like a dog and now I have my prize.

What I did not count on was Bambi’s mama nearly destroying my holidays. I decided to bring my baby to the Chicago suburbs with me… during deer-feeding season… in the winter, because I am dumb. I left my parents house and I decided to take a short cut through the forest preserve … and BOOM! Hello Dear! I mean, HELLO DEER…saying Merry Christmas to my Mitsubishi Radiator.

I was okay, thanks to my airbags galore; apparently it was not my time to go. It was however, almost time for my Outlander Radiator to take the big sleep. Why, might you ask? Well, because, now, my beautiful Mitsubishi Outlander Automobile Radiator has had a very intimate exchange with Bambi’s mama. My Outlander Radiator is destroyed… well, crunched…depressed…in need of some serious TLC. Christmas was nearly a wash because I was on the phone with every Mitsubishi Discount Autopart store on the Chicago South Side. How many Mitsubishi Outlander Automobile Radiators are available on that lovely side of town? Not many. However, the nice man at the Mitsubishi Discount Autopart store that I did find wanted to charge me an amount that made me feel worse than the damage the deer did to my Outlander Radiator.

In true Chicago South-Side style, I told him exactly what I thought of him, got online and found 1.800.248.8720, that’s www.radiator.com …I got the best price for my Mitsubishi Outlander Radiator. For all of you eco-friendly folk out there… la Madre de Bambi will live another day…hopefully, never to face my Outlander Radiator again…for her sake.

– Diane