Driver Side Aux Rad Replacement

[Pistolpete2543]

Just finished this job along with doing the oil cooler and lines, thought I'd post up some pics.

Firstly, bumper obviously has to be removed, there are some excellent guides already for this so there's no point in repeating it here:-

Now you have access to the air inlet duct to the radiator, this is removed by undoing the 2 torx screws at the bottom 2 corners and then sliding downwards and out of the way.

The radiator itself is only secured using 2 x 10mm bolts through the bottom of the frame, and the top has 2 plastic stud-like protrusions that push through the upper rubber mounting grommets. This is where the fun starts. There is literally no space behind the radiator even with the mounting frame loosened off to get the hoses disconnected. After some head scratching, the easiest thing is to disconnect this pipe where it tee's off to both of the top 2 corner hoses. The hose clips are awkward so use some proper pliers.

This allows enough movement to disconnect the hose that runs across from the main radiator, and you end up removing the remainder as per below:-

Now you can just swap the hoses onto your new radiator and fit it in exactly the reverse order.

Since I'd lost a fair bit of coolant anyway, I decided to replace the expansion tank while I was at it. Makes such a difference to the engine bay. Topped up with fresh G13 coolant and leave the undertray off for long enough in use to check for any leaks.

[docurley]

Quite an easy job if you know how to remove the bumper, did mine a while ago after the passenger side went to swap the rads and did a aux delete for cold air feed and no temp issues at all.

[Pistolpete2543]

Sorry, I thought photobucket was allowing image hosting again (it works on the Mk1 Golf owners forum ok now so not sure why this forum should be different). Not much use without the photos.

[a1topdog]

You can upload your photos directly to the forum by using the "attachments" tab below the text box when you are writing the post.

On the drivers side I found there was enough slack in the hoses to wiggle the rad out then disconnect them directly from the rad

[jon_273]

Hi, nice guide, did you do this because it was leaking or just as a preventative measure?

Cheers,
Jon

[Pistolpete2543]

Very slightly weeping, couldn't see any leak at all, just a very slight wisp of steam rising from the front when sitting in traffic.