RX300 04 model radiator

[Lexus-Rx300]

Hi,

I have a lovely Rx300 04 reg which runs pretty smooth. definitely a keeper. lastely i noticed the heat guage playing up so got it checked. the coolant was nearly empty! The mech suggested that it has a hair line sort of crack on the radiator but its not noticeable hence i never saw it. I never noticed any water pooled under the car etc on the drive way. anyway, he poured in some sort of solvent which was to fill up any hair line cracks in the radiator and that it would work fine. It worked initially and i noticed no movement for 3 4 months. Sadly, it came back and i could see the heat guage moving. got it checked from another place and they said that although its a hairline crack somewhere but its a definite replacement of radiator as the coolant levels are constantly going down and car heating up a bit (not close to the red mark). 

So now i am looking for radiator replacement. The mechanic quoted £180 inc VAT for the radiator unit and maybe another 100 to put it in. sounds reasonable? Lexus would be 600+ i think.

but i can see Rx300 radiator for £123.15 on adrad website. advanced radiators. Just wanted to check if they are proper dealers and that i could get it from them maybe? and will it properly fit as it says on the website.

http://www.adrad.co.uk/prices/prices.php?id=LE314&model=RX300&make=LEXUS

Thanks.

[ChrisKaye]

Yep, there are several plastic pieces on the rad that perish over time so I'm not surprised by what you write.

I have bought radiators from eBay in the past on my MR2's and boy they are a pain to change; the RX I imagine will be a lot easier as there is more room to work in the front!

Does your mechanics quote include coolant too? It's very important they use the Toyota stuff and not whatever they have to hand. I'd certainly would want as much of that stop leak crap removed as possible with a couple of flushes before fitting the new rad and even then I'd want shot of the car when fixed - those products are very bad on modern cars [emoji17]

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[Monte]

Replaced radiator last year for £300 all inc. It is a pain for mechanics TBH. There are two ways to do that - take it off from beneath or pull it up. There has to be disconnected AT cooling pipe to take radiator down. This was badly corroded so mechanic decided not to touch it. To pull radiator up is more time consuming and a bit expensive.

[Lexus-Rx300]

thanks lads.

radiator plus coolant replacement total cost (£143 for new radiator + £26 for 4 qty of oats antifreeze) quoted is nearly £280 incl labour. this includes VAT. Sounds reasonable to me as the mech is very good and takes time to explain every bit of the work to every customer. very nice lad. thats WAC in welywn garden. Booked for tomorrow morning so hopefully will come out neat.

[ChrisKaye]

I put a post up about replacing the AT cooler pipes that Monte referred to above. You may need to factor a top up of tranny fluid into the quote and cooler pipe replacement if it's corroded. Could add another £75 to cost but he won't know until he does it. Lexus Brum are recommended if you need replacement cooler pipes, they'll ship to you.

Good luck!

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