Have their been any reports of aftermarket radiators mixing atf/coolant?

[KingpenM3]

I was just wondering if this problem had been confined to just to original production radiators, or if people had reports of this happening to aftermarket, or even replacement OEM radiators? TIA

 

[rsc]

Not that I know of, but I expect it to happen just as easily to the aftermarket replacements with the transmission cooler in the bottom of the radiator.

 

[Best4x4]

I dissected my wifes OEM radiator when it got a lovely crack across the top tank. The OEM cooler inside the radiator is a rather large Aluminum cooler that is placed inside the tank before it's assembled onto the radiator, and after that it's secured into place with a set of orings. I honestly DO NOT see how this is actually just failing. It would have to take the radiator to cooler oring to fail then the transline oring to fail to cause cross contamination. All other plastic/aluminum radiators out there have the same setup and I have never heard of or seen this failure in person. I've owned plenty of 4x4's with that setup and not a single failure.

The aftermarket Silla for example has the same setup except the cooler seems secured into place better with larger nuts/orings holding it into place. I prefer the Silla to the OEM radiator design in that aspect, but it's the same basic design.

Could the aluminum internal cooler get a crack and leak? Sure with nasty coolant, or a defect it could, but from what I saw the failures would honestly have to be related to the orings both failing at the same time which can certainly happen.

Just from my tearing into one the weak link seems to be the orings on the OEM radiator and the rather flimsy looking nuts that secure it all. The Silla uses a much beefier setup.

 

[Bigunit]

That's like the Iranian president who said the Holicaust never happened! [emoji12] Happened in person, live not Memorex, to my wife's '08 H3 about 3 years ago with only 50,500 mi....a nightmare I keep trying to forget!

 

[Best4x4]

Anything can happen, but from what I saw inside the OEM radiator it just has a flimsy external setup (cooler retaining nuts & oring setup) vs the Silla (larger retaining nuts). The chance of the actual aluminum cooler failing is slim. I can certainly see orings getting old and cracking, but for both to blow at the same time is just extremely rare.

My Alpha is pushing 126K on the OEM radiator. Ticking time bomb probably, but it will get replaced with a Silla.

My advice is to go with the Silla vs replacing the OEM with another OEM.

 

[digglesworth]

Is there a silla for manual versions, without the internal cooler for those running external coolers?

 

[rsc]

I will be looking at that new aluminum radiator when it's time, but I think all those are for automatics.

 

[KingpenM3]

I'll add that I just put in this radiator:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C9U368W/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I was really impressed at the build quality, especially with the price!!!

 

[Dennis]

Somewhere in the past here I posted my plight with changing out my Radiator because on the original the top tank cracked near front edge, where it rubbed against the frame member..I fixed the frame area by grinding down the metal edge so it didn't touch the radiator tank anymore..and then to my disappointment, I installed a SILLA brand that was made in China..The phucking POS started leaking like two weeks later, near the bottom somewhere..I then went through the whole damn trouble to replace it again... I went with a DELCO OE replacement this time and it has been fine ever since...

With a SILLA and to the point of this topic, I wouldn't be surprised if the Transmission cooler would start leaking too into the coolant or visa-versa... But I'm not discounting people who've had good luck with SILLA. I personally don't trust them from my experience.

IMHO...Stay with OE or better, but you'll pay a little higher price for the quality and piece of mind.