Originally Posted by
CMG
I ended up doing full coolant system refresh with belts and pulleys. I used the Stewart pump and a CSF radiator and everything else was oem. The only other non oem part I used was a water pump pulley. Apparently Uro is the only company that sells metal water pump replacement pulleys rather than composite, so although Uro is usually trash this might be one item of theirs that is ok.
I guess I've been into these cars long enough to have gone through multiple maintenance periods so guess I'll share my experience regarding long term coolant system maintenance. The miles I drive per year are below average, but it is in a hotter climate, and I definitely drive the cars hard. I think that while my maintenance interval is around every ten years, for many people it may be closer to every 7 or 8 years.
-Other than a coolant hose or heater core popping a leak somewhere, there are 3 common coolant system big fails IMO:
-1 is the water pump. Always use metal impellers not composite. Even the OEM composite water pumps WILL fail and fall apart given enough time. Metal water pumps can also fail at the bearing and get loose, allowing water to leak out. If you wanna do it cheap you can use Hepu, and if you want to do it right get the Stewart.
-2 is of course the radiator neck. There are lots of cheap options like Hella, Behr, E46, etc. but as before any composite end tanks run the risk of falling apart over time. You can get a Behr Hella service radiator for under $150, and replace it every 5 years or so, or for maybe twice that much you can get a direct fit aluminum one that can possibly last the lifetime of the car.
-3 is what I call the triple nipple. It is a little plastic fitting connecting the 3 engine hoses into the one heater core intake in the firewall on the driver side. In the same way that the radiator neck can break this can break leading to massive coolant loss. At this point in our cars age I would say that it's a consideration to possibly do on any car.
-The best way to prevent a failure is preventative maintenance, and to do the whole complete system at least every 10 years (some stuff can be re-used, depends on owner discretion). If you don't know when your car last had it done you can look for dates on the radiator or hoses to see how old they are.
-The bare minimum way is to ensure your water pump has a metal impeller, and to make sure radiator is new or aluminum.
-Some aftermarket brands are same as OEM (depends on particular item): Behr, Rein, Meyle, Lemforder. Only OEM coolant reservoir should be used.
-Ensure all parts are mounted properly and secured. In some cases there is less than 1cm clearance between fan and shroud and hoses. Loose attachments and mounts can cause it to catch and grenade. Bad motor mounts or water pump bearing can cause enough shift to do this. The stock top radiator latch mounts kind of suck but they are the only easy option.
-A well maintained and fully functional coolant system should not have any issues whether it's bumper to bumper traffic or on a racetrack (I also went a couple years without a clutch fan and no issues). It's a real finicky coolant system and I believe I have had to take care of every possibly coolant related failure I could think of. Even though it sucked having to deal with it in a way I was really lucky. For example years ago I had just pulled off the freeway and was sitting at a light and I saw some steam coming up, then as I started to pull over and park the gauge started to move up. When I had the triple nipple bust on me it was like a human getting a bust aorta, straight instant coolant dump, but luckily I was only a short distance from the house and was able to turn it off and coast. Bottom line is if you see or smell coolant, or temp gauge starts to move at all, pull over and park ASAP and check it out. It will go from middle to red in less than a minute, and red can quickly lead to engine issues.
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