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[chrisr]

Can anyone tell me what type of plastic the sides of the radiator are made from, I have a crack near the top hose which is weeping. I have some Plastex to repair it but it says it will not adhere to polypropelene or polyethylene.
Has anyone successfully used Plastex or anything else for this?
Thanks.

[TheBoy]

Not sure to be honest, but nothing I've ever tried fixes those types of cracks, so I've always replaced the rad when it happens.

[cam.in.head]

as a quick "get you home type fix" you could melt the crack with a small soldering iron and maybee overcoat with jb weld or similar but it probably won't last long term and new rads are not that expensive .

[Nick W]

plastics are notoriously difficult to glue, and that's before they've had twenty years of heat cycles and chemicals flowing through them.


When a brand new radiator is about £100****, gluing one should really be considered nothing more than a get-you-home lash-up


**** Or much less; LINK

[chrisr]

Thanks for your replies, I already have a replacement, I was just trying to put off doing it as I need the car a lot at the moment, plus something is bound to go wrong!

[Nick W]

Thanks for your replies, I already have a replacement, I was just trying to put off doing it as I need the car a lot at the moment, plus something is bound to go wrong!

If you count the time needed for any adhesive(that might work) to set, changing the radiator will be quicker.

[omega2018]

Won't be polyethylene or polyprop which are both low melting point and quite oily plastics hence very difficult to glue.  It's probably glass re-inforced nylon.  As a temporary repair I would use a plastics epoxy eg Unibond 1381190 Repair Power Epoxy for plastic.  You might find the repair outlives the rad but I wouldn't rely on that. Clean the joint with meths beforehand.

[chrisr]

I can't find a guide anywhere on the forum as to how to replace the radiator, is it straightforward and is there anything else I need other than the new radiator? Thankyou. 2.2 Petrol