So, I stopped in Mooloolooba where my parents were staying for their Christmas holidays, and while I was talking to Dad he mentioned that he’d blown up the radiator on the Camry. It’s about 15 years old, and it’s a cheap japanese car, so these things are bound to happen.
The top tank had split along one of the parts near the filler cap, so to fix it there would have to be a new end tank welded on, and we were quoted $170 for that. Then there was the other option of buying a whole new radiator for $240 - only another $70 more. The fins on the old radiator were flaking off, and there was some nasty corrosion around some of the tubes, so for the difference it wasn’t worth having to replace the radiator in six months when the fins started busting holes in the tubes.
Mum transferred the money into my account, and Bob and I went to the radiator place and bought the replacement radiator today - took me all of about ten minutes to fit it - slide the new radiator into the holes in the rubber boots on the bottom, bolt the little brackets back into the radiator support rail, and hook up the hoses - done. Well, the fans had to go on, but I’d already done that when the radiator was sitting out of the car, seven screws and about two minutes to do that.
Once it was in, Bob and I filled it up, ran the car for about ten minutes to clear the air out of the system, letting it run until it was hot and the thermostat opened up - good as new - if not better!
That’s another thing to put on my “can do to cars” list, hooray for me.