Wife comes in the door Friday after work and has the owners' manual for the 2012 Charger in her hand.
Bless her heart, she was trying to diagnose what had happened to that critter that day.
She knows I'm not having the best of medical luck right now and is trying to keep trouble off me...
I tell her to put those back where she found them, I'm on the case.
We have a quick lesson on what that "other" gauge on the instrument cluster is for.
Turns out, the car has gotten hot - REAL hot - and since I don't see any coolant emerging from it anywhere,
I'm thinking the worst. Mental checklist is run down - no smoke, car runs fine, no other fluid on the dipstick,
fan is coming on when it should - all good so far.
So - where's the damn problem then?
Turns out, it's low on coolant - REAL low.
Ok, again - where's it going?
It's then that I notice the stains on the garage floor under her car and detective Ed figures it out - radiator!
Piece of shiyat, plastic and aluminum radiator - still quite a young unit too, since it got replaced when the
car got in an accident 3 years ago.
So....what have I been doing when a few spare moments here and there occur today?
Tearing the thing apart, of course. Turns out, it's quite an involved process to replace the radiator on these
late model cars. TONS of plastic, everywhere - and the product packagers at Chrysler have succeeded in
packing 10lbs of it in the proverbial 5lb bag, too.
Big fat ol' meathooks don't get along with micro-spaces to work in.
This job ain't a half hour in our old rides; in the Charger, an expert might get it done in half a day.
Either way, no choice - I gotta do it, regardless of physical whatevers.
Several hours later I've managed to get it down to the four bolts that hold the condenser to the
radiator; after that, I can hopefully lift the radiator out of the car and throw it across the pasture a few times
in triumph.
Local parts stores (all national chains) want like $300 for a replacement.
"Hello, Rock Auto?"