How to: Change out the radiator for a Nissan Frontier.
Hello and welcome to another exciting episode of: fix your ride. Today we are going to cover how you’d go about replacing a radiator for a 1998 Nissan Frontier. Although you may not own a Nissan Frontier, the lessons presented in reference to radiator replacement is universally applicable to most cars. This issue was selected because I drive a Nissan Frontier, and it just so happens that my radiator decided to explode after just 200,000 miles of use, causing me to have to go out and replace the damn thing. I’ve enclosed a bunch of pictures taken during repair that will be arranged in chronological order. The level of difficulty involved with this process is just slightly harder than that of changing the oil. If you have any mechanical inclination whatsoever, you will do just fine.
Before delving into pictures, make a mental note of the few items listed below for a safer and more enjoyable repair experience: Firstly, before heading out to your favorite store, call to make sure that the radiator that fits your model car is available and in stock. Secondly, pick up a radiator flush kit to rid any residual coolant in the system and pick up a gallon of coolant for after the installation. Thirdly, be sure that the vehicle has been off for awhile and that all engine components are cool to the touch.
Note the three point of contact: inlet and outlet marked by the red cap, and the overflow connector at the neck of radiator cap.
Remove mud pan from the under-carriage.
The bottom hose connected to the radiator. NOTE: Drain radiator fluid before disconnecting. Otherwise, you’ll get coolant all over the place.
Engine coolant all over the place.
Remove the left-hand (facing vehicle) bracket for better access to the intake hose. This step needs to be done later in order to remove the radiator.
Remove the right-hand bracket (facing vehicle).
Remove overflow from the old radiator.
Left-hand bracket unhinged and top hose near removal.
Unscrew the fan box from the radiator: there are two screws.
Fan box and radiator separation. There are two rounded rectangular pegs at the bottom of the fan box that is seated on a small plastic ledge with holes built into the radiator. After unscrewing the fan box, push the box towards the engine and lift the fan box off its seat.
Once the brackets on top are removed, the hoses disconnected, and the fan box separated, it’s simply a matter of carefully lifting the radiator from its slot.
Radiator cavity with proper lighting.
Note the two holes that the rubber cushion must be inserted into at re-installation.
Note the rubber cushion from the old radiator and the empty peg in the new radiator.
Rubber cushions are recycled from the old to the new.
Pop in the new radiator, connect the bottom hose.
Reverse the disassemble process to make whole your vehicle. Once everything is replaced, fill the new radiator with 50/50 water and antifreeze coolant. The aftermarket radiator that I purchased had a minor defect where the fan box was seated to the ledge. The distance of the rounded-rectangular cut out in the ledge where the pegs from the fan box were to have been inserted were off by 2mm. The 2 mm caused me an extra 20 minutes of improvised sawing to make the thing work. Best of luck with your radiator repair adventures. Feel free to drop a comment with further questions or concerns.
