Technical Which radiator? Ours has AC but seems to have a non-AC rad

[Martin Y]

I had fondly imagined I might get the job finished today but you can imagine how my heart sank reading about the quick connect thing on the lower hose. I might just order a new lower hose and stick the job on the back burner till after Christmas.

In happier news I finally got the bumper right off: You may recall the screw on the offside bottom edge of the bumper was rusted solid. I found that with the bumper swung forward, pivoting on that screw, there was now access to the top of the screw. So I could grip the top with Mole grips and with a twist hey presto it broke loose.

It looks as if there's no chance the rad will come out by going back and then up because the plastic parts for the bottom of the condenser to sit on make the assembly too wide to pass backward through the gap. So it has to be forward. And the filler neck getting in the way must mean it has to tilt its bottom edge forward and then slide down. So it must indeed be a bumper-off job. The struggle will be getting the condenser out of the way, and the condenser is in terrible , fragile condition (though not leaking - the AC still works). Might need extra pairs of hands. I walked away from it as Christmas stuff got in the way. I'll try to grab photos to illustrate the fittings.

 

[typecastboy]

To be honest, I would consider replacing the condenser as if that went, you would have to go through all this again. They are about £60. You'll have to get the gas sucked out and then refilled which will cost, but if you want to, you can just unbolt it and it will bend at 90 degrees on the pipework. To get the rad out easier, remove the two bottom brackets. you've got to pull them off of the pegs anyway and it's easier to put them on the radiator out of the car, offer it up and then put them back. 2 x 10mm bolts.

 

[Martin Y]

The job is done, Panda is back on the road and daughter has gone off to work in it. But what a bodge, as I can now say for sure this was not the right radiator for our Panda.

The front bumper did indeed have to come off, and once that's done (despite the rusty clips putting up a prolonged fight) it was easiest to take off the steel bumper behind it, which came off easily and made it simple to swing the condenser forward and then the radiator could come forward at the bottom and then down and out.

TL/DR: Faced with a choice of two radiators, I bought what turned out to be the subtly wrong radiator rather than the obviously very wrong radiator. Do not do what I did and battle to make it fit. Try to get the right one. In hindsight I should definitely just have given the job to a garage and let them endure the heartache on my behalf.

But at each step it seemed like the right thing was to fix the immediate problem and keep going. This was my mistake:

Above is the bumper swung forward on that last screw that wouldn't budge, until I realised I could reach down past the driver's side headlight and grip the top of the screw with Mole grips. So that got the bumper off. You can see the two screw holes for mounting the condenser onto the radiator (with the black bungee cord hooked into them). Those are the only screws holding the condenser; its bottom corners sit in plastic holders which are part of the feet for the radiator.

I was reluctant to take the steel bumper bar off at first but it's easy and gives you much more room to work.

Once the radiator was out I managed to get the original quick assembly connector off and changed its o-ring. Looks like 26mm. I had 25mm or 27mm but they're thicker, which was bound to make for a tight fit. I went with a 25mm and with silicone grease and careful use of a g-clamp pressed it onto the new rad. To my relief it's been okay.

This is where I started to notice the problems. The new nearside radiator foot clearly had the wrong shape support for the condenser. No problem; just re-use the old one. Thus I unknowingly passed the point of no return.

The offside black plastic foot very clearly has its support for the condenser in entirely the wrong place. But a bodge solution presented itself as there's another socket further over which the original foot can plug into and which will support the condenser. So I sawed off the wrong support and added the original. Needed a cable tie to keep it in place as it's not plugged into the radiator which left it a bit loose.

Bodged to fit. You can also see some of the huge gaps in the fins for the AC condenser. It's bound to leak eventually but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Then I noticed the new rad literally has no top mounting point for the condenser fixing screw on the offside, so in for a penny in for a pound, that got bodged with cable ties and a block of rubber to stop it moving around.

Just when you think you're cruising to victory your heart breaks as you spot the fan shroud is too wide to fit this radiator. The mounting hole is about 5cm out of place and it fouls against the header tank. By this point you are so bloody determined to make it fit that you saw the end off the plastic shroud, salvage the mounting hole portion and sculpt it into the right location where the screw hole now sits. Amazingly this works. (I realise if I ever do fit the right radiator I'm now going to have to replace the fan too.)

This is the most valuable picture I got: It's the part number of the original radiator from our 2010 1.2 Eco. Too late to help me but it might help someone else.

 

[typecastboy]

State of that condenser. I'm amazed the A/C works at all.

 

[jrkitching]

The job is done, Panda is back on the road and daughter has gone off to work in it. But what a bodge, as I can now say for sure this was not the right radiator for our Panda.

This is the most valuable picture I got: It's the part number of the original radiator from our 2010 1.2 Eco.

Great post, and well done.

This illustrates well why I've so often said that the economics of owning an older car depend so much on your ability to do this sort of work yourself, and on your ability to adapt and improvise.

If this had been left to a garage, I'm sure the final bill would have been many times greater than what you've spent on the parts.