New radiator for my '94 Accord

My Accord LX just reached 210 K miles and the service discovered that my
radiator was leaking. So I had it replaced. This is the second such
replacement and interestingly, the first time I had to do it was at
around 90 K miles. At this time what I found interesting was that this
leak developed so soon after I replaced the radiator cap with a brand
new OEM one about 3 weeks ago. At that time the radiator looked fine and
was full with coolant. I just replaced the cap as a precaution, after
reading here some related stories. The new cap was exact match for the
old one. So now I wonder if the cap replacement and the subsequent
radiator leak was just a coincidence because these radiators tend to go
bad after about 100 K miles, or that cap was not really right for the
radiator and caused extra pressure, thus a rapture of the core. Anybody
else had a similar experience?

Rudy

 

Nothing to do with the cap at all. The difference between 0.9 and 1.1 caps
is only a few PSI, and their operating ranges overlap.

Usually the plastic tanks crack somewhere. It seems to have to do with
thermal expansion. Secondarily, the exterior of the core can corrode and
get a hole in it.

 

Thanks for the "reassuring" words, TeGGeR. I can stop beating my head
against the wall now. ;-)

Rudy

 

my 96 accord radiator went out at about a 100k but waited until 109k to
replace. The new radiator came with a new cap. I have 130k now with no
problems.

 

I imagine new radiators come with their own cap. When I bought a new cap
for mine recently, the Honda parts guy asked for the letters stamped on
the radiator as there were two kinds of OEM radiators for the same model
year. Mine was DENSO, so that's the cap I got. I forgot what the other
type was.

Rudy