Radiator breaks--best options?

[ThosL]

So I was at Walmart yesterday and came out, put up the Subaru hood, handled the side radiator large plastic outflow section and it just broke; I knew it had a crack but was not leaking.  

 

So what to do?  I called the local junkjard to see if they had any radiators in stock.  No dice on that.  Then I called Auto Zone and fortunately they had one in stock.  I took a chance, put stuff back as well as I could and drove the two miles stopping for a cool down to Auto Zone which is pretty tolerant on customers working on their vehicles out in the parking lot.  $130 for the radiator, and got one of their $5 tool kits with the metric sockets, etc..   The toughest thing to remember on these is the lower transmission cooler hose that is hard to access.  I cut a couple inches off the hose to get the old radiator out and then had a problem getting enough hose to connect to the radiator.  I actually thought it was OK but drove up the road and then lost transmission shifting so stopped at Walmart, got a flash light to eyeball the transmission cooler hose clamp, etc., put in a couple quarts of tranny fluid and was able to get to our coin club meeting last night in Danbury.  

Edited March 25, 2015 by ThosL

[1 Lucky Texan]

wow, crazy story.

 

be sure to check the trans fluid level while idling. It's the only fluid level like that.

[ThosL]

What would have really been (financially) crazy was having the car towed to a garage; waiting a week for the job to be done, while spending $500 for it.  The routinely double the cost of parts, pad the bill, and take their time for the job.  As usual if you want to see the job done quickly do it yourself.  Of course plenty of people have wasted their cars by not having them towed if they break down late at night or when they should not be driven.