Jeff928S4

Recently had the upper passenger side rad leak (where the side tank meets the rad) on my 1989 S4. After looking, to avail, for the plastic side tanks, I decided to put in an aluminum rad (and hopefully get the old one fixed eventually).

Due to shipping costs to Canada (and exchange rate), the aluminum rads offered on this side of the ocean were out of my budget, so I bit the bullet and ordered one off of Ebay. Did the "make an offer" thing and ending up paying just over half of what the other aluminum rads are going for.

Now, I know there has been some negative outlook on these Ebay rads, but the seller I got mine from has been on Ebay 13 years, has a great feedback score and sells just about every rad for every car out there. I figured if they were scammers/selling junk, they would have been gone from Ebay by now. Also, communication with the seller was very prompt and informative, so I went for it. The rad arrived VERY quickly (with the free shipping).

Since I only have 30 days to return it, I had it installed immediately to drive the car as much as possible in the next month to see if it leaks, etc.

Some pics of it after arrival...


Cats love new boxes lol



Opening the box....


Lots of packing materials


Box is open


Out of the box




Here are some pics of the rad out of the box.....











.

Not too shabby.

Now for the info about installation. It pretty much dropped right in, but the only alterations were cutting off the two clips that attach to the fan housing used for the earlier models and the most important thing was that this rad (not sure about the other alu rads available elsewhere), but there were no "slits" in the metal at the bottom of the rad where the fan housing sits. The installers had to trim off a lil' bit of the fan housing to make it fit perfectly.

Other than that, it seems to sit pretty much where the old rad was - I did notice a gap between this new rad and the smaller rad that sits in front of it, but then again, I lost that lip/shelf that the old rad had that may have filled in this gap somewhat. Hopefully this small gap doesn't effect cooling down the road. I will provide pics of the installed rad tomorrow.......

Once it was installed (buggers charged me 3+ hrs to get it in), I took it for a long highway drive. Keep in mind, the outside temp that day was +30 (Canadian - which is about as hot as it gets here).

Temp on the dash gauge seemed ok - sat just below the third white line - pretty much the same as before (I was hoping a new rad would bring that needle down, but no...). But, after a bit of driving - the needle creeps up past the third white line and into the danger zone - had NEVER done this with the old rad. "Damn Ebay radiators", I thought. Headed home and looked things over and saw that my cooling flaps were closed (I had them tied open). My zip tie must have fallen off. Tied them back open and heading out again thinking the open flaps will help.

Same thing happens again - temp creeps up past the third white line (but doesn't keep going - it's still staying at a steady temp, but higher than normal). Pull in the garage and can hear the cooling fan just WHINING like crazy. Pop the hood and see only the left fan is spinning. Check some wires, pulled fuses 27 and 28 (both checked out good) and started it up again - BAM! both fans are spinning now - not quite sure why the one side had stopped, but it started again. Amazing system in the 928 - if one fans stops working, the other will spin like it's possessed to make up for the other not spinning.

Back out on the road for a long drive and the temp did not raise up again this time. Been driving the car the past 3 nights in hot, humid weather and so far, so good.

As mentioned, more pics to follow tomorrow and I will keep updating the rads performance over the next few months.

Jeff

P.S. - what exactly is that other, thinner rad that sits in front of the bigger one? And what is that smaller rad that sits towards the top of the thinner rad (only about 4-5 inches top to bottom). Are either of these the transmission fluid rad or something like that?

FredR

The transmission cooler and the a/c condenser.

Did you have any choice regarding the free cat that came with the radiator?

GregBBRD

I probably have unrealistic expectations, but if I paid someone 3+ hours to install a radiator, I'd hope they would make sure the flaps opened and both fans ran.....seems like an integral part of the final check over process.

Petza914

Also, you should now recheck your coolant level when the car is cool. There may have been some air trapped in the cooling system if they didn't vacuum fill it and being a little low on coolant can also effect your running temp. Adding a bottle of Water Wetter may also bring your temp down a little bit.

Adamant1971

Do you have a link to the seller? I have also given up on buying anything from the US outside of specific 928 stuff that you can't get anywhere else.

Double-check that your lower rad hose is properly attached to the fan shroud.

slownrusty

That's a good looking radiator.