Radiator Neck Repair: "Where has this info been until now?"

[Kneale Brownson]

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At 12:02 PM 07/16/2002 -0500, Dale McCormack wrote:

>In light of the radiator neck/ flange problem, I'm surprised that the
>availabililty of the retrofix kit from Audi hasn't been discussed until
>now!  This issue has been "chewed about regularly" for years.  Yet, when
>it happened to me, I like many other listers, spent hundreds of dead
>presidents for a completely new heat exchanger.
>
>Many thanks for letting us know of your experiences.  They can benefit
>all who own a Type 44 Audi with an OEM design radiator.

I've been reading the Quattro Lists (Q List, 200q20v List and V8 List) now
for maybe four years.  I'll bet I've read at least two dozen new postings
in that time that have reported existence of a repair kit available at the
dealership for the broken plastic radiator necks, as well as many, many
archived reports.   Most of the reports I've read said using the Audi fix
usually lasted a few months before either the rest of the neck broke off or
the plastic endcaps started leaking.  Many have reported repairing the neck
with a piece of copper water pipe that just slides inside the radiator neck
and then gets epoxied in place.  Anyway, these plastics get brittle from
age and lots of under-hood heat cycling.  I could see doing the epoxy thing
to keep the car on the road until you could find a replacement
radiator.  I'd rather spend $10 at the hardware for a bit of copper pipe
that I could put a flare on to help retain the hose and some epoxy (or
maybe one of the newer urethane adhesives guaranteed to stick to anything)
than to enrich the dealership by $35-50.
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