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Re: BTDT's on radiator replacement?
Hi Steve,
I did the 90 200q wagon last weekend, used an all metal replacment. Also
installed
the napa metal/plastic heater valve.
>
>Anyone have BTDT's on radiator replacement ('90 200tqw)? Anyone save a
>note they can forward me or have things to look out for? TIA....I have
to
>replace mine this weekend!..........SLM
Actually pretty straightforward. You can remove the hyd pump or pull
mounting bolts and lay across valve cover. Leave fan on. Remove the AC
cond
bolts up top - clips in at bottom. Underside there's 3 small bolts and
one
rubber mount. Disconnect all hoses and mountings, undo the power leads
for
fan and the thermoswitch. Lift up at angle on the engine side and pull
out.
Takes me about 30 minutes with simple hand tools.
>
- remove battery ground
- disconnect fan motor wires
- disconnect fan switch
- 2 bolts for a/c up front, then lift out of bottom rail and move
forward
- 2 rubber mounts for upper radiator
- bottom has 2 rubber mounts and 2 bolts for shrouds
- remove overflow tank
- undo hoses
- leave fan shroud installed
- I loosened the hyd pump so it would jiggle.
- then I manhandled the radiator out, rotating it and twisting and using
the area from
the expansion tank, it came out with the hyd pump pretty much in place.
- swap over fan shroud, fan switch and expansion tank hose to new
radiator
- Now this is where mine got interesting.
Everyone I talked to said theirs had 1 rubber mount, my 1990 has 2 on
the bottom.
When I go to swap the rubber mounts over to the new rad, only 1 rubber
mount
fits in. The hole where the second rubber mount goes was threaded for
the shroud
bolt. Hmmmmm. I had 2 89 200q data points and they both said 1 rubber
mount, but
mine had 2. It was the orig audi radiator and had a build date of 7/89.
This difference
is on the fender side of the car.
What I did was use the rubber mount on the engine side along with its
shroud bolt.
On the fender side, the shround bolt wouldn't work in place of the
rubber mount because
the mount welded to the frame rail is expecting the thickness of a 1in
rubber mount. Here
I just left the radiator alone and took a broken rubber mount from my
couple GT radiator and
bolted it to the frame rail mount. I plan on using some cut up rubber
pipe and then glueing it
to the rubber mount so the radiator rides on it. I haven't done this
yet. I figure that side of
the radiator had the upper rubber mount holding it and the early cars
didn't have a 2nd
rubber mount there anyways.
- reinstall in reverse order
Took me 5 hours, but I pretty much did everthing twice that day.
radiator in/out 2 times.
Missed the drain pan when doing the heater valve and made a huge mess.
Somehow
sliced my finger without making a hole in a latex glove. lost a 6mm
socket somwhere in
the engine bay. It was just one of those days...
HTH
-
Dave Lawson
90 200 q wagon, new radiator and heater valve