Hope you guys doing good.

Today I went to maintenance and I told them I had a leak of coolant on my car. So they check the car and they tell me that the warranty wont cover my radiator which is cracked because apparently acid from the battery touched the radiator and it cracked. Could this really happen?

Which is true, the battery went wrong and I had to change it because all the acid was getting out from the battery. Do I have anything to argue with the warranty?

And the second question is they want to charge me $460 for the new radiator, flush and coolant etc. I think that is to expensive. I can buy the OEM radiator probably for $230 but a friend of mine told me that the radiator is ok to buy it aftermarket, which I got one for $129. Would you guys feel comfortable buying an aftermarket radiator or should I buy OEM?

Probably the install would be done by me, which I have to search the garage to find the DIY or anyway i'll do it because I think im capable of doing it since I know a some about cars.

Thanks in advance

 

bump, some advice please

 

I would have no problem using a name brand aftermarket radiator in the TL. $120 sounds about right, we don't even have a trans cooler built in so the price should be cheap.

Did you ever notice if the overflow tank had gotten low before? It's worth checking the drain valve at the bottom of the radiator to make sure it's not cracked open and leaking.

If you do it yourself, you can get away with a gallon of Honda/Acura premix coolant. This is one fluid where it's good to stick with factory. The radiator by iteself holds almost exactly a gallon. If you need just a little more, you can use distilled water to top it off. No worries about the mixture, you only need the 50/50 factory mixture for very cold climates. It if ends up 60/40 because of the added water, you will be fine.

On to the warranty.... If it's under warranty and the battery caused a hole in the radiator (hard to believe), it should still be covered under warranty. Have you actually seen the hole the acid supposedly caused?

 

I just had to replace my "factory" battery because it was leaking out of the top too, but it also caused a shitty startup too.

 

I didn't see it, but the place I took the car after ACURA told me the same thing.

Well I ended up buying a radiator for 220, because they told me 120 but it was for the base model, not for type-s. So they are installing as we speak and I just want to be done with it. Since may my car has been from shop to shop because of the accident and maintenance and now this. So by now Im just pretty tired of this. I just want my car to get fixed and no more problems

 

so does this mean we should start changing the factory battery even before it stops working now? just to make sure it doesnt leak all over the radiator?

 

That's a lot of extra money for a trans cooler...

 

The battery leaks when it gets extra heated and this was cause because in the shop I took the car they turn on the car with a booster several times, which I was very upset about it, but there is no way for me to proof otherwise at the moment, So I just sucked it up and changed it myself because I was far from Acura dealer and I knew the battery was leaking acid, but at the moment I didnt know that the acid could damage my radiator. Shit I touched the battery with my fingers and beside burning because it was hot nothing happened to my fingers, so i wouldn't think it could brake the radiator.. But they aint catching me in the same stupid argument again.

 

Makes me glad I got a dry cell now.

 

I'll think about it for the next time of buying that battery

 

What brand of dry cell did you get? I was just looking, wow those Odyssey Drycells sure have ALOT of CCA

 

I have an Optima now but I'm going with a Sears Diehard Platinum drycell before winter hits.

No need for lots of CCAs in your area. I heard straight from an engineer to get the minimum allowable CCA (whatever factory is) and the battery will last much longer in a hot climate. The extra really isn't going to help you much in a hot climate. The little V6 doesn't need more than 650cca.