my new aluminum radiator
So, my temperature was still rising slowly while driving. Â Only turning on the heater made it go down. Â Even though I had cleaned out the radiator, and worked ok for a few days, the temps rose. Â Everything had been changed, except the rad, until now. Â My wife bought me this Mishimoto radiator for by birthday last week. Â It cost about $230 shipped. Â Not bad considering the OEM piece is about that price. Â The fit was almost perfect. Â The lower support mounts with the rubber stops needed a little grinding, no biggie. Â But here she is! Â Now to see if it still gets warm…
Â
UPDATE:
I’ve had this radiator on for a couple of weeks now. It’s great! No more overheating issues. The temp is pegged between 1/4 and 1/2, even in L.A. traffic. This piece is recommended!
Note:
Since this radiator is wider than the original, there is a minor hitch in installation. The stock lower supports need to be grinded a bit where they are tacked to the body. Just shave the areas down as flush as possible. Â Not doing so will definately gouge the soft aluminum. Â Shown below:
August 11th, 2010 at 7:44 am
Does the car run cooler with this radiator compared to the stock radiator?
August 17th, 2010 at 10:34 pm
Yep, cooler indeed. I don’t even need the electric fan. Never goes passed half.
June 29th, 2013 at 9:22 am
Nice website! Trust your Mishimoto radiator is still working fine? I just bought one, but found that my stock radiator has a coolant sensor (3pin connector) that screws into the radiator on the lower end tank, left side, but the Mishimoto radiator did not come with a mounting boss for this. It only has the drain plug in the middle, but that is a different thread size than the sensor. Was this also the case for you, and what did you do? Thanks.
July 6th, 2013 at 7:58 pm
Hi. You have an early build M3 with plugs on the radiator. Mine is later. That’s a good question though. How are the early builds using this radiator? Maybe they convert everything to later components.