vsawmike
+1y
I respectfully disagree. I have cleaned and repaired more than 10,000 radiators and none were dying. They just needed repair just like any other part on the vehicle. If the shop cleans and re solders the connections after taking it apart it will be back to over 90% of what it was new. The key is a good paint job to seal it all from corrosion.
But as Cusser is saying price plays a large role these days. Back in the day radiator shops were all over and the repair cost was low vs the high cost of a new rad. Now days new ones are cheap. So as I said in my above post only you can decide on whether it's cost effective for you or not.
Even as I have defended repairing one if I had one leaking right now I would probably replace it just due to the time it would take me to find a good shop and make the trip.
But don't assume that a radiator that is old is dying. Radiator shop are still repairing old V cells from cars built in the 50s. And these radiators once repaired properly are actually better than new because they have better soldered joints than they had new.
But having said all that the radiator is probably causing the problem. It could also have caused other issues such as a head gasket or cracked head as well. It would be peace of mind to have a compression leak test done.