I've recently begun to do some repairs on the coolant system on my car which drew me to inspect the engine bay from top to bottom,
On doing so I noticed something I couldn't believe had happened.

It looks like the radiator has fallen off its mounts and sunk down a few inches from its original position. (My guess is that this may have happened several months ago when I was hit on the side by another driver.)

The rubber stoppers that look like they're supposed to hold the radiator in place have fallen through the holes at which they had connected to the radiator, causing it to fall down into the engine bay.

At this point i'm not exactly sure whats holding the radiator in place, whether there is some type of mount holding the radiator up or if it has just fallen and wedged itself between the frame.


I've been meaning place a jack under the radiator to push it back upwards in order to place the stoppers in the proper position above the frame but a couple things have held me back.
-It seems like the radiator may be wedged into place by the frame, i'm worried that moving it with the jack will change its position and allow the radiator to completely fall out from under the car.
-If i do manage to safely lift the radiator into place would the original stoppers even hold the radiator in place anymore? It seems to me like their easy enough to move up and down manually and so not the best at holding the entire weight of the radiator up.

Any and all help appreciated
Thanks

 

My car is in paint so I can't check for sure, but if I remember correctly you can loosen the top support and place the radiator back into the 2 lower "U" shaped cradles. There is a rubber piece that should be there. on the upper
side there are 2 rubber pieces maybe the size of a quarter that hold it there.
Definitely DO NOT use brute force to make it go back in place. Easy to do and no force required. Check the fans. They may be damaged and you can
overheat the engine if the don't turn.

 

Thanks Lear45

Congrats on your new paint job i'm in need of one myself,
Are the top supports your referring to the two black rubber "stoppers" that attach to the set of metal prongs sticking up from out of the top of the radiator?
Those pieces were resting on the thin part of the frame above the radiator, if I had to guess id say the metal prongs slipped out from the hold of the stoppers and fell downwards.

Also as far as the lower two cradles (I haven't caught a glimpse of those just yet i'll be sure to get under the car first thing in the morning and take a look) are those located towards the bottom of the frame, and if so is the radiator then meant to be resting on them?
I should try to find those two peices and set the radiator down on top of them, the only issue being that I recently tried pushing the assemply upwards while I was under the front of the car but couldn't get the radiator to move much if at all.
I may have been too cautious that time though and a little more strength might do the trick, i'm hoping its not stuck in its current position.

 

Those are the upper rubber pieces. Remove the bolts holding the long thin metal piece forward of the radiator. The radiator will lift up and rest on the lower supports. Place the metal piece you removed back onto the top of the radiator. Those 2 rubber pieces go on the nubs on top of the radiator and into the upper support. You are on the right track. You don't need to crawl under the car. You can reach everything from above.
You just need to have the radiator rest on the 2 lower "U" cradles first and then reinstall all the top pieces.

 

I went and unscrewed the top supports, i used some of the documentation in the JTIS to see what was what but its was all really easy.

Once that was out of the way I was able to see that the condenser in front of the radiator had also fallen off its support. That was easy enough to fix though.
I gently lined the top prongs up with the opening and then try to but the radiator back in its place

It had somehow wedged itself a little underneath and next to the U supports it was supposed to be resting on.
On a hung I gently and slowely raised it up making sure things looked ok but on the top and bottom and once the prongs were lined up and the bottom clear of the supports I just layed the radiator back up on the supports.

id thank you again if i could for the help

im kinda curious what performance issues the radiator being out of place would have been causing

 

the electric cooling fans may not work if the shroud was bent. Make sure they turn freely. The only performance "issue" would be overheating. That is beyond bad. Sounds like you are back in Business. Keep the engine cool and it will run a long time. Glad it
worked out. I get my car back from paint this week.