Napa Radiators?

[SwampSurvivor]

So I'm starting to get this 'Just Empty Every Pocket" deal. Just this month, I have done - winch, battery cables, new shackles, new fan clutch and now the radiator is leaking!!!

Just noticed the radiator on the Cherokee is weeping a bit. Anyone have any experience with Napa radiators? The Advance/Autozone radiators have bad reviews. Have seen a bit of success with the Napa radiators.

Normally I'd just run it until it leaks worse and then crimp one of the veins. However, I am going to Rausch Creek off road park next month. It is 220 miles away ... I will be towing my popup camper down through the hills of 81. With the bigger tires and factory gears, that means one or two of the hills is going to be foot to the floor for minutes on end - stressing the cooling system. Then I will be rock crawling all weekend - so slow speed, probably AC on if it's too hot out - and towing back on the same hills.

Everything in the cooling system - except for the radiator - has been replaced within the last 30K miles, cooling system performs great for a Cherokee. Just the radiator is leaking.

Anyone use Napa Radiators? Any problems?

 

[The_Eric]

Spectra junk.

Order from 1-800-Radiator. You'll most likely have it overnight. They track warranty returns and the ones they sell have a low return rate (I think they said less than 2%). I haven't had one yet that leaked- except for my own and it was taken care of immediately, no questions asked.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Never heard of 1800 radiator. I'll have to look into them more - I see that the part number is the same as the napa one ...

Looks like they are radiator.com?

They have a few at their local shop - so only about 10 miles north of me

 

[01rangerxl]

Both of my trucks have Napa branded Spectras. So far no issues, but quality varies by application. Spectra has also been moving a lot (maybe all?) production to China. They used to make them in Canada.

My 2002 truck has a Canadian-made radiator from 2013 with about 50K miles on it. It looks and has so far performed just like the original.

My 1994 truck has a Chinese-made radiator from 2015 with about 8K miles on it. So far, no real issues, but the plastic on the tanks does look cheaper than on the Canadian one. Also, the rubber insulators at the mounting points already have small cracks in them.

I would use them again, but in my case swapping a radiator is a 30-45 minute job. If there was more labor involved, I'd maybe think twice.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Swapping a Cherokee Radiator is not terribly hard.

The difference between the Napa radiator and the radiators.com/1800radiators radiator is $40 ... in the grand scheme of things, that's not a lot of money. When I'm 200 miles away from home with my right foot on the floor climbing a hill I will be more comfortable that I have a better product.

The hardest part is taking the fan clutch off. which I already did a few times this week.

My concern is with the plastic end tanks ... that's what I'm afraid of with the cheaper radiators and why I didn't buy one from Advance or Autozone.

 

[Sayjac]

I once purchased and installed a Napa radiator for an Altima, it was a Spectra. Car didn't last long enough to see how durable it was, only thing I noticed was it had different type drain valve design but it fit ok. That was awhile ago though and iirc at that time made in Canada.

Just a suggestion, check Rock Auto to see what the favorite (heart) choices are for your vehicle. Then use the application numbers to check prices on Amazon too. That's what I did with the last one I installed on a Civic (TYC) and it was less expensive on Amazon including shipping.

 

[Nick1994]

I've done a few Cherokee radiator replacements, and I'm trying to remember, I don't believe you need to take off the clutch fan. Electric fan yes, and I believe I just pulled off the fan shroud from the clutch fan. Pretty easy on a Cherokee.

I used a Murray radiator from O'Reilly's on my grandfather's 96' Cherokee. Has been fine the last few years. Was $109

My brother's 91' has one from Parts Authority, can't remember the brand though. He bought one on eBay before and it lasted a couple years but was junk, was supposed to be a "2 or 3 row" one but the one from Parts Authority was thicker...

 

[SwampSurvivor]

I probably should swap the fan clutch anyway. That's a whole story in itself! Over the weekend, it started running a bit warm ... then Tuesday it overheated. The fan clutch died. I was going to use the 272310 clutch that everyone puts on that is always engaged. I had one before, but threw it out and switched to a fan clutch for a Cherokee in 2014. Anyway, I found out it was for a 4 cylinder Cherokee - a friend of mine has a 4 cylinder and an extra fan clutch for it so I threw that on. And, come to find out, the one that went bad was under warranty so I have a new one. But not sure if I want to use it now that it went bad. I may just buy a 4 cylinder one from Rockauto and use that.

Anyway, while changing the fan clutch I found that the radiator was weeping a bit. There's no drops on the ground, but don't want to risk it.

The thicker radiators on offroaded Cherokees scare me ... have seen many people put their fans through the radiator. There's not a whole lot of space in there to begin with, so I'm going to stick with factory sized.

 

[zzyzzx]

I installed a Spectra Premium made in Canada radiator into my Escort last December and I would recommend one.

 

[Nick1994]

I thought the XJ guys liked to use the fan clutch on Grand Cherokees?

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Originally Posted By: Nick1994
I thought the XJ guys liked to use the fan clutch on Grand Cherokees?


Well yes and no.

They always say it's a Grand Cherokee fan clutch and that the part number is Napa 272310. I have used one in the past. Eventually I ditched it for a "regular" cherokee one because I got tired of it sounding like a 18 wheeler on a 100 degree day. It moved a ton of air and I could use the AC on trail rides and not go above 210 ---- and the electric fan would rarely kick on.

I went to buy another one this week and asked the guy what it interchanges with and I was told 4 cylinder Cherokee , 4 cylinder YJ and 4 cylinder TJ. It is identical to the 4 cylinder Cherokee one ... so I installed the 4 cylinder fan clutch on mine. It had 203000 miles on it when it was taken out of my friend's 2.5L Cherokee. Works great on my 4 liter Cherokee and is apparently the 272310.

I sent a friend of mine to the junkyard to get one of these clutches for his trail Jeep and he said the Grand Cherokee clutches wouldn't work and didn't look anything like the ones on ours. I have never checked myself.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Just called 1800radiators and they offered me a great price to come pick one up this afternoon, so looks like that is going to be what I do!

Cheaper than Napa, even.