So here's a question for you. I took my car in for 180k timing belt, water pump and spark plugs, to fix an oil leak (gasket) and an exhaust leak in the engine. About 5 days later my radiator started leaking and they said it was cracked. What are the odds they cracked it fixing what they fixed?

My check engine light went on within 5 miles after I picked it up after they fixed the timing belt etc. I didn't think anything of it because I have a cat going bad and it clicks off and on all the time. Would the radiator make the light go off if it was leaking?

Thx ladies and gents.

Tom

 

Pretty unlikely, very common for these plastic radiators to crack overtime
and no a radiator will never turn on your check engine light

 

Your plastic radiator has lived for 15 long years and 180,000 miles...more than likely it was on it's way out. Run a code scanner to find out why your check engine light is on. Since your cat is bad you might be getting an o2 sensor code.

 

rad. won't throw a check engine light, pull the code first it might be something they did.

As for the crack cause, it is possible and i've seen it happen when a tech puts an impact gun on the crank pulley and the impact goes flying off into the radiator. Where exactly was it punctured? Can you get a pic? If it happened around the top end tanks then it's unlikely the shop damaged it. If it's on the backside of the radiator then they more than likely screwed it up.

 

No chance to get a pic. I'll just chalk it up to 15 years old and move on. Thanks for the replies though. 180k and still purring like a kitten.