I was driving through Lancaster, CA when the car started to run pretty hot....around 90C. I turn the car off in a shady area to find out there is a hole blown straight through the radiator from the steam. Any idea what might have caused this? I did a coolant flush about 5k miles ago and seemed to run perfectly. I'm going to replace that radiator with a BEAR brand one.

 

Either it was hotter then 90c or your gauge is way off.90c is only about 194f,and that is not all that hot.Could something have punched through the radiator?Find the cause,puncture,water pump,or maybe the clue lies in the flush job.Did you bleed the system to make sure there was no air left in the radiator?You may have had a pocket of air that cavitated and caused a pressure blow out.Front of radiator or back?
ohlord

 

It's not real important, but you confuse cause and effect.

It's highly unlikely pressure caused the defect. Rather some other kind of damage or corrosion caused a weakness and the pressure found it.

Your new radiator sounds like it will be a Behr.

Use MB antifreeze or Zerex G05.

 

You are right,Just was making sure he finds out if it was just a failure of the radiator or did something cause the failure.Would not want it to take out a brand new one.
Are you getting the new radiator from radiator.com have had gotten many from them and the odd thing is they ship from local warehouses yet don't charge sales tax.At least that was the last time I ordered one for our 7 series BMW.
ohlord

 

I'll take a look at it tomorrow, and snag some pictures if i can.

I'm getting the radiator from a good friend of mine that owns his own body & transmission shop for dirt cheap. (New) Hopefully I will be able to go out to the valley and get the car going again, its stuck gathering dust and being exposed to sand storms!!!!!!

When it gets home its getting a triple wash, first to clean (carefully), second w/claying, third as a safety....then wax