Radiator Blowout

[alucas]

I have a 2002 Toyota Camry 4 cylinder. 3 years ago I had to have the radiator replaced by the body shop at my Toyota dealership after a Camry vs coyote accident.

A couple of months ago, the radiator sprayed coolant onto the engine block from what I thought was the radiator cap so I replaced the lost fluid and reseated the cap and didn't have any problems for the next couple of months.

Last week, I was starting out on a long drive when all of a sudden my A/C cut out which told me overheat. Sure enough I was almost red lining my temp. I popped the hood and found that the plastic round cap that caps the elbow below the radiator cap has blown completely out. What the heck is that piece and can it be replaced without replacing the whole radiator? What would cause so much pressure in my radiator that this part completely blew out? I need to know if I have to go after Toyota for putting in a defective radiator in my car. I am not even sure if this was a genuine Toyota radiator either. A radiator should last more than 3 years. This is not the first defective part that was put in by Toyota after that accident.

I looked at my 2000 Corolla but it does not have that part on the radiator, but my father's 2009 Corolla does have this plastic end cap on the elbow below the radiator cap.

[gdanaher]

You would have to go back and look at the itemized list of parts supplied by the repair shop to fix your car in the first place. If it was an insurance claim there is no reason to expect that all parts were genuine Toyota. Insurance pays for used parts, third party parts, whatever it takes to get it done as cheaply as possible. If you have a non-Toyota part, blame the insurance company. If you look at the breakdown of parts for the radiator you can individually buy almost everything to reassemble the thing but honestly it would be better to get a new after market radiator for around a hundred bucks than try to piece the old one back anyway. Figure it is getting grunged up by now. As for how long they last, replacement parts are generally 6 months or 6k miles. You got your value out of it. Check with local parts stores. Anyone can order a radiator for that car, and do so for much less than the dealer.

[alucas]

First, the repair shop was a Toyota dealership body shop and one that the insurance company actually recommended (which turned out to be the one where I bought all of my Toyotas from and I have used for all of my body work done on my Toyotas). Second, I only have bodywork done on any of my cars by one of the manufacturer's own certified body shops (the dealership). Third, my insurance does not pay for used parts, only new aftermarket parts and/or Toyota Genuine parts. What I have found out is anything that was a Toyota Genuine part had only a 1 year warranty. The radiator the insurance company authorized was an aftermarket radiator so it fell under the manufacturer's warranty. That turned out to be a lifetime warranty for the original owner of the car as long as the car is owned by them. So, the radiator was replaced for free because that piece that blew out was part of the radiator.

The manufacturer of the radiator tried to get out of the warranty by claiming that something else in the cooling system must have caused the piece to blow out claiming that the thermostat or the water pump malfunctioned and caused the pressure to build up in the system. They ultimately relented and replaced the radiator. The piece that blew out seems to have been re-engineered by the manufacturer of the radiator because it looked very different and stronger. I had Toyota check out the claims from the manufacturer of the radiator that something else was wrong with the cooling system, but it seems that there was nothing wrong with the system so it was a defect in the radiator and it took 3.5 years for it to finally blow out.

The car will last us until January when we can trade it in for a new car. It needs about $4,800 worth of work done on it as it is, but those are actually minor things that need to be fixed and $3000 of that is from the A/C compressor which Toyota has been claiming was going to die any day now to me for the last 2 years and some valve seal on the engine that is letting a very small amount of oil mix in with the fuel when i start the car and gives me a puff of blue smoke out the exhaust.