Community Forums

swansnest · 08-15-2011, 09:19 AM

Well - GUESS WHAT? We are in Warsaw IN - after the Madison FMCA, at a friends home and discovered that our radiator is leaking!!! After 53,000 miles and right at 5 years! We have it at a radiator shop in Winona Lake to see if there is a temporary fix to get us home or to OR. We went to church and school with the owner of the shop where he grew up in CA!

When we had to find new extended warranty insurance last year when our original expired, we made sure it covered radiators - even tho we thought we were home free since they usually leak within the first 3 years if they are going to!

Any bits of wisdom from any Alpine owner?

EngineerMike · 08-15-2011, 05:05 PM

How much leak & where is the hole? Got photos?

bigfish · 08-15-2011, 06:27 PM

If replacement is necessary, can try Onan Indiana (Cummings Coach Care facility) in Elkhart IN, they have replaced these radiators on other Alpines.
BTF
05 40FDQS

Renipladlo · 08-17-2011, 11:23 PM

Well you are far from home, so the recommended coach care place would be my choice. But then again, if you are coming home, then Mac's in Portland has a great track record.

Remember to check the coolant on an alpine hot, as when cold, we tend to overfill it. Does yours have the rubber bushings on the bottom of the radiator?

OldForester · 08-18-2011, 08:02 PM

If it's the seep or tiny leak at the end cap of the tank to the fins, you can probably drive it home and add a little 50/50 coolant mix to it each day. I drove ours from Texas to Washington State via Southern Cal that way and it never leaked more than about a cup a day. At least that way you could get it fixed close to home and not have the long wait for a new radiator. Mac's would be my choice if I had to do a third one.

swansnest · 08-18-2011, 08:35 PM

Thanks Monty but inspite of all our trying to facilitate finding a radiator, our shop decided that there was a guy in Fort Wayne that is an expert in building radiators and they took the radiator to them yesterday. This guy is going to solder in a new stronger core with reinforcement which should get us on the road a week sooner than getting one from Macs's.

I called and talked with Rod at Macs and he said it would take 2 to 3 days to build one and then 5 business days to ship it from Portland so we would not be on the road until after Labor Day. We were suppose to be in NC yesterday (WED.). The insurance people insisted on having someone inspect it which happened this morning and they were satisfied with what the shop is doing.

Incidentally, last year when we researched Extended Warrenties to replace our expiring CSP - we were looking for one that had radiator coverage even tho we thought we were home free after so many miles and after 4 years that we wouldn't have a problem with the radiator. We went with CSI from RV On Line and with them covering our Invertor lašt year and now this- it has already paid fór itself and we have 2 moře years to go on it!

If this radiátor fails - we will definately go with oné from Macs - which was what we really wanted to do now.