A/C Rad Removal

Just had the system regassed and discovered a major leak! No dye required as you could actually hear it, so after a quick strip down of the front end discovered a hole in the top of the air con rad, after a phone round eventually found new one for sensible money (£98+VAT) but have spent all day trying to remove the old one, have removed all the mounting bolts/fans etc but can't undo the two pipes that enter the bottom of the rad? Is there a knack to this? They appear to be very soft metal so could easily round the nuts off if too heavy handed! Help appreciated.

bluebower said:

Just had the system regassed and discovered a major leak! No dye required as you could actually hear it, so after a quick strip down of the front end discovered a hole in the top of the air con rad, after a phone round eventually found new one for sensible money (£98+VAT) but have spent all day trying to remove the old one, have removed all the mounting bolts/fans etc but can't undo the two pipes that enter the bottom of the rad? Is there a knack to this? They appear to be very soft metal so could easily round the nuts off if too heavy handed! Help appreciated.

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hello and welcome to the best rangerover site on the net , there is no knack to undoing the nuts on your condenser just use the correct size spanner , i think i undid the top one first and that gave better access to the lower one .
rick.

Thanks, will have fresh look at it later today, great forum BTW.

As Rick said-firstly get the best fitting spanner you can get. Problem with steel (Even though plated) nuts and bolts going into aluminium, is that over time, the steel reacts with the ally-I forget the scientific name-and the bolts etc. are virtually welded to the ally. Dose them with WD40 and leave to soak overnight then go for them, removing the top one first and working the nut backwards & forwards. The thread in the ally will probably be knackered afterwards but as you are scrapping it, it doesn't matter. You may have to clean the threads up on the nuts however. Make sure you can screw them into the new one easily by hand or you could strip the threads in the new one-"Ouch".Remember to fit new "O" rings.
I had the same problem when I fitted a new oil cooler to my 4.6
An Irish welcome to the forum-the best there is

Finally out! However both nuts died in the battle and two new pipes had to be ordered which were nearly as expensive as the rad! One point to note for other users is that the I had a chat to the rad guy and he says that Range Rover condensers always fail in the same place (either corner) and this is because of the piece of foam at either end of the rad which retains water and causes it to rot! Bit late to help me but other people on here may want to remove this foam to save all the above grief! I will certainly be putting mine back together minus the foam!

There's no doubt about "zone" being the best forum around. The gurus here have saved me thousands and saved me from a broken heart into the bargain.(they'll happily break it again in "anything goes") Thanks for the generous tip after your suffering. My motor, hopefully is still young enough to benefit, especially with the amount of airborne salt around here. regards P.S