Radiator Repair at our Winter Haven shop

Sometimes. Older all-metal radiators can occasionally be cleaned out or repaired. Most radiators on newer vehicles use plastic end tanks, and once one of those cracks or the seam lets go, replacement is the only fix that holds. We'll tell you which kind is in your car before you spend anything.

We don't recommend it. Those products work by clogging things, and they can't tell the difference between the pinhole you want plugged and the heater core or thermostat you don't. It can turn a radiator job into a much bigger one.

Heat cycles wear a radiator out, not miles. Central Florida heat plus a lot of idling puts the plastic and the gaskets through more cycles at higher temperatures than the same car would see somewhere cooler. Age in years often matters more here than the odometer.

Not automatically. We check them while everything is open, because a swollen hose or a cap that won't hold pressure will undo a new radiator quickly. If they test fine, we leave them alone and tell you so.

We refill with the coolant your vehicle specifies and bleed the system through its designated points, then run it up to temperature and verify the fans and the cap. Air pockets left in a fresh system cause overheating that looks exactly like a bad repair, so that step isn't optional.