Need a radiator for my 85 300TDT. See a lot of radiators out there for the car with prices ranging from 130 bucks up to almost 450 for the genuine Mercedes. What are people buying and liking that's affordable and not crap?

I installed a Nissens in my '83. Plug and play and no problems in the past three years.

The Nissens is one of the ones I keep seeing. good to hear that it seems to be a decent radiator as it's the one I'm leaning toward. Suck part is my radiator is fine, but it has developed a small pin hole leak right inside the "B" of the name. Is it possible to have the plastic replaced or is it just better to get new and be done with it.

Aluminum from Mxfrank. I'll bet his spiffy ones are cheaper than the OEM Mercedes ones based on the one he made for the Volvo.

Dan

I got the nissens also.

only difference is the upper hose connection is reinforced. apparently these get brittle and break off on the old radiators.

perhaps some surface prep and jbweld to plug that pinhole?
or a small screw tapped into the plastic and jbwelded

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1983 300CD Turbodiesel

If the leak is not near a seam or sealing area then you can salvage it.

buy a packet of radiator tank weld from NAPA, it should come with a square of fiberglas too, roughen the surface real good and clean out the area. lay the fiberglas on it and prep the epoxy provided.

Careful as it gets blazing hot - the hot epoxy should melt the fiberglas and bond to the plastic shell of the tank making a good solid repair that holds easily under pressure.

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)

I like jabstick's screw+JBWeld approach. I JackLegged a fuel tank repair on my old 560SL using that technique.

Nissens is perfectly fine. Even a little better than OEM because of the reinforced neck.

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'80 300SD - '83 240D - '00 E55 AMG - '02 G500

I use Alumaseal for a pin hole, two tubes. Bars stop leak is garbage

Alumaseal just flushes out when you change the fluid. Never used in a diesel though.

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1981 240D Four on the floor, Orient Red over Parchment, bought with 154,000 but it's a daily driver and up to 180,000 miles, mostly original paint and all original interior.

" Affordable " is the issue here .

Nissin if you can afford it, is the way to go .(I can't)

I found an all metal copper Chinese radiator in a Junk Yard, bought it and then searched until I found a Radiator Shop that still does re cores and had them install a new, copper four row core , much better than the tin foil core it had but the metal tank looks cheap, works like a treat tho' . .

If your pin holed radiator is original, GET RID OF IT NOW because it's going to fail catastrophically and either strand you or fry the engine .

My carefully maintained '82 240D's pristine factory radiator just went ' click ' as I was tooling along along a side street as the upper hose nipple broke off @ 25 ~ 30 MPH on smooth pavement ~ glad I had the window open and heard the coolant gurgling out and smelled fresh coolant before it had an instant to begin to heat up .

Last time I checked 1800RADIATOR had the all metal Chinese ones for right @ $200 ~ works fine but paper thin metal .

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-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

The Nissin is 211.00 bucks right here on peach.... with free shipping.

Try E B A Y and you can find some really high end all aluminum "used" radiators on the cheaps. Many of them are really slightly used and well worth the $100 or so bucks.

x2 on a radiator shop recoring a metal tank one.

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)

Buy all aluminum, you mean the top is not plastic like the original? can you PM me a like to a good example?

Just a 30 second search reveals this : aluminum w123 radiator in eBay Motors | eBay

The new Missins are really dropped in price ! I think that might be the way to go .

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-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better