The other day I was driving down the road. Roads were wet because it had recently rained, and fallen branches in the road are not uncommon in the area from all the old trees. One fell right in front of me and rolled right in front of me. It literally was a half a second and I did not have time to steer from it.......and it hit my radiator. This was on Friday. I've since driven approximately 500 miles (I am a courier), I have not seen/smelled any leaks from the radiator. The engine temp is the same, the temp gauge remains normal. The only thing I've noticed since then is a rough idle. What I mean by that is there's vibration. I can hear a rattle from the front but not all the time.

My concern is the radiator. If there is no leaks am I okay? Is the rough idle a sign of another problem?

The red arrow is from the inside, where the dent pushed back on the other side. The fan turns freely. Other pics are from the front. the big one towards the middle, the smaller is more to the right (driver side). The brown color is from the tree itself.

 

Doesn't look too bad. As long as your temp stays normal and you don't find any leaks you should be fine, but since your a courier I think you should replace it to be safe. It's a cheap and easy fix. This radiator would be fine --> http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2001-...Q5fAccessories

 

Most of my routes are usually local, but the past couple of days I've done some short out-of-town routes. I will certainly keep an eye out, money is a little tight for the moment but it's high on the list now.

Do you think the rough idle/vibration is related?

 

are your rpms jumping? cause if not its just something rattling in the engine bay, which most likely is your radiator, or something it is connected to got loose. Honestly I'm being to think more and more that you should get that radiator replaced.

 

the rpms are steady as normal.

 

just a thought, couldn't this be the condenser that got hit? I don't have an 01 but doesn't the condenser usually sit in-front of the radiator?
I would check your a/c and make sure it still works.

 

yea man that's the condenser. Radiator has vertical rows, condenser horizontal. If it's not leaking then your A/C will be fine.

 

Good thing winter is upon us! I had to replace my evaporator at the end of August, didn't want to deal w/o it for the last few months of summer in South Alabama.

 

o yeah that is the condenser. Anyways you might have pushed the condenser in and it was enough so that it hit the fan and now the fan wobbles at low rpm.

 

my female brain accepts this

Only does it do this when sitting at the light. So the condensor is the "grill" that I'm looking at? where exactly is the radiator? any diagrams/pics I can study? I drove roundtrip about 250 miles today, no problems. Haven't needed to use the a/c because we've had a cool spell here since the rains of that day. I think at some point later on Friday I did use the a/c tho. Well actually, I found a very large screw in my back right tire. I think I have magnets in my tires.....for ever car I drive it seems