Rock hit our radiator

Hello everyone, I'm new here. I'm not the driver of our Aveo with manual transmission, my Husband is. He's not home right now, and I am worried sick about our car.

Anyway, yesterday, we traveled a long round trip, about 250kms to, and another 250kms from, and of course some driving when we were at our destination.

On the way home, about 150kms in, a rock hit our car. We all assumed it had hit the side, because of how it sounded, and all was fine.

About 20 minutes later, my Husband noticed that the temp gauge was maxed out, and we pulled over. As we were pulling over, the engine/oil light came on. He's not a mechanic, and has only a very basic knowledge of cars. Some nice men pulled over to see if we were ok, as my Husband had the hood popped, and they took a look with him. They seemed to know a bit more about cars, and they said they saw a rock in the radiator, in those little fins/slots whatever they are called. I'm not totally sure they removed the rock, but, they pinched the fins back together, and they got us some water to refill the radiator, and some extra just in case. They also advised us to wait until the car was cooled off, and to not let it go above half again, and if it did, to pull over, add more water, and wait. Oh also, when he first pulled the car over, he (My Husband), thought it was an oil leak, but it wasn't, not much oil was gone from the dipstick, but he did top it off.

We waited a few more minutes, (About 20-30 in total from when we pulled over.) When the car was restarted, the temp gauge was just under half, and throughout the rest of the trip, (About an hour), it stayed there, didn't move one way or the other.

My question is: Do we HAVE to replace the radiator? (Money is VERY tight!), or, can we drive it and keep an eye out on the temp and fluid levels, at least as a very temporary solution? We should be able to save enough to get some money together within a month or so. How much (Approx) is a new radiator for a manual transmission 2006 Aveo? About how many hours does it take a mechanic to replace it? Can someone like my Husband (He's very good with these things, if he has the right direction), replace the thing if he can get the right instruction on how to do it? He's got amazing levels of comprehension, and has fixed things on our previous cars, based on online instructions.

We have to have a car, this is our only one, and I have a medical condition that would possibly require a hospital visit. We also need to be able to get normal day to day things.

Anyway, ANY advice is most helpful. PLEASE give me the positives as well as any negatives, because I can't handle too much negative about this right now. My stress level is through the roof on this. LOL. I do want honesty though. :) I appreciate any advice any of you have about what to do, and how we should do it, etc.

I'm so glad I found a dedicated forum for this car. We LOVE it, and the gas mileage it has. $45 CAD for travel of about 550kms altogether (With travel to and from and in our destination).

To continue driving it as-is is courting disaster - if your Samaritans pinched off the tubes to temporarily fix the leak, the potential for failure is pretty high.
If you keep an eagle-eye on the status, you might be able to limp it through for a short time, but I'd caution against it if at all possible.

I can't speak to Canadian pricing, but it looks like a new radiator can be had for about $70US + shipping (rockauto.com); if your husband is capable of performing minor repairs, he should be able to replace it in an hour or so - handful of bolts and some hose clamps is all that's required.

In my opinion, stay away from the "stop leak" fixes - they have a tendency to cause problems later on down the road due to pluggage of other areas as well....

Sorry can't be the bearer of all good news; but the cooling system of the car is pretty danged important, especially in the summer months (even in Canada).

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Originally Posted by jimzdat

To continue driving it as-is is courting disaster - if your Samaritans pinched off the tubes to temporarily fix the leak, the potential for failure is pretty high.
If you keep an eagle-eye on the status, you might be able to limp it through for a short time, but I'd caution against it if at all possible.

I can't speak to Canadian pricing, but it looks like a new radiator can be had for about $70US + shipping (rockauto.com); if your husband is capable of performing minor repairs, he should be able to replace it in an hour or so - handful of bolts and some hose clamps is all that's required.

In my opinion, stay away from the "stop leak" fixes - they have a tendency to cause problems later on down the road due to pluggage of other areas as well....

Sorry can't be the bearer of all good news; but the cooling system of the car is pretty danged important, especially in the summer months (even in Canada).

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Thank you so much for your fabulous advice. :) We are ok with having to get a new radiator, It could have been worse, right? We passed an accident not an hour before this happened, so we know we are actually very lucky, and a new radiator is something easy to come by.

I have another question. This is likely something that will make the knowledgable readers roll their eyes, if it is as stupid as I fear. lol. Does a chevy malibu radiator fit this? The Malibu is 2003, NOT manual, and has a/c and power steering, power windows, etc. Is NEW the way to go, as they are cheap, as we may have a chance to get another aveo for parts. I am not yet sure if it is a manual or automatic transmission on the aveo we have a chance at. We want to do what is best and within budget and makes the most sense. A new radiator is certainly the way we're leaning.

Malibu unit will likely be too wide, and may not even have the fittings in the right spots.
If you can get a used unit that will fit (since you have a manual trans, you can use a radiator from either model - just don't hook up the transmission cooler lines, since they won't exist on your car), and it doesn't leak; then that's a perfectly acceptable solution.

Given the reasonably low cost of a new unit, I'd consider it wise to go that route - but I also understand the reasoning behind seeking less costly options.

Who's to say a rock even hit the car? Chances are something else went "boom" under the hood and you chalked it up to a rock hitting the car. And out of sheer coincidence, a rock was embedded in the radiator.

A rock in the the radiator alone will not cause the engine to overheat. Nor would a few bent fins. A core tube would need to be significantly bent or damage causing the engine to overheat. If you look at the radiator right now, how deep of a mark did the rock leave?

In all honesty, I would replace the thermostat first and see what happens. Chances are you can have a thermostat stuck in the closes position. After that, I would look at the radiator a little more closely. How many miles/kms are on your car?

Hi there, thanks for your reply as well. Ok here is what happened, to better clear things up, and this is why we think it is the radiator: 1.) there was a huge truck ahead of us, always hitting the shoulder of the road, and spitting rocks back.

2.) There was NO issues what so ever with the car and cooling until after this rock incident happened. (As you said we can't prove this is, but it's the most likely thing.

3.) We had the car inspected just last month, and it passed inspection. (I'm not sure what they check)

4.) Once the fins/slots were pinched closed, the car started to cool off immediately, and went from FULL heat to half, (Water was also added)

5.) We got another 100kms or so, with no issues, after the fins were pinched, and water was added.

6.) Today, the hubby went 2kms, and the car went to 3/4 on the temp gauge. (He didn't add more water), which leads us to think that the water was leaking out overnight, as it didn't overheat in 100kms yesterday, after the rock incident, but did overheat today.

I hope that makes more sense? If the temp gauge was stuck, wouldn't it show as overheating during the 100kms after the issue?
Wouldn't a rock stuck in the radiator (Fairly big I assume), require replacement anyway? Perhaps we will replace the temp gauge as well, as a precaution, what do you guys think? Thanks so much for the advice. We only have this car a couple of months, and we're really enjoying the feel and comfort of it, as well as gas mileage.

The cooling system is a closed system; you are not supposed to lose coolant. If you have to keep refilling the coolant, you have leak somewhere. Whether its leaking for the radiator, a hose, head gasket, etc.

Run the car in your driveway and rev the engine to keep a load on it. See if you can spot any drips coming from the radiator. A pin hole leak in the radiator might only became visible and the system is more pressurized.

Thank you, that is some good advice. I will get my Husband to do that, to check. Right now, it's raining cats and dogs, so it might be best to wait, so that a drip is more evident lol. Thanks again! :)