Do I have to change Radiator?
Asked by RikDur Sep 15, 2014 at 09:21 AM about the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta SE
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
I have a 2011 Jetta, last night while driving I ran over a big box of metal that got stuck
under my car, to the point where I had to reverse, the car started smoking a lot!, i stopped
and the smoking stopped and continue driving for about 3 minutes, no smoke was coming
out of the car, today I checked coolant levels and they're fine (to the max), but there was
some damage done to the radiator due to the box hitting it (picture below) now I want to
know if it needs to be replaced.
6 Answers
It's hard for me to tell because I'm looking at the picture on a cell phone BUT that looks like your A/C condenser. I your a.c. working?
As u can tell I don't know about cars that much, I haven't checked if the AC is working ... thanks for the insight ... will check
yea definitely is the A/C condenser, sorry about the lack of knowledge.
If your radiator is full and you saw "smoke" then I'm betting on the a.c. condenser. Because the a.c. condenser contains freeon and it's a gas that can be mistaken for radiator steam. I don't know how hard you hit the box of metal but you may want to have a body shop look at the under carriage for other damage. Especially if you have insurance.
Well at least you can drive the car without a.c. but you can't drive it without a radiator. :-)
Might be worth it to go through your insurance on this one...could be a lot of hidden damage...more expense.
