89 525i radiator

A mechanic tells me that the radiator on my 89 52i is swollen and needs replacement. He also tells me that the hoses have a hard sound and must be replaced as well. Any truth to this? Please advice, thanks.

I don't know much about "swollen" rads...it could be that he means that the rad got too hot one too many times and expanded beyond normal specs and could possibly be fatigued enough to fail...who knows. So it could be true.

Although the "hard sound" of the hoses does make sense. If you have a lot of scale build up throughout your coolant system that scale will coat the hoses and therefore create a "harder hose". Just like in a hot water tank at home. If you have very hard water and you don't put salt in to soften it, that hardness will stay coated to the tubes when the water boils off.

Also that mechanic is somewhat smart in that he only tapped the hoses instead of squeezing them. The last thing you want is a whole bunch of hard scale heading towards your delicate water pump blades.

Thanks the guy turned out to be somewhat dishonest and a bit of a lier. Your advice does make sense.

Yeah. That will happen.

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its not the rad thats swollen its probably the expantion tank which can be replaced seperatly although it looks like part of the rad