98 civic rad

Well, my rad finally went after 288000kms. Quite suddenly... got a call from
my wife that the check engine light was on... I told her not to worry about
it as long as everything looked normal... She called back in about a minute
saying the car was overheating. DOH! And of course this is the day I pick
to drop my second car off at the local alignment shop for the afternoon, so I
don't have a car to go rescue her.... Double DOH!

Got to the car finally (got a ride from someone), and sure enough, you can
clearly see the rad is leaking from the bottom tank. Checked the code with
my OBDII scanner, it was P0117, ECT Sensor malfunction. Reset it and it went
away.

Took about 45 minutes to change the rad. Got the rad from Partsource
(autoparts chain similar to Advanced Auto in the US), made by Spectra.
Lifetime warranty, $135 (we pay WAY too much for parts in Canada, the same
rad on Rockauto.com is $60.89 + shipping).

All in all, relatively painless. Busted one bolt on the fan assembly, but
found another one in my goodie drawer in the garage.

Terry in Winnipeg.