After passing 81K miles, I decided to be proactive. I bought the upgraded OEM radiator and swapped them out over the weekend. The entire swap was pretty simple with just a few key steps.

1) remove lower engine cover/pan and drain coolant from radiator drain plug.
2) remove trans hoses and plug ends (very little oil drips out).
3) remove the air intake
4) remove the cooling fan (shaft driven) to free up space. Using a 10mm gear wrench makes this pretty easy to just remove the fan blade and not the clutch/pulley.
5) remove all hoses radiator (3) and reservoir to engine hose from hard pipe (this clears up an interference during removal).
6) zip tie the condenser in place using the upper mounts once bolts 2 upper bolts are removed.
7) Lift up and lean the radiator back and remove the side mounting brackets (1 lower bolt on each). If you slightly drop the radiator, you can easily access the lower bolts that mount the side brackets to the radiator. Then lean the radiator back against the engine and rotate the now free side brackets to the forward side of the radiator and remove through the gap between the radiator and condenser. There is not room to remove the radiator with brackets attached or to remove the brackets while positioned on the sides of the radiator.
Remove radiator from top side.
9) Install in reverse order.

10) Add coolant through radiator top with reservoir cap off. You will actually fill and reverse bleed the reservoir, so keep an eye on its level. Mine took about 1.5 gallons of 50/50 coolant (I did NOT do a full engine drain/flush)
11) to bleed the radiator, jack up the front right side and bleed through the reservoir (cap off) by turning on heater and reving the engine to about 3K a couple of time.

Overall, this was quite simple. I also replace the serpentine belt and air filter while I was in there.

My original radiator still looks perfect. PM me if anyone wants it.

good to know, thanks for the info.

might do it this summer. i'm about to hit 70k on mine.

Goodmatt

for curiosity sake, do you mind letting us know what the radiator cost? part # and did you get it from your Nissan dealer?

Thanks

Radiator is like $550 retail, but I got mine locally (Nissan Dealer) for $435 plus tax. I have found them online for around $450.

The corrected radiator P/N is 21460-9CA0E.

I looked at the bypass and/or adding an additional cooler. I also looked at buying an aftermarket complete radiator.

I found that the internal tans cooler does most of the cooling (like 80%) and is far more efficient than adding a 2nd external cooler.

I was leery of an aftermarket radiator since you really don't know what you are getting, but those can be had for about $220 or less. I also wanted to ensure all the fittings and brackets mount without modification.

It is about a 3 hr job taking your time. Most of the time is spent disassembling and figuring out how to get the grill off....which actually isn't really necessary.

Oh yeah, remove the air intake too.

Good to know. I'm looking at doing this as well and have decided I'll go the OEM radiator route as well. Too many part numbers that don't quite match up on the aftermarkets. One concern is with how you refilled...my understanding is these require a special tool and procedure to fill/flush the coolant. I guess there can be air pockets which will show up at some point...likely when you are running 100°F and realize it's not cooling properly. You might want to research that at least.

I purchased and installed an aftermarket radiator in my 06LE for $92 that I got on Ebay from Parts Express. It was made in China and came with a lifetime warranty. It appeared to be well-constructed and fit perfectly! Been running it for about a year with no problems. I also purchased new foams seals from Nissan when I replaced it.

smj999smj wrote:I purchased and installed an aftermarket radiator in my 06LE for $92 that I got on Ebay from Parts Express. It was made in China and came with a lifetime warranty. It appeared to be well-constructed and fit perfectly! Been running it for about a year with no problems. I also purchased new foams seals from Nissan when I replaced it.

Just keep in mind the folks with '08 up have a slightly different radiator and what I've seen from the aftermarkets is they have the same part # for '05-'12. Perhaps they'll work but maybe need some plumbing changes...or include adaptors for the hookups. I don't want to deal with tearing it all apart and finding out something isn't quite right.

skinny2 wrote:Good to know. I'm looking at doing this as well and have decided I'll go the OEM radiator route as well. Too many part numbers that don't quite match up on the aftermarkets. One concern is with how you refilled...my understanding is these require a special tool and procedure to fill/flush the coolant. I guess there can be air pockets which will show up at some point...likely when you are running 100°F and realize it's not cooling properly. You might want to research that at least.

Anyone know about any special filling and/or flushing requirements?

I bought a silla radiator to replace mine about 6 months ago. I picked it up for about 100 bucks. I still have yet to put it in. I'll consider doing a step by step with photo's if anyone is interested. I'm also going to flush the trans fluid when i do this.

I would be interested in seeing photos

Sorry guys....no photos.

As for the filling and bleeding procedure....I did exactly what the head nissan mechanic told me to do. Since there is not a bleeder screw, he told me about the Jack up the car trick....

When I blipped the throttle a few times to about 3K rpm, the reservoir emptied and I had to refill and repeat twice.

If you have heat and your temp gauge reads normal....then you are properly bled.

How did you know you got an "upgraded" radiator and just not the same one?

part number......the correct part number is further up in this thread.