Hi folks,

I thought this might be useful to those of you wanting to go down the aftermarket rad route.

For us cash strapped mortals riding these older F2/F3/F4i the thought of brand new parts is sometimes a bit daunting as a lot are manufactured in China and quality is questionable…

I bought a rad for my F3 1996 from eBay from seller primecooling_eu and initially I was quite impressed unboxing it, welds weren’t bad and a damn site better than my old knackered one!

I finally had time to myself to get the spanners out and off the old one went to the scrap pile my neighbours love and went to fit the new shiny piece.. didn’t fit 😁 not even close! Double checked it was the right rad and yeah.. the top mounts are WAY off touching the ram air duct and heating/bending them was out of the question, not happy!

I had to improvise some brackets and carefully bend the side mounts to fit. The fan mounts didn’t line up either.. so close to losing my **** and having a sweet 16 meltdown in the garden. What an absolute bollocks to fit but managed in the end and running it seems to do ok.. for now.

Be careful when you buy one of these and be prepared to do some bodging with a drill and any old brackets you have lying around!

Hope this is helpful!

 

Thanks for the heads up, shame that you had all the hassle

 

Not had much luck with radiators and fans! Then again, not had much luck with this bike! Suppose a 26 year old sports bike will have a few gremlins

 

Yup, amen to that.... The delightful British weather does them no favours at all.

 

Mate you should see my wheels.. absolutely disgusting crusty mess

 

Hey, good job on getting radiator to fit! Quite bit of surgery!!!

 

Thanks dude, the customer service is absolutely shocking so when you order you are on your own.. they sell under a LOT of company names and I imagine they're just throwing stuff out and hoping they're not being sent back. Shocking really as you can get a like for like one for £20 more.