Almost overheat - yet again

So I thought the danger of overheating was over, until last Saturday afternoon returning from work, passing by bukit jalil stadium. There was a big football match, and lots of cars were out carrying flags, so it wasn't surprising there was a massive jam. I noticed my air cond wasn't cold anymore, so I adjusted the temp to be colder. However, there was no improvement at all after a few minutes, that's when I look at the temp gauge and saw that it has touched the middle horizontal mark. I noticed many times before if the temp reaches the halfway mark, the air con will not work. Its like the engine bay is too hot causing the air con unable to expel its own heat.
Having had a problem with the fan relay before, I listened closely and I knew the radiator fan was working, as well as the air con fan, I could feel both of them loading the electrical system. I turned off the air con and the temp did not rise beyond that halfway mark
 Luckily the jam did not last that long after that.
 So I turned back the air con on and it was cool this time, and the engine temp dropped too to above the quarter mark, where its supposed to be, thanks to the cooling air through the engine bay. I dropped by my mechanic and asked him to check if everything is ok, sure enough, both fans were turning on que, so this had to be a problem with the radiator itself. It is after all the radiator that came with the car, so its 24 years old. I remembered changing the hose last year and I felt how corroded the lower inlet stub was. After thinking throughout the night I decided to buy a new radiator and install it on Sunday.
Finding a radiator on Sunday was a challenge by itself, and after a few phone numbers gathered from mudah I found this guy who sold SARD double layer aluminium radiator for RM370. I was kind of desperate so I bought it. about 4 hours later I finished installing the radiator, with some grinding and drilling on one of the mounting brackets as it did not fit a 100%.
The radiator is very lightweight and very shiny.

After I mounted the SARD radiator, before connecting the hoses.
 

So I poured in 3 bottles of battery water, and 1 bottle of Toyota red coolant, of course I flushed the engine block really well and reinstalled the thermostat. So I start the engine, and got it to warm up so that the radiator fan will kick in, so I turned on the air con after the temp reach quarter, to my horror, the air con condenser fan wasn't turning ! I though perhaps I may have disturbed the wires, but couldn't find any problems with the wiring. So I booked an appointment with my mechanic the next day to check out the air con fan. The car ran great with the new radiator and it expels the heat very quickly. I was worried about overcooling but it was unfounded, as the thermostat held the temperature right above quarter, where it should be. In heavy hot jams, when the fan kicks in, the temperature drops back rather quickly and the fan stops again. Definitely an amazing radiator.
 

This is how my old radiator looked like..horrible indeed.



Well, its confirmed that my  condenser fan went kaput, so I bought a new ND fan for RM250 including installation. The pitfalls of owning an old car. However, the last air con fan I replaced was 15 years ago..and I just replaced my old radiator fan 4 months back after it jammed up, so these things do last very long after all.