Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Plus Four, Supersport & Plus Six (CX & CXV Generation Vehicles) Morgan Radiator issues — Again!!!!!!!!!!

Morning Mike, sorry to hear of the radiator leak.. The only good news I can tell you is that the latest radiator variation ( as of September 2023) utilizes a different mounting system from the previous Plus Six design.. Our Plus Six 3rd radiator was fitted last September with the redesigned mount system, we had a 2 month wait for that.. I am surprised that Morgan are still not holding sufficient radiator stock knowing its a problem waiting to happen..

If its of any interest to you, there is a small light weight alloy plate under the front of the car that covers the area under the radiators, its held in place by 2x 10mm headed bolts each side and approx 6 ( 3mm I think ) Allan headed self tappers along its front that go from the front spoiler into clips on the alloy plate... You also have to remove the front tow hook which is held in place by 2 bolts, 15 or 16 mm headed I think and fairly easy to remove and refit.
If you take this plate out which is about 10 to 15 mins gentle work, you can peer up under the radiators and with a flash light check the radiator for leaks in the areas you can not see from the top.
I was told by the dealer last September that Morgan are giving a 2 year warranty on each radiator from the time of fitting.... so its worthwhile self checking if you suspect leaks on a replacement radiator before their warranty grace period expires. The leaks seem to show as white streaks showing on the black radiator coming from the leak area..

Thanks Dave, will take a look, I didn’t see any signs of leakage this time so it’s a good tip for future inspections. The factory did mention the 2 year warranty, but I can’t understand why they don’t keep a stock, with cars coming out of hibernation I would suspect there will be a few more needed soon…

Will do Em

As anyone had to pay for a replacement radiator? This issue as been ongoing since the cars were new and from what I read here it is still not rectified.
From what I read cars that are sold in the UK must be of marketable quality and not have known problems when sold, Morgan have been selling CX cars knowing the radiator would probably leak, having to have replacement radiators every few years would tell me they are not of marketable quality, 2 year warranty or not.
The cars are still not being sold in the USA probably because of the lemon laws.

Mike, regardless of a manufacturers stated warranty, you have 6 years legal recourse for 'latent defects' and with all the issues with Rads, MMC would find it very difficult to argue it was not latent

Thread drift alert...

It does seem to be a real shame that there may be quite a few folk suffering radiator issues, which may not be an entirely new thing as it seems possible that the reinforced bottom hose on +8`s around the 80`s may have occasionally transferred enough vibration to the bottom rad spigot soldering to cause it to crack and leak...?

Perhaps if the MMC involved Ivan to put his thinking cap on and apply his knowledge of vintage car design any radiator issue, I am confident he would come up with a possible alternative...?

If you do not wish to watch from the start, perhaps if you beam in at 5 mins in, you will just miss his Morgan shocker mods and join him as he begins to chat about his radiator endeavours.. (-:

When younger I was perhaps overly keen on ORIGINALITY, and the value thereof, and was neither keen on kit cars, specials, or custom cars.... There was no doubt a lot of very clever engineers involved in their creation, and it took a while before I was even interested enough to look reasonably closely enough at them to judge them reasonably. Today I have a very different attitude to that which Ivan has created in this and other of his vids than I might have had a few decades back...any thoughts... ? If there is interest perhaps I should have started a new thread... hmm..?
Yeah perhaps I spend too much time watching YT vids...!

Final update?
Had the replacement radiator fitted at the factory yesterday, 5 weeks since it was found to be leaking, job itself took most of the day, so hopefully this along with the swirl pot and reprogramming will fix the issue.
Had a quick look at the radiator, not the best engineered bit of kit I have seen, failures appear to be within the weld affected area and at the same location either side.

Glad your all sorted Mike. Em

Just put about 250mll in as a bit of a top up after the rad upgrade,probably done about 3k since let's hope were all sorted...Em

I did a tour of the Lotus factory yesterday. They use a 3l straight 4 twin scroll turbo engine from AGM.
Our guide explained that the turbu spins at up to I think 2900 evs per second when on full chat.
It is cooled & lubricated by oil but also there is water cooling. The engine runs hot, so hot they have cooling vent underneath.

The top half of the engine & turbo run at a higher temp than the lower block.

So they have 2 cooling circuits and 2 radiators. The hotter water doesn't mix with the cooler water unlike as I understand it happens on the CX.