Oil cooler, Radiator, Condenser - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

ackpacket · 11-04-2008, 15:12

Which of these is located where?

Behind the grill and under the hood, I see two finned assemblies. The one closer to the front of the vehicle has two A/C lines coming in to it on the passenger side so i'm assuming it is the condenser. On the driver side it has two lines leaving it, that use a type of hose clamp. These lines look like they go to the transmission so is this assembly also the oil cooler for the trans? I thought typically manufacturers combine the trans oil cooler with the radiator?

So the second finned structure, closer to the rear of the vehicle, is the radiator right?

Can someone clear this up for me?

Any info is appreciatd :) Thank guys.

**360ci** · 11-20-2008, 12:42

For cost savings manufacturers have generally gone with a combined rad/trans (or engine oil) cooler to save weight and reduce complexity and $. To make things more serviceable new vehicles are able to run smaller coolers without sacrificing performance as systems are monitored electronically. The engine radiator (the largest one you'll be able to see) is almost always closest to the engine, with the smaller coolers in front. Why? When you're sitting in traffic, especially in hot weather you want to cool the engine coolant more than anything or all other parts will become irrelevant if the engine overheats. The engine fan pushes air through the rads out of the front of the vehicle to cool the fluids.

I'm not sure about the condenser, but the evap core is in behind the firewall. On my Dodge, if you were looking at it from the front with the hood open, I have a transmission oil cooler, engine oil cooler followed by the engine rad. It's a lot of fins! If you get around to it...take a photo or two and post it on here (or the links).