Radiator Support Replacment

[Adrian17]

So my truck was hit in the front rightside the other day and at first I thought it was all cosmetic stuff like the fender bumper and grille (2003 Silverado 1500HD). Upon closer unspection I noticed that the radiator support was bent on the outer parts of it and shifted the left side which was not hit. Im talking about the vertical supports on the outside of the part. Just woundering if anybody has replaced this on their truck and how hard was it. Im pretty good with working on my truck so I gusse you can say I know what im doing I just cant find any videos on it. Ill post a pic of the part im talking about. Thanks guys.

[Black02Silverado]

It should be an easy replacement.  Unless things have changed it is bolted to the frame.  I would think you could change this out no problem. 

[davester]

It was pretty straightforward for me, on my '04 3500 (which is slightly different, as it has a 2" body raise).  You want to be careful with handling the 1 or 2 sensors bolted to the bottom of the support, as they are the accident (wrong name, forget the right one) sensors and you don't want to accidentally deploy the airbags...

 

The only difficulty I had was that the radiator support I bought was for a different year, and it had holes for mounting left and right accident sensors, and my truck only had one in the middle, so I added a spot in the middle to mount it so it would be in the same location that it was with the original mount.

[Adrian17]

13 hours ago, Black02Silverado said:

It should be an easy replacement.  Unless things have changed it is bolted to the frame.  I would think you could change this out no problem. 

Ok great thanks man. Its my first truck and I love it. Damage isent muchbut I can tell the support is bent. 

[Adrian17]

8 hours ago, davester said:

It was pretty straightforward for me, on my '04 3500 (which is slightly different, as it has a 2" body raise).  You want to be careful with handling the 1 or 2 sensors bolted to the bottom of the support, as they are the accident (wrong name, forget the right one) sensors and you don't want to accidentally deploy the airbags...

 

The only difficulty I had was that the radiator support I bought was for a different year, and it had holes for mounting left and right accident sensors, and my truck only had one in the middle, so I added a spot in the middle to mount it so it would be in the same location that it was with the original mount.

Ok cool thanks, so bigest thing is the sensors. I want to fix it as its not much damage and its my first truck, Ive had it for about 3 years so I want to get it fixed badly, although I have to wait in between 2-3 days for the insurance guy to come out and check it out.

[davester]

I believe I managed to replace it without disconnecting the A/C rad (definitely sure of this) or the transmission & PS rads (pretty sure of this).  I don't recall if I had to disconnect/drain the main engine coolant radiator (also, pretty sure I didn't disconnect the transmission & oil cooler lines from the rad when I did it).

[Adrian17]

8 hours ago, davester said:

I believe I managed to replace it without disconnecting the A/C rad (definitely sure of this) or the transmission & PS rads (pretty sure of this).  I don't recall if I had to disconnect/drain the main engine coolant radiator (also, pretty sure I didn't disconnect the transmission & oil cooler lines from the rad when I did it).

Ok so pretty much just slip it in around all that. Got it thanks