Engine radiator OEM Volkswagen or OEM Toyota

EDIT: SOLVED - noticed no leakage around thermostat, coolant ball, all belts were dry, and upper radiator dry. In the end it was the radiator.

run a mk4 secondary rad.

I will will just add that I have a 2L 16V running no oil cooler and an early Mk1 radiator with built-in overflow tank, two pin thermostat, short 5th gear, and the car does fine in a traffic jam and with spirited driving.

90 16v Passat rad fit just fine in my mk1 Jetta with a single fan mk1 (which mounted to the rad just fine) you can cut the wires and set them up for how ever you like.

Regarding our 1997 Jetta GLS that we've had since it was brand-new, I was topping off the original G11 with G12+ since about 2000, without any problems. A few years ago we had the radiator replaced, and the coolant was all changed out to G12 -- that is, the current G12.

I did change a radiator on my Previa few years back. It's more of a maintenance thing (if you ask me). Any car of that age will most likely have a bad radiator/ or clogged up radiator.

I replaced the coolant tank, blue resevoir cap, thermostat, water pump and coolant but didn't help. Problem was my radiator was partially blocked. I replaced my radiator this spring and it's run like a champ.

If your going to use a fox radiator becareful cause it will hang pretty low. I ought one and thought it will work but it sits really low if you just drive on streets it should be ok, but mine is a track car so I was worried about going off and possibly hitting it on somehting and causing some problems.

Be careful with the early MK8s. Mine is a 2022 and boy howdy she's got issues. Shift knob broke, steering wheel capacitor issues that disable travel assist repeatedly, backup camera failure and others say they have issues with the radiator failing to be fully seated on its clips and causing big problems.

I traded my mk8 GTI (early Canadian model) for a mk7.5R recently because my mk8 GTI was so problematic: the rad fell out at speed and left me stranded (this should no longer be an issue on these cars)