How to Replace Radiator 2000-13 GMC Yukon

Remove this cover. I'm going to use an 8-millimeter socket. Loosen that bolt up and slide the cover up. And loosen up this worm clamp. You can use 8-millimeter socket or a straight blade screwdriver. And the same with this one right here. Use a trim tool and just separate this retainer right there with that bracket. Now slide the snorkel off right there and pull it out. Just to gain more access, I'm going to pull this airbox off. Disconnect the mass airflow sensor. Grab the airbox, pull it straight up, then you can slide it out. There's two tabs and this holds it in. I'm just going to take the cap off the coolant reservoir. Set it aside. I'm going to take the bottom radiator hose off. I need to drain the coolant. There's no coolant drain on this radiator, so I'm going to use a hose clamp pliers that have the cable style. Remove that hose clamp. Make sure you have a drain bucket underneath. Squeeze that.

And just let that drain out. So that's drained out. So, I'm going to take this hose off. Some more is going to drain out a little bit. All right. That's pretty good. Just leave that hose off. I'm going to take these two bolts out up top. Use a 10-millimeter socket. And there's four push pins, two on this side and two on the other side. You can use a push pin removal tool or a trim tool. Just remove these. Now take this hose retainer off right here. Just use a trim tool. Slide that up. Slide this hose out right here. This should be good. Just move this hose out of your way. Slide this cover right out.

Now we're going to take off this upper radiator hose. Just use a hose clamp tool. Squeeze the hose clamp. Just twist it off. A little bit of coolant came out. Disconnect this hose, goes to the reservoir. Just use the hose clamp tool and try to twist the hose. And just use a pry bar or a pick. Just get behind the hose. Just pry it out a little bit. Just be careful. You don't want to break the radiator if you're reusing the radiator. Slide it off, just like that. Use some hose clamp pliers. Take this hose off. This hose goes to the throttle body. Slide the clamp off, and just twist it off. There we go. Set it aside. Just grab this lower fan shroud, just pick it up or just move it aside a little bit. If you really wanted to, you could take the fan off and then take that out of the way, but we're not going to do that. Just move it out of the way. And then we want to take these two transmission cooler lines off. There's a little cap right here. Pop this cap back. Now, if you were draining the coolant into a bucket, you might want to change and get a different bucket because you're going to have transmission fluid come out as well and you don't want that mixing with the coolant. And then with a pick, there's a little clip right here. You're going to have to find where the end of the clip is. And they make special tools for this that you can use, but if you don't have them, you can use a pick and just take this little clip off. And don't lose that because you might need to reuse it. And just grab the line and pull it out just like that. And then we'll do the same with this upper one. And I'm going to take these two bolts out on the top of the radiator. Use a 13-millimeter socket. And just slide the radiator out and up. There we go. Pull it up.

On the new radiator, we're going to install the fittings. Take a 19-millimeter wrench and snug these up. Now, I need to transfer over these bushings onto the new radiator. You can try to push the center out just like that. Should be able to get the rubber piece off. Put it on the new one, and slide this through just like that. Do the same with the other side. Now, sometimes these come off with the radiator. Just slide these off and then reinstall these into the car. Put these where they came out, whether they came out of there or there. Same on the other side, and just slide the radiator into position. Make sure the feet go into those little grommets that you just put in. That looks good. Take these two bolts. Get those started. And tighten these up. Put the transmission cooler lines back in place. Now those clips are already in on the new fittings. Just snap it into place. Make sure it's tight and put this cover over it. It just holds the clip in place. Just like that, and do the same with this one. And if there's some corrosion or rust on there, you want to scrape some of that off. There we go. And this lower fan shroud can be repositioned right there. Take the lower radiator hose. Get that lined up. And we can put that on from down below. Take the hose that comes off the throttle body and slide that in position. Use the hose clamp pliers. There we go. That looks good right there. And this upper hose, it goes to the coolant reservoir. And that's good. And you can hook the upper radiator hose up. If you wanted to put the fan shroud back on first, you could do that. That's good. All right. Now, reattach the lower radiator hose. Should be all the way on there [inaudible 00:08:30] on the clamp. Just make sure it's tight. Looks good.

All right. Now, take this fan shroud. Hold the hose out of the way. Line it up. Use some alignment pins right there on both sides. Put these push pins in, lock them down. Do the same on the other side. Put these bolts in. Get those lined up, and tighten these down. And line this retainer up and right there. Put that hose in that position. And slide the airbox back in position. What you want to do is slide this piece. That's going to go right here. It's going to slide there, and then push the two push pins straight down. Push down. It's good to go. Reconnect the mass airflow sensor. And put the snorkel back on. Line this up with the throttle body and the airbox. And tighten up the worm clamps. And line this bracket back up. Put the cover on, slide it in the back. Get the bolt started, snug it down. Now you want to fill up the coolant reservoir. Fill it up. I fill it up about an inch or two above where the fill line is before we start the vehicle. And start the vehicle with the cap off, and the level is going to adjust. It's probably going to suck some into the engine. And then after that, you're going to adjust accordingly. Let the vehicle run for about 10 minutes, monitoring the level. While you're letting it run, monitor the temperature gauge. Make sure it does not go over 210 degrees. If it does, then shut the vehicle off. Let it cool down. Top off the coolant, and try it again. Turn the heat on, put it on medium fan. Turn the heat all the way up to hot. Make sure you do feel some heat coming out of the vents, especially when the temperature starts getting up there. If you don't feel any heat, again, your coolant level is going to be too low. Shut the vehicle off, top off the coolant. And then after that, after the thermostat has opened up, when the hoses are nice and hot, shut the vehicle down, adjust accordingly, put the cap back on, and you should be good to go.