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Good Morning all. I have a question. I have an '03 civic lx, 222k miles, that I just installed a Spectrum Premium CU2354 radiator. I bought it from Amazon, and the description said that it didn't come with a radiator cap. I thought the original one would work, but when I got it, I noticed that the 'well' in the neck was deeper than the original radiator. So I went to a local auto store and found one that we thought would work. Well, when I start it and let it get to operating temp, I notice that there is some steam coming from underneath the cap. That tells me that it (the cap) is not sealing properly!?!?!? Am I right??? Does anyone have any experience with this brand of radiator??? Which cap (brand, part #) do I need??? Thanks in advance for all of your help...

 
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Contact the manufacturer Spectra: https://www.spectrapremium.com/en/contact

 
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Yeah, that's what I was thinking of doing. So I did it. The rep there said, depending on the lot #, it would be a Stant 10233 or a 10242. So I went to a local auto parts store and they brought out both. The 10242 looked exactly like the OE. But this is an aftermarket radiator. The 10233 looked just like the one that I currently have in there. I went with the -233. I will install it today and see what happens. Wish me luck!!! Thanks...

 
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Begs the question of why a radiator is sold without a radiator cap?

 
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I try to stay with oem rad caps. You can get a denso radiator and an oem cap and be good. What was the reason for changing the radiator in the first place?

 
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That's a good question!!! Not sure. Anyway, I did get the 10233 cap. I installed it and had the same issue, for about 10 minutes. Then the steam went away. It doesn't seem to be as tight as the previous one that I had, but oh well!?!?!? More to follow...

 
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Sorry Dillon. To answer your question, the radiator sprung a leak a while back, say 1 year ago and I had to replace it. I looked on amazon and found one at a reasonable price. I probably should've done a little more research and spent a little bit more money and purchased an oem model. Well there is still time, I guess. After installing the new cap, I noticed that steam again, but it quickly went away. I actually took it for a test drive over the weekend. The temp gauge never rose above the half mark. After driving for about 30 minutes, the idle was high (~1800 rpm). I cleaned the iac valve, thinking that was the issue. I 'burped' the cooling system with the front of the car elevated. I did notice that the level of coolant in the reservoir had dropped (from half to just below the min mark). I recently purchased another iac valve (waiting on arrival) hoping that will take care of the idle issues. More to follow...