Heat exchanger came loose
 

Has anyone experience the Heat Exchanger coming detached from the radiator?

I was a few houses from my driveway and the "check coolant level" came on, I know I had some weeping around the o-ring on the lower temp sender. I checked and there was a lot more fluid running out of the drivers side. So I pulled in the garage and popped the hood and saw near the air filter box coolant sprayed all over. I noticed the heat exchanger was leaning back toward the engine and was loose. Other than replacing the x rings and putting it back on is there anything I need to worry about?

I had begun to investigate the cooling system overhaul kits that are available.

2003 3.0i with 163,000

Those are fairly secure and it's surprising to hear one come loose, has there been any work done in that area recently?

Most cooling system overhaul kits dont touch on this area. I havent seen one yet that does.

I replaced the Oil filter housing gasket about 600 miles ago but nothing down that low.

I pushed it back on, filled and bleed the system got it back to operating temp and no leaking I will get two new x rings and do a flush and fill on the system. I will keep an eye on it over the next few weeks.

Am I correct that the x rings are the only means of holding the exchanger on the radiator?

We have different engines so yours might be not be the same. There is a clip that holds the exchange to the mounting plate on my model. You can pull the clip from the top and the exchange will basically fall off. I had a leak in the same area and it ended up being the mounting plate itself. I replaced that along with all four of the xrings two of which come with the plate. There is a good chance it's just your xrings, but I would make sure before you start. If it turns out it is the plate you will have wasted time and a coolant change.

On the 3.0's, the water hose clips and the friction fit of the o-rings keep the cooler mounted on the radiator mounting plate. The transmision oil lines help somewhat by pushing oil cooler against the mounting plate

I had a similar issue when doing my cooling system and it was my X-rings that caused the leak. They had turned to X-rocks.