GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

A while back I was checking out Matrix Owners and there was a 2nd gen 2.4L Base owner who installed a TRD radiator cap (#PTR04-00000-03) on his Matrix. I immediately added this to my list of future mods for our Vibes because the TRD cap is white with red writing which would look a lot better with the color scheme of our engine bays than the current OEM yellow. After researching the TRD cap on eBay though, I noticed that the OEM 2009-2010 2.4L radiator cap says 0.9 on the right side, while the TRD caps says 1.3. From what I've read, this has something to do with the pressure of the cooling system. What I am wondering is, will it really make any difference using the TRD cap with a higher pressure or will I be risking any damage to our Vibes? I would love to add this little mod to our Vibes, but I definitely don't want to do it at the risk of causing any damage. Thanks in advance for any help, info, opinions, etc.

The pressure rating tells you when the pressure relieve valve opens. This TRD pressure is significantly higher than the standard. You could have a situation where the TRD cap causes a blow out somewhere in the system and the standard cap would have prevented it.

http://www.carsdirect.com/car-repair/un ... re-ratings

A higher pressure will reduce the boiling point of the coolant, which is good but unnecessary on a stock 4 cylinder engine. 18psi isn't huge. You'd probably be fine but I personally wouldn't risk it. I prefer the reliability of lower pressure over the benefits of higher pressure.

Thanks for the input guys! Looks like I'll be going with Stant caps instead. They also have a white background with red lettering, but have the same specifications as OEM.

I just went ahead and ordered two of the Stant caps. The price for two of them was about half the price of one of the TRD caps.

Well, I ended up going back to the OEM radiator caps. The one on my Vibe was fine, but the one on my mom's started leaking. I contacted the eBay seller thinking the cap was defective, so they sent me another one for free, but it too started leaking. It's not worth the risk of any engine problems, so the yellow OEM ones went back on.

After having bad luck with the Stant cap, I contacted the 2nd gen 2.4L Matrix owner who had originally given me the idea of using the TRD cap. He said it's been on his Matrix for two years without any issues, so I decided to give the TRD cap a try. It's been installed for about a week and a half without any issues so far. I will definitely be keeping a close eye on it though. The TRD cap feels so much heavier duty than the Stant cap that felt really light and cheap. Bonus... the TRD cap looks awesome !

While I've done ebay, if I had any concerns I would have ordered the part through more professional channels to make sure your getting the proper Stant part.

The TRD cap is no doubt nice though