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Mechanic Installs O’Reilly Auto Part On Kia. Then He Runs Into A Frustrating New Problem: ‘How The…?’

“I ordered the only one available for the car.”

Mechanic installs O’Reilly auto part on customer’s Kia.jpg

Photo by: @that.guy.with.rc/Tiktok

Chad Swiatecki

By: Chad Swiatecki

Sep 2, at 6:00pm ET

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At first glance, it should have been a straightforward repair: replace the damaged radiator and fan on a 2016 Kia Rio and send the customer on their way. Then the mechanic looked at the transmission cooler fittings on the new radiator, and the plans changed in the worst way possible.

Frustrated mechanic and creator Ready 2 Bash RC (@that.guy.with.rc) doesn’t hold back in sharing how upset he is with a well-known auto parts outlet. Throughout the clip he lays blame on O’Reilly Auto Parts for carrying parts with improper fittings to make the radiator repair on a Kia Rio.

“So the old one had threaded holes that I could just thread into. The new one here, that doesn't come out,” he said in the clip. “There's no [expletive] way to use this radiator in this. Thank you [expletive] very much, O'Reilly's.”

Do Parts Match Up?

The problem is more complicated than a fitting was or wasn’t left out of the box. On the original radiator, the transmission cooler lines connected through threaded openings.

But the replacement radiator arrived with its own fittings already incorporated into the unit, leaving him with connections that he says don’t match what’s on the Kia.

“It’s a 3/8 barb on the big one and a 5/16 barb on the one that they supplied,” he said while comparing the pieces. Worse yet, he says the offending fitting isn’t something he can simply unscrew and swap out. “That is the end of the trans cooler that’s looped up in this.”

Getting the right radiator for this particular Rio involves more than simply matching the year and model, which is why a catalog of genuine Kia parts lists separate radiator assemblies for automatic- and manual-transmission versions of the 2016 Rio. The six-speed automatic is listed with radiator part No. 25310-1R150, later replaced by 25310-1R160, while the manual transmission model uses a different radiator assembly.

That nuance matters here, since the part that halts the repair is the plumbing for cooling the automatic transmission fluid.

But that doesn’t in any way establish that O’Reilly gave the mechanic a defective or incorrectly cataloged radiator. Several viewers were quick to challenge his diagnosis.

“Wait till he finds out its just the wrong radiator,” one commenter joked.

“Lmao what you mean?” the creator responded. “I ordered the only one available for the car.”

Another viewer offered a more pointed bit of mechanic wisdom: “And thats why we check our parts.”

The creator pushed back, arguing this wasn’t a case of choosing one radiator when another was sitting on the shelf waiting for him.

“There isn’t any other part numbers for that application at that store,” he wrote.

If that’s accurate, it makes the situation more interesting than somebody behind the parts counter simply grabbing the wrong box. It’d mean that there’s a severe misalignment somewhere between the specific configuration of this Rio, the aftermarket manufacturer’s radiator, and the information available through O’Reilly’s parts catalog.

Gallery: 2017 Kia Rio

2017 Kia Rio

Looking At Other Options

The mechanic is equally furious that he can’t find a 3/8" to 5/16” adapter to make the new radiator work. It’s worth noting, though, that O’Reilly’s online catalog currently lists an American Grease Stick TR900 transmission cooler line adapter whose specifications include both 3/8-inch and 5/16-inch tube sizes.

The retailer also lists another adapter intended for repairs involving both 5/16- and 3/8-inch transmission lines.

That doesn’t necessarily mean either would solve this Kia’s problem. The type of connection, thread size and arrangement all matter, and the TR900 is listed as a universal part rather than something specifically assigned to the Rio.

It also doesn’t tell us whether anything suitable was actually sitting inside this mechanic’s local O’Reilly when he needed it. As another commenter pointed out, there’s another link in the chain that shouldn’t be overlooked.

“O'Reillys doesn't build radiators,” they wrote.

That leaves plenty of room between the mechanic’s very understandable frustration and assigning proper blame for whoever actually deserves it. The problem could be an aftermarket fitment problem, a catalog issue, an unusual configuration on this particular Kia, or simply the wrong radiator. Without seeing the manufacturer and part number stamped on the replacement, the video alone can’t settle that question.

What do you think?

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Motor1 reached out to the creator via direct message and comment on the clip. We’ll update this if they respond.

Warning: The below video contains explicit language.

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