Radiator leak stop solutions

[tony209]

Would using a radiator leak stop additive as a temporary fix likely to cause any engine or turbo issues in the future?

[CosmicBike]

Yes, it will clog the narrow coolant passageways in the block and you will never get it all out.

[Clan]

Originally Posted by tony209

Would using a radiator leak stop additive as a temporary fix likely to cause any engine or turbo issues in the future?

It depends what you use, I found K-Seal remarkable, it is thousands if very fine short copper strands which get carried to the crack and settle there and the liquid hardens around them where the crack is. It circulates around until it finds another leak.

[Damoh89]

Have used rad weld and red weld in gold bottle before as get home solution mrs parked front into bushes in car park and branch pierced rad,flushed and back flushed system when got new rad to get rid of the remains of gunge

[Clogs]

These products which usually have bits of cork in them, will clog up your radiator and never provide a permanent repair. Some hard driving when the coolant is under high pressure will inevitably dislodge the sealant and result in a leak. Keeping a few litres of coolant in the car would be a necessity until the source of the leak has been repaired properly. A complete flush is needed after a repair has been made. One of the bad things that can happen is when the heater matrix leaks... getting it hot again after using Radweld is unlikely to happen again so demisting is impaired, and the car is no longer toasty warm in winter. A horrible job to replace, but worth the effort.

[Alpine]

I used K-seal on my old S70 which had a leak on the radiator and it worked well.

[Ross 63]

All are the devil's water. It's an absolute nightmare getting it out of the system, far more bother than it's worth. Do the job right and you'll do it once, just replace the radiator.

[RollingThunder]

Originally Posted by Clan

It depends what you use, I found K-Seal remarkable, it is thousands if very fine short copper strands which get carried to the crack and settle there and the liquid hardens around them where the crack is. It circulates around until it finds another leak.

This explains something that I never got to the bottom of! When I bought my old S70, it had shiny copper like sludge in the bottom of the coolant reservoir. This worried me for a while as I couldn't for the life of me figure out where so much copper could have come from!

As usual, I renewed the coolant system as part of the stage 0, and had to change the heater core a few months later - so presumably the PO had a leak in the core which he fixed with K seal...

Thanks!

[liammedler]

I had a small leak on my 850 T5 and some black pepper in the header tank fixed it for 2 years until I bought a new radiator

[liammedler]

I wouldn't try rad seal or an egg white for the reasons mentioned above