OK, so I've been chasing a very slight coolant leak round and round for ages now, and despite a couple of dealers having a go at finding it, and me going round and tightening each jubilee, it's never been tracked down.

Not that significant- maybe 50cc fluid loss per 100 miles, so pretty easy to keep topped up.... it's just I hate that smell of hot antifreeze which hangs in the air around wherever I park. I have found a couple of long-encrusted green patches of (very) dried out antifreeze on the block which could be where the smell is emanating from, but nonetheless, I'm still losing fluid.

The car is a MY2000 standard UK turbo wagon.

So, the question is, will a small amount of radweld (half a bottle??) **** my engine? As I can no longer afford many more hours of dealers poking around the engine bay, finding nothing and charging me a fortune (but helpfully agreeing that there's a coolant smell), this seems like my last resort.

Comments?

 

I would not put radweld in my Scoob, i think you need to source the leak.

Get a tooth brush and some water. Then when the car has cooled down wash off the old crusty patches. ( Don't wet electrics ) Run the car for a few days and see if the patches come back.

Has anybody mentioned about your headgasket leaking ?

Red

 

Fair enough, I'll give it a try. Don't think it's the head gasket as (i) no mayonaise in oil (phew) (ii) as much as I can localise it smell is coming from block... but this may be wishful thinking. Would dealer attempts at tracking down not include a re-torque of heads?

Cheers

Iain

 

I doubt the dealer would re-torque the heads for a coolent leak.
A head gasket going doesn't always mean mayonaise in the oil. Depends where it's leaking too!!

 

Iain

There is another thread on here about a guy with a water leak. It was under the inlet manifold at the back of the motor (knackered pipe) Very hard to find !!!

Red

 

Tonight i started to remove my Sti v3 engine to do the head gaskets. A sure sign one has gone is BIG bubbles in the cooling system after a realy hard run, the exhaust gases are pumped into the system. There is no emulsification of the oil in my engine, it runs smooth and well, just blows the coolant out!
Realy messy job getting the motor out.....
Good luck!
911

 

Is there an easy way to spot if radweld has been used?

Does it leave a coloured residue anywhere?

I'm abit concerned as the car I'm potentially buying had a thin beige rubbery covering inside the rad cap which peeled off when lightly rubbed.