I have one of those damn coolant leaks and I believe its coming from a hole SOMEWHERE in the radiator. All I know is when my car warms up I always smell hot/burning coolant in the cabin and the smell is strongest around the radiator so I assume its a small pin hole leak since the level doesnt show any noticable drop over time.

So of the 50 million radiator sealers out there... which one works the best? Thanks

 

Seen on a radiator shop advertisement: "A great place to take a leak!".

IMO, refrain from putting stop leak junk in your system. Rent a pressure tester to find your leak and then fix the source. There will be better results in the long run.

 

These pressure testers can be rented from places like Autozone?

 

Or you can pull your radiator, take it to a radiator shop and have them inspect and fix it. I've never pressure tested one, and wouldn't know how to fix the leak if I found it in the radiator.

Also I had a very stupid leak about 2 years ago. Couldn't figure out where it was coming from. I bypassed the heater core, inspected all the hoses. Replaced my water pump and put in an electric CSR. Still didn't fix it. Had a couple of friend try to lok at my problem, they couldn't figure it out. I just for grins after retightening the draincock 20 times, retightened it one more time. But this time a hammer must have fell on my head, because of trying to rip off the tabs, I used the little hole that is in the middle of regular pliars. Tightened it down good, and no more leaks. Everyone about crapped their pants that that stupid idiotic drain plug was culprit. We couldn't even see it dripping. I don't know why, but tightening that plug fixxed it. It still doesn't make sense that I or anyone else could see a tiny drip from there.

ZMAN

 

Did you smell coolant in the car while driving? I really hope my problem isnt the heater core. No wet spots under the dash but I notice the smell filters in thru the vents since I can smell the odor when I kick the fan on. Also this only happens around town... I drove for a good 2 hours with the AC on just 2 days ago and never once even got a hint of coolant in the air.

 

Yes, places like Autozone rent testers. If you smell coolant from the vent air, that makes your heater core a big suspect.

 

I don't know if your heater core it the problem. It's pretty easy to bypass. Disconnect the little bracket near the engine side of the firewall on the 2 core lines, and connect them together.

The heater core is easy to replace if it's bad.

Z

 

Dont you have to remove the entire dash to get to it?

 

BARS aluminium stop leak....thats what i used in my car to get rid of the tinny leaks caused by copper gaskets.

 

No.

 

If it is radiator leak, cayenne pepper works better then any sealer.

 

Nope, just remove the glove box. There is a panel under there with a few screws, then you had access to the core. Just be careful bot to bend/break the tubes going through the firewall. It's a pretty straight forward removal. I've had mine out 4 or 5 times.

Z