Radweld & Stop Leak - solutions to water and oil leaks?

Don't know about the oil side, but I had an AX 1.5 Diesel that sprung a leak in its rad, a few years ago.

Put Radweld in the system, and it bolloxed it good and proper - made the leak worse.

It also did damage to the water level sensor in the expansion tank.

I'd never use it again, anyway, especially in something with a micro thin rad like the above.

-- JackH

This is not 'slight', in any way.

Ditto.

Depends on where the leak is. Radweld has a reasonable chance of stopping the water leak. No gloop will stop your oil leak.

Track down the leaks and fix them. This is the only way to stop them permanently without damaging anything else.

If you must use something, use Bars Leaks, rather than Radweld. But it's really just a matter of one being slightly less bad than the other.

OTOH I've had excellent results with Radweld and never any problems.

Rob Graham

The problem with radweld is that it has a tendency to block rads and heater matrixes. If you use it in a tractor, where the smallest waterway is really quite big, no problem. If you use it on a car with tiny waterways, and a partially silted up rad, you lose a good chunk of your radiator efficiency, just like that.

Snap - the last & only time I used Radweld it made no difference to the leak but gummed up the radiator permanently. OTOH I've used Barr's Leaks several times with no trouble. Dave

Mike Foster said the following on 17/08/2004 14:21:

Radweld should be renamed Rad-sludge-blocked-knackered-radiator-buy-a-new-one-weld!

The best option is to buy a new radiator.

Paul.

Whenever I've used radweld or similar for minor untraceble leaks I've only ever put a few tablespoons full of the stuff in rather than the whole bottle. That has always been enough to cure the leak for me.

Oil leak I'm afraid you have to fix the gaskets or seals.

Holts Radweld is a waste of money, go to a motor factor and ask for a "dog terd" , that will cure most leaks and last for a long time. If you want to sound posh , ask for a Barrseals dog terd.

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Fred"

Not forgettign to "grease" up the suspension parts with body filler.

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.uk (adder) saying something like:

I had a mini like that...

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Fred" bearing, I gave it the dog terd treatment and it stopped the leak for for 6

Ah, ok. Actually, I will use Barr's Leaks or a turd if necessary just to keep an old snotter going. I've even had success with Radweld, and the vehicle remained leak-free for 30kmiles. Generally though, if it's a vehicle I'm keeping, I'll spring for the cost of a recored rad or whatever it needs, since anything else is false economy on a working vehicle.