Anybody with experience using an engine oil additive for sealing slight leaks (eg Redex Stop Oil Leak)?
My 1996 Golf 2litre (2E) engine has a small seepage of oil from a small area of the head gasket on the left side of the engine. It's very slight - more an annoyance than anything else, but I don't want it to become worse.
Will such an additive work? Are there any drawbacks? Any thoughts welcome...
-Roy- (Surrey, England)
I could be very wrong, but I think most stop leak type treatments work on rubber seals... So you might have little success..
On the bright side, they shouldn't do any harm, so all you've got to lose is a few quid :)
Yes, they are basically seal conditioners. It's what the garage put in my Merc to reduce the leak from the crankshaft rear oil seal, with limited success. I have an engine rebuild to look forward to, if I want to fix that leak properly.
In your case, I'd be more concerned as to why oil is leaking from the head gasket, and whether the head is slightly warped.
Caused by stress redistribution in the form of low temperature creep of the head gasket material, as other have already pointed out leak stops won't help for this type of problem. Don't know if your engine has conventional head (non-strecht) bolts but if this is the case re-torquing the head might just help. Also this type of seepage tends to be much worse when the engine is cold so if the thermostat is a bit old and slowing the warm up change it for a "hot heater" type.
Many thanks for all your replies. Reading all you say, I think my best option is to do nothing: the leak's too trivial (per what Neil Ramsey says). Unless, of course the leak intensifies - then the expense of a gasket change becomes sensible. In my case the most likely explanation for the very slight (virtually immeasurable) amount of oil showing, is one given by dilbert - it's caused by stress redistribution in the form of low temperature creep of the head gasket material. Oil appears along the head-block gasket only when the engine is cold, not once it's running warmed-up. Also I tend to believe the majority verdict: that such an additive could do more harm than good...as I suspected! Thanks again.
-Roy- (Surrey, England)
Many thanks for all your replies. Reading all you say, I think my best option is to do nothing: the leak's too trivial (per what Neil Ramsey says). Unless, of course the leak intensifies - then the expense of a gasket change becomes sensible. In my case the most likely explanation for the very slight (virtually immeasurable) amount of oil showing, is one given by dilbert - it's caused by stress redistribution in the form of low temperature creep of the head gasket material. Oil appears along the head-block gasket only when the engine is cold, not once it's running warmed-up. Also I tend to believe the majority verdict: that such an additive could do more harm than good...as I suspected! Thanks again.
-Roy- (Surrey, England)
Probably nothing to worry about. This exact problem was common on smaller (1.0-1.3) VW engines and perhaps this 2.0 is of similar design. Oil would weep out at a very low rate from your front left, standing in front of the car looking at the engine. I did a head gasket on one and saw why: the oil feed was very close to the outside of the gasket in that corner. It could leak easily without the gasket being blown.
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