Used bar's leak-now whitish debris? also leaking watery oil

Dec 03, 2004 7 Replies

I put a bottle of Bar's leak into my radiator which seems to have worked as the level is not dropping. But around the radiator cap is whitish debris. Is this normal?



Also on the ground under the engine where I park I am finding wet spots of watery oil, I do seem to be having to top the oil up..Not sure if it is just a simple oil leak or something more serious going on. Car seems ok except the temp needle seems to take a while to reach normal.



Any ideas?


The white crap sometimes happens. Its taking an age to warm up cos the Bars crap has blocked up the thermostat, preventing it from closing fully.

No it was doing that before I put it in. So you reckon the thermostat could be faulty. It does reach the normal temperature if your in a traffic jam for example. So if the white crap appears I wonder what this indicates?

Say if I drive somewhere, park the car for a bit, even for a few mins, then I move the car back, on the ground is a few spots of what seems like watery oil. Suppose its best to clean everything up inside to try and spot any leaks.

Also sprach Harry :-

If it's a sort of mayonnaise then it's oil in the water. Sounds like you've got a head gasket going - unless there's an oil cooler involved somewhere.

I thought the mayonnaise occurred only in the oil filler cap rather than in the radiator. This is a 1.6 nissan carb engine petrol. What are these kits you can get, the liquid changes colour if the gasket is leaking, you hold it above the radiator with the cap off. I think the white is starting to go now though, filler cap going back to the browny rusty colour again. Maybe the white stuff is just the bars leak stuff reacting?

IIRC Bars Leak does go white when mixed with water. Sounds like you just spilt some around the filler neck when you poured it in. Mike.

Also sprach Harry :-

It's an oil/water emulsion. You choose where the oil comes from.

You said "No it was doing that before I put it in." I thought you were talking about the white stuff.

The kits come from snapon.com, You can just buy the fluid, the rest of the kit's a syringe :-)

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