Saturday, February 19, 2011

DIY Saturday: Testing the Radiator for a Leak

A coolant leak might not be a serious problem at first. When neglected, however, this can lead to serious and expensive engine damage. Therefore, it’s very important to pay attention to leaks. If you notice that your coolant level is always low, there’s a very good chance you have a leak somewhere. Check your garage floor underneath the car to see whether there’s a pool of coolant, especially in the morning after you leave your car there overnight. If there is, the radiator is one of the parts that you must inspect.

Do a visual inspection of the radiator to see whether there is any visible sign of damage, crack, hole, or even coolant leftover from which it leaked. If you can’t see any of these, you can resort to water testing. What is this? Well, you will need to fill the radiator with air—employ a pressure test kit for this and refer to the cap as to the amount of air needed. Then, you will have to immerse the radiator in water and see whether there is water getting into the radiator through holes. From outside, you’ll see this because air bubbles will escape as water gets through any hole in the empty radiator.

When you notice this, you can go for any of the three solutions available. One, if the holes and cracks are very small, you can simply plug them using specific additives that you simply pour into the radiator for self sealing. If the holes are larger, then you may need to solder these to seal them off. Meanwhile, if you have a serious radiator defect, you may want to simply discard the worn radiator and get a new one. Sometimes, this is better than fixing the said part and then having to deal with damage sometime soon.

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