rads and dog turds!
Discussion
caught your interest then? lol
long story short i have sprung a tiny leak in my radiator and am loosing coolant. my mechanic suggested a product he has used for years known only to him as "dog turds". apparently they are like giant oxo cubes you crumble into the system and leave in there. it then flows through the system and when it meets air it plugs the hole. admittadly its a bodge job rather than a proper fix but with budget tight at present with all the other problems ive had a new rad would be a disaster.
does anyone know what on earth i am on about? if so is this safe to use and am i going to cause any other problems in the process or is this a wonder fix that will save me a few quid?
cheers for any help.
long story short i have sprung a tiny leak in my radiator and am loosing coolant. my mechanic suggested a product he has used for years known only to him as "dog turds". apparently they are like giant oxo cubes you crumble into the system and leave in there. it then flows through the system and when it meets air it plugs the hole. admittadly its a bodge job rather than a proper fix but with budget tight at present with all the other problems ive had a new rad would be a disaster.
does anyone know what on earth i am on about? if so is this safe to use and am i going to cause any other problems in the process or is this a wonder fix that will save me a few quid?
cheers for any help.
jimbooo said:
caught your interest then? lol
How much are you losing? Is it something that you can live with for bit by just topping-up periodically? If you'd need to do that every week then it might be an option. After every journey, then that's obviously a bit more of a problem.
Are you definitely defintely sure it's from the rad? I fitted new coolant hoses and there was a small leak that appeared to be coming from the rad, but it ended up being a clip tightening job - water had made a really weird path to the location of the drip.
thanks for the advice guys. thats that idea out of the window then (thank god for this forum lol)
the leak seems to have stopped or at least slowed down. what actually happened was on sunday i checked the fluid levels etc as usual and noticed the coolant was pretty much empty and i had topped it up around a month ago. then on tuesday lunchtime i checked it at work and it was empty again. i dashed over to the garage and they took a look over the system, pressurised it and could only find a slight leak in the rad. right at the top corner, drivers side. it was on the main finned part at the edge not on the side of the rad. there was also a small puddle on the flooring panel beneath it by the wheel. apart from that he couldn't see any other leaks.
he did top it right up to tide me over until he can look at it properly and after driving to work and back today the fluid level hasn't budged. i was expecting it to be empty again .... comments welcome i'm confused!
the funny part is our other car, a 1.4 polo (i do look after the misses ha ha) is off the road with a buggered gearbox, cat and shocks so i have to drive the noble everywhere until tuesday when its booked in for the new rear manifold.
the leak seems to have stopped or at least slowed down. what actually happened was on sunday i checked the fluid levels etc as usual and noticed the coolant was pretty much empty and i had topped it up around a month ago. then on tuesday lunchtime i checked it at work and it was empty again. i dashed over to the garage and they took a look over the system, pressurised it and could only find a slight leak in the rad. right at the top corner, drivers side. it was on the main finned part at the edge not on the side of the rad. there was also a small puddle on the flooring panel beneath it by the wheel. apart from that he couldn't see any other leaks.
he did top it right up to tide me over until he can look at it properly and after driving to work and back today the fluid level hasn't budged. i was expecting it to be empty again .... comments welcome i'm confused!
the funny part is our other car, a 1.4 polo (i do look after the misses ha ha) is off the road with a buggered gearbox, cat and shocks so i have to drive the noble everywhere until tuesday when its booked in for the new rear manifold.
snuffy said:
stick an egg in it, that's supposed to do the trick.
( a raw one, not a hard boiled one that is ).
i can vouch that this does actually work ! I had a car many many years ago with a hole in the rad that was too big for radweld - the egg worked fine( a raw one, not a hard boiled one that is ).
the egg fries as it comes out the hole and blocks it up !
Gadgeroonie said:
snuffy said:
stick an egg in it, that's supposed to do the trick.
( a raw one, not a hard boiled one that is ).
i can vouch that this does actually work ! I had a car many many years ago with a hole in the rad that was too big for radweld - the egg worked fine( a raw one, not a hard boiled one that is ).
the egg fries as it comes out the hole and blocks it up !
funnily enough thats the exact same principle lol..
i spoke with the mechanic a moment ago and told him about the feedback on here. he also confirmed that radweld is terrible stuff and indeed will block the entire system. these dog turds are a totally different product (still cautious though). for the £4 it costs i'll buy one, hold onto it and try and give you some more info before i add anything to the car.
the garage is a morgan racing garage and they are preparing 5 super fast purpose built morgans for a race as we speak, they do know what they are doing, he's not just a local grease monkey! he told me the egg story when he explained how the dog turds work. they use an egg when mid race if a car springs a leak. much quicker than trying to fix it. as they pit in to change tyres they crack an egg in the cooling system, close it up and off she goes....
as mentioned the egg hardens in the hole plugging it.
i spoke with the mechanic a moment ago and told him about the feedback on here. he also confirmed that radweld is terrible stuff and indeed will block the entire system. these dog turds are a totally different product (still cautious though). for the £4 it costs i'll buy one, hold onto it and try and give you some more info before i add anything to the car.
the garage is a morgan racing garage and they are preparing 5 super fast purpose built morgans for a race as we speak, they do know what they are doing, he's not just a local grease monkey! he told me the egg story when he explained how the dog turds work. they use an egg when mid race if a car springs a leak. much quicker than trying to fix it. as they pit in to change tyres they crack an egg in the cooling system, close it up and off she goes....
as mentioned the egg hardens in the hole plugging it.
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