Coolant leak

[punkrkr52]

Since there doesnt seem to be an automotive forum anymore, its goin here i guess. anyway, my girlfriend drives a 96 sunfire with the 2.2l, and it has quite the coolant leak. i used some bars leak, and it worked perfect for a couple weeks, but now its gotten worse. i cant see exactly where the leak is coming from, and i don't wanna take it into a shop cause we're both really broke, and she cant have her car gone for 2 days or whatever. any ideas on what i should do?

[TurcoLoco]

Put a cup of black pepper in the radiator

[punkrkr52]

seriously? how would that work?

[knight0334]

The pepper thing is a temp fix.

The only real long term fix is to find out what it is and fix it properly.

All those leak additives are just "get ya by to the next exit" type things.

[cauzomb]

Dude, your supposed to add the pepper to season the egg. The egg glues the pepper into place, also fills the holes but helps make the egg taste better :P. These are proven "emergency" measures... egg's and pepper are things that a traveler might have in their RV, or cooler, or can get at a store, or diner a 2 am etc.. I don't recommend driving it "back and forth" to work like this, because it will eventually let you down, plan around this car NOW, and avoid the whole situation of your GF sitting on the road with a BLOWN engine rather than a hole in the cooling system etc.... The only way to find the hole is to see where the coolant is coming out while it's leaking.. This could be dangerous because usually the system isn't flowing until the thermostat is open at opperating temp, so chances are, there's alot of pressure etc.... If you manage to stop the leak's with the leak stoppers, If you have rusty freeze plugs and can see rust trails dripping down the side of your freeze plugs, the added pressure of not having a leak may cause the rusted bit's to blow out even bigger, you might be able to drive around for a while if you never install the radiator cap but you MUST keep an eye on the water level.. Don't use anything but pure distilled water, You might think WTF, after putting in bars leak, the pepper and the egg is bad, but nevermind those, mineralized well/tap water is horrible.

[Gizmokid2005]

David...do it easy....you can go to any auto store (and you could do the same at a computer store) and buy the flourescent additives and put a bottle in the radiator....then you can trace that back to where the leak is. Chances are with a vehicle that old, it's probably a cracked hose or bad gasket.

[TurcoLoco]

Sorry punkr, my suggestion was a simple fill the gap on an old raditor type mickey-mouse fix as Knight mentioned but it does work. However, as Gizmo mentioned, if the radiator is savable, then using flourescent to find where the leak is very wise, if the radiator is too old to fix, use the pepper type workaround till you get it replaced.

I hear you about being too broke to get the car fixed, I am sure Gizmo could relate too! May be he could even give you tips on how to come up with the $$ since recently he had a similar dilemma himself?


Kudos to Cauz, two things you should always use distilled water in:
Car/bike radiator and electric steam-iron.

[punkrkr52]

well i was going to use the flourescent stuff, but i can see where its coming from, i just cant find the source. its like, under and around some crap i cant see. i know a good shop in town and they'll look at it for 30 bucks, and find where the leak is.

[Gizmokid2005]

Which town? Kzoo or GR?

[cauzomb]

well i was going to use the flourescent stuff, but i can see where its coming from, i just cant find the source. its like, under and around some crap i cant see. i know a good shop in town and they'll look at it for 30 bucks, and find where the leak is.

30 bucks could be used towards the part that is causing the problem.. If you have a small mirror, like your GF's makeup compact or something, try to use it to see behind the obsticle.. The florescense indicator is a good suggestion, that way you can look for the trails of glowy stuff AFTER the engine has cooled. If you get the indicator, you might consider a black light to aid in locating the source.