Does coolant stop leak work? Find out as we test Bar's radiator stop leak and k seal stop leak then blue devil. Is stop leak safe will it clog up your radiator or cooling system. We explore how to stop antifreeze dripping. #Nia #stopleak
1. recommended for holes less than 0.8mm (0.032 of an inch) 2. Heat is required to activate the silicates & drive moisture from them, thus leaving the crystals that will plug the hole/crack.
That’s a lot to expect a stop leak product to fill a hole that size. Good grief that wasn’t even a fair test, plus the fact the coolant is supposed to be hot. I would say the test is a failure, not the stop leak.
Hole way too big for stop leak to fix, and think about it, if it could stop such a massive leak, it would also clog up your cooling system, the radiator and heater core have small narrow tubes.
@@NATESINTERACTIVEAUTO , it is NOT HEATED at 200 Degrees F, your experiment is totally misleading,I don’t see any steam coming from the leak, therefore YOUR DEMOSTRACIÓN is INACCURATE..!
@@kimberlywright4988 which one, in or out? This product does not work with rubber hoses, only with aluminum pipes. Please make your question clearer so that I can be helpful.
Nice experiment but don't forget to read the inductions. Your next try should include a way to heat the coolant to the correct temperature and use a realistic leak.
I feel like these products are mainly used for when the plastic lids start leaking very slightly , But yeah, this needs to be in a car engine at operational temps 180-210º under pressure and going.
In the time it takes to do this you can replace the radiator or a hose with the hole in it. Radiators are not hard to replace, they seem intimidating to people but they're very easy to install. You literally remove the hose & few bolts & lift, then put new radiator in & reattach hoses & done. Make sure you flush radiator with a cleaner before you add coolant, so you catch any debris that was inside radiator during shipping & then after it's flushed & clean, add coolant & done.
That used to be the case, but most of your newer cars and especially some foreign models today, its not at all easy to remove radiators, sometimes half the front end needs removed, or they can also come out the bottom of the car, not to mention some models need special tools to remove oil lines from them too. FYI 😎👍
It wasn't meant to plug a cold garden hose . Used this exact stuff in my 2003 Ford Explorer 4.0 coolant radiator. Had a leak that would start when it got to about 5 psi , or 150 degrees . Right were the plastic tank is crimped to the aluminum radiator. It worked well for two months when I replaced the radiator . It even flushed out without leaving residue in the engine. One of the few truly safe and effective products for this very common type of leak . Just about every company that produces additives like this has a similar product . Heat , pressure , small leaks. Read the bottle 🤦
This stuff works. I had a leak in My civics radiator and I added the silver aluminum mix and presto! It’s genius. I have a new radiator in the mail but I’m not installing it until the radiator starts leaking again. Probably not the best idea though. Edit: use the silver stuff! It’s better and it’s also under 10$
@@sonnyesqueda1284 I believe it does.. this is something I’m doing to my car with a very slow drip leak from cracked radiator tubes due to a bottoming out. I don’t think anything would work against a steady flow leak like this.
My dad's car was a Cadillac Eldorado, he loved that car. He can't drive anymore, so he gave it to my older brother with about 80k miles on the odometer. It didn't even last a year before it was sold for scrap. Anyways, I bought a car with stop leak in it, and didn't know. It was a 2002 Chevy Impala, which are notorious for blowing intake gaskets. Instead of replacing the intake gasket, the guy that sold it to me put stop leak in it. The heater core and radiator could clog about once a year for a few years, then it would clog just once every 2 or 3 years. Finally from years of intermittent overheating, it blew the heads. I got a set of heads from a junk yard for $50, and while I had the engine part I used a pressure washer to force out everything that was still in the water jackets, plus I replaced the hard lines, heater core, radiator, rubber hoses, and water pump, and it never clogged or overheated again. It was funny for a while because the heater core would start to clog, and if I floored it and got the RPM really high, you could hear this gush of water from under the dash, it would sound like someone flushing a toilet and then I would have heat for a minute or two, and then it would go away so I would have to repeat.
John Davis you should have done a back flush on it and put some rust removing stuff inside of it to get rid of some stuff that might be clogging it. Then tried to burp the system cuz every time u replace a cooling system part you should because that allows air to get in that’s what the flood of coolant under the dash was you heard. I’m currently struggling with the overheating shit and researching all these videos. Since it’s a closed system there shouldn’t be air in it I replaced the thermostat and Ik that it didn’t get burped so hopefully it fixes my issue but there may be a leak somewhere only one way to find out if. In a few hours when places open up I’m going to buy all this stuff I need I hope it works😂😂
I have a 1992 Cadillac Eldorado it has a slow leakage but it’s fine just keep filling it up with antifreeze and this product in the video above doesn’t work at all I used it on my 1996 Ford Taurus and it messed up my car badly
I'm a little confused by everyone's comments about how the coolant needs to be hot to work. I just bought some for my radiator, it says right on the bottle that it should be poured in a cool radiator, so that's what I did. I also used ice cold well water from my hose as coolant and it stopped the leak within a couple of minutes and it was a pretty decent leak. My guess is that they tell you to put it in a cool radiator for safety and then it won't start working until the heat and pressure builds up?
That’s exactly right. Taking the cap off of a hot radiator is really dangerous. Pour it in cold, drive or let it run the proper amount of time to heat it up. I’ve used it in my youth when car fixes were not priority and it worked great. Honestly probably longer than it should have.
As many have said, you missed a very crucial part of cooling an engine… the heat. You need to let the engine idle at operating temp for at least 15 minutes to allow for the formula to expand and work. There is a video of someone doing the same experiment, but they used a heating system to gradually increase the temp of the coolant… and voila it actually worked to stop the few leaks on the radiator.
You let it run for 1 minute, 20 seconds and then thought it didn't work. When it literally says on the bottle to wait at least 15-30 minutes at an idle. Of course it's not gonna work after less than 1.5 minutes.
I thought the coolant has to be heated up for this to work? It works fine on the car that I am using. It just a temporary fix to get you by. The Bar Leak last for 8 months before I had to reapply.
This stop leak is supposed to be added to a cold radiator and needs to be heated to work properly. Testing it with cold fluid isn't the best test. And it also needs to cool down e.g. 48 hours to cure around the hole or crack. To make sure this stop leak works properly, remember to use with new clean fluids. Do not put it in old/dirty coolant. Hope this helps some people
Honestly if you got a leak pouring out that bad you got to give it up ans go to the mechanic and get new radiator. But sometimes it does take a few bottles to stop it or extremely slow it down
4 plus gallons of water/coolant, 1 hole bottle of stop leak and still it leaked like a sieve. the original hole was huge (pencil lead diameter) maybe that had a lot to do with it.
My car engine had a one little hole like 1mm in the freeze plug, used Abro powder stop leak and it fixed the leak for long period till freeze plugs replaced.
It Hass to be like boiling temperature for the stuff to be working. Like they have a new brand with actual pellets In it, oh they are solid but when you pour them in the boiling coolant they dissolve and act like a JB Weld through your system. You can’t use cold water lol
Major problem with your test is radiator systems are under pressure ... usually around 10 or 15 pounds. Your experiment was not a closed pressurized heated system.
Man if i have a leak that bad im not using stop leak. I think its better for the pin leaks and ones where you can smell it but cant see it but some residue.
It looked like you're pouring in some pretty nasty looking coolant. Maybe just full of the stop leak. I do realize that coolant system leaks can be expensive depending on the circumstance. But I also assume that stop leak could cause more damage than good in the long run.
There's people that put in stop leak and years later it holds. Tho if your engines to far gone it most likely won't work at all and you know it's a much bigger issue that needs proper repairs.
@@NATESINTERACTIVEAUTO Test with a much smaller hole. Say, one that leaks 1 gal / hr. while pumping. That might be more typical for many leaks. Fast enough to overheat your car pretty soon, but not that fast.
You plugged the radiator up. Look at your return hose there was no flow. Your stop leak plugged off the port so it couldn't plug last hose pressure to great.
i would have stopped and started the pump so it could bond.... seems like the continues squirt stopped it from sealing..... if you had a cut on your hand after a few mins it would stop, if it was squirting out you'd goto AandE... lol
Does anyone know if you can use Bars Stop Leak multiple times? It was applied to my vehicle and it stopped the white smoke immediately…. However that lasted a few hundred miles and now the white smoke started to return. I just need the get the car up and running for another week so I can get it in the shop for repair. Thanks I’m advance to anyone who can help with this question!
Well 2 things.. the highest the pressure gets in a cooling system is around what 15-20psi.. i dunno what pressure that pump you used could generate but still the colling system gets hot as fuck.. maybe if you heated up the whole system because some of that stuff activates with heat and pressure. Some reacts with heat differential like its all fluid while cool or hot but when it goes from hot to a cool place like through a hole, the stuff hardens and collects at the hole…
I just used it and found out that half a bottle didn't work, even though I ran the engine hot but I could see a difference as it stopped leaking for a while before the coolant flowed out again. It was a stop and go thingy. Then I stopped the engine, let it cool down some 15 minutes and poured the rest of the Bars into the radiator and ran the engine. Revved it a few times and lo!, the coolant stopped leaking!!! So, it works but maybe my radiator had smaller holes. 😁
I put a bit of stop leak mixed with coolant in the coolant reservoir/over flow, although I did put most of it in the radiator. Should I be worried that I put some in the reservoir?
If this stuff could stop a leak that sized, it would also plug up those little tubes you have. I'm just trying to see this stuff get fuzzy like what's coming out of my buddy's radiator after using this stuff. It looks like an animal died inside the rad!
Almost ALL of these coolant stop leak's include Sodium Silicate as their main active ingridient that works to stop your leak. The issue with your test is 2 parts/reasons why it is soomed for failure from the beginning. Issue #1-Sodium Silicate in these products works by the introduction of heat from your engine. this is why they all say to run your vehicle for atleast 20 minutes at idle with the heater on high (so it doesnt clog your heater core). Issue #2- The leak that you are trying to simulate stopping is one huge gaping hole. looks like the dang radiator was shot from 2 ft away with a 12 gauge slug. Theres no way ANY product would stop this "leak". Try simulating a real world situation, where the cylinder head is maybe warped after overheating and now off by 0.05" or theres a small head gasket leak. To assume this product would stop a leak the size of the grand canyone is flat out ridiculous IMHO.
Actually just used it like 15 minutes ago. Seems to have put a stop on my head gasket leak for now. Great stuff for 10 bucks. Beats pulling the motor apart
Not only did it not get heated.. Was that oatmeal at the end? 😆.. Or what drained and reclaimed? That doesn't happen in the real world. It would also be nice to see everything going on.. Not just a staged area. Wow..