How To Seal a Car Radiator

A car radiator usually fails when it rusts and begins leaking. When this happens, you'll need to know how to seal the radiator so that you can prevent the car from overheating. This is actually much simpler than it sounds and is rather inexpensive. Two proven home remedies are raw eggs and pepper.

Things You'll Need

• Raw eggs
• Pepper

Instructions

1. Let the engine cool down and open the radiator cap by pushing down on the top of the cap and turning it counterclockwise to unlock it. Then remove the cap.

2. Start the engine and allow it to warm up a bit, but not to full operating temperature. Then either pour up to a table-shaker's worth of pepper into the radiator opening or drop in up to two well-beaten, raw eggs. Do not do both. The pepper or egg will move to the location of the leak, and as the engine heats up the egg will cook into the leak or the pepper will become clogged in it. Since neither will disintegrate, this fix can hold for up to a month or more.

3. Run the vehicle for 5 minutes after you have dumped the egg or pepper into the radiator to verify that the radiator is no longer leaking.

4. Replace the cap with the vehicle running and turn it clockwise to lock it into place. Allow the vehicle to keep running for 5 more minutes and verify that no leaks develop.

References

• Auto Repair For Dummies; IDG Books Worldwide; 1999