How to Temporarily Fix Minor Radiator Leaks

Video Transcript

"Good afternoon my name is Tom Britzenhofe, Certified Master Mechanic from Reading, Pennsylvania and today we are going to talk about how to fix a minor radiator leak. The easiest way for me to explain to you, there are so many products out there it all depends on which way you want to go with it and how to repair this problem. If you have got a small pin hole and you don't feel like tearing everything apart to get to that small leak, the easiest product out there to use is a product out there called Bar's Leak. What you do is just open this radiator cap right here and make sure everything is nice and cool and take this cap off and take the small container, it is little metal flakes. You pour it right inside your radiator, put your cap back on and make sure your radiator is nice and full, put your cap on here and tighten it up and go ahead and start your vehicle up and let it run. It might take an hour or so until the little metal flakes circle through the engine and get to that leak and it plugs it up from the inside. That is a real simple way of doing it. If you have got a hole somewhere up here whether it is in the seam or something and you can get to it without tearing everything apart they make great epoxies these days, two part epoxies, you can find them in any local parts stores, just mix them like a body putty, just like a piece of gum and you spread it on not with your hands though unless you are wearing gloves, spread it on there and let it sit and dry and the biggest thing to remember is if you have got a leak up here or anywhere in the tank make sure your coolant level is below where you are working but seal it up, good to go, let it dry and it should hold you off for quite a long time but I would plan for the future in replacing your radiator if it doesn't actually have a leak."