Guidelines to Identify and Fix Car Radiator Leakage

Suppose you are heading to your garage and suddenly spotted some liquids under your car. Well, look closely and find out if it is the coolant or not. If it is the coolant, then you probably have leakage in your radiator. Radiator leaks are the most common issues that can happen with your car. Identifying this leakage and fixing this should be addressed promptly. Most of us don’t understand what’s going wrong with our engines. If your car radiator is leaked, then it might cause thermal throttling and other issues in your car. Let’s talk about the process of manually identifying the leaks in your radiator and how you can fix this on your own.

Why Radiator Leaks Happen

A radiator makes sure that your engine runs at its fullest without any performance drop. Antifreeze always circulates through your engine to dissipate the heat. That is what makes the engine run for a long time at high revs without having any issue. But like all other parts of your car engine, your radiator can also get damaged or can have a leak in most of the cases. So, what are the causes? Let’s see.

Corrosion is the most known cause of cracks in the radiator. Radiator, hoses, and hose connection gathers sediment and rust over time. If these sediments and rusts aren’t cleared regularly, it can easily create holes inside the radiator, radiator hose, and hose connection. Sometimes old torn hose pipe is also liable for leakage. If the leak is small at the beginning, then you will not notice any issue. But this could be dangerous. A small leak in your radiator can eventually lead to a bigger leak, which might damage your radiator permanently. You should keep your eye on the leaks and check the possible spots when you open the bonnet.

Unable to choose the best radiators for cars is another common issue for radiator leaks. Don’t waste your money on the cheaper radiators when you intend to buy one. Those are made of low-quality materials that can easily get cracked after a short time. Invest in the best radiators that are available on the market.

Identifying the Leak

First thing’s first. You need to identify if there is any leak in your car radiator. There are some common spots where you should look for the coolant leak. You don’t necessarily need to take your car to the service center if you see that coolant is leaking from your vehicle. You probably have a loose drain valve, an overflowing reservoir, or a leaky hose, which can be fixed very easily. To find the exact spot of leaking, you should look at the bottom of your radiator and check the radiator, radiator hose, drain valve, and reservoir. If there’s a leakage in your radiator, you will see coolant dripping from one of these places. This could happen to any car radiator. Most of the time, this happens with old radiators. In newer radiators, the issue might be the result of a loose connection of the radiator setup.

How to Fix Car Radiator Leakage

Now, when you have identified the leakage in your radiator, you should be able to fix this without any help. We are going to talk about this thing in here.

Find How Bad the Leakage Is

Radiator leakage can be separated into two categories. It might be severe or less severe. If the crack looks huge or a massive amount of coolant is dripping from your car, then the issue seems extreme. This is unlikely to happen, but there’s always a chance. Sometimes it might be heavily damaged, or cracks could be huge. This could happen to older radiators. If that’s happening in your case, then you should take it to the mechanic for servicing. In some severe cases, you need to change the radiator if it is heavily damaged or cracked. Sometimes, you may not even find the leakage due to inexperience. In that case, also you should call a mechanic. But if the crack is less severe, then you need to follow the next step

How to Fix Less Severe Radiator Leakage

There are some leak-stop products available in the market currently. They are very low price but very useful for leakage fixing. You can buy it from any auto hardware shop or online shop. It comes with a manual where all the user instructions are written. Generally, this process is pouring the liquid inside the radiator, and it will automatically close the path. Make sure the radiator is cooled down before applying the leak stop. Also, sometimes those leak stops can only block the leak temporarily. Thus, you should keep your expectations according to that. If it is not a major crack, the chances are huge that it will work just fine, and you will not feel any difference. Sometimes you will find leaking through radiator hose pipe, so by replacing hose pipe you can stop leakage.

Always Monitor Your Car’s Cooling System

Radiator leak stop products can temporarily fix the leakage problem for your car, but you should remember this is not a permanent thing. You need to keep your eye regularly on your car’s cooling system. Always check the temperature gauge of your car regularly, especially in the summer. Never let it go warmer than ideal. Also, a small leak can eventually lead to a bigger leak or crack, so it will be wiser to check for the leak whenever you get the chance. Make sure it is not getting bigger. Get a mechanic if you think the leak is unusually getting bigger.

Last Words

It is said that if you take care of parts, it will have better longevity. The same goes for the car radiator. Its working area is much hotter than your car’s other parts. It has the major duty of keeping your engine always cool, no matter what. Without proper care, you will not get better performance of it. I hope you’ve got the idea of identifying radiator leaks in this article. If this is not serious, I hope you will be able to fix this on your own. Always take care of your car, and it will not fail you when you need it the most.