Ford KA - Radweld on Ford KA 53 plate

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Mon 29 Nov 2010 20:54
Ford KA - Radweld on Ford KA 53 plate - mattinahat999

Hi, Would appreciate a little help - this will be a familiar story for you lot but looks like I'm leaking coolant/anti-freeze. It seems that I can go 50 miles or 200 miles and notice about the same amount of leakage (from max to quarter full) - it's never gone below that but I guess that's because I don't let it. My old man advised me to use Radweld, I trust him with all things cars so went and got a bottle, chucked it in with the coolant and ran the engine on idle for 20 minutes. Curious about whether or not it would work I did some searching online and seen very mixed reviews and lots of concerns about blockages and crippling the radiator. I don't have a temperature guage, any obvious things I should be looking out for to spot a problem? My garage wanted £50 just to stick some dye in to check pressure levels which seems a bit excessive. Any recommendations for garages in Cardiff area? Thanks... Matt.

One thing forgot to add - done 15 miles since radweld and everything seems ok so far...

Edited by mattinahat999 on 29/11/2010 at 20:57

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Mon 29 Nov 2010 21:02
Ford KA - Radweld on Ford KA 53 plate - injection doc
rad weld often works but can be notorious for blocking up heater rads and small gallerys.

How expensive would the dye test of been if it had ( & would) of found the leak, which may of been a water pump or leaking hose . The advantage would of been that it fixes the leak first time so is cheaper as it takes the guess work out of it, & if its the water pump it may just suddenly collapse without warning!
When the garage add the dye the little bottles are not cheap and then they will pressure test, using kit they have bought then they have to search with an ultraviolet light to trace the leak, all takes time so £40-50 quid isn't too bad if diagnosis is correct first time round.
lets hope the rad weld doesn't clog up the heater!
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Mon 29 Nov 2010 21:09
Ford KA - Radweld on Ford KA 53 plate - mattinahat999
Thanks for the response. Yea I jumped into the Radweld thing just because I was told to - from what I've read it works well on older cars and my Dads as old fashioned as you get so obviously didn't realise the risks!

Thing is what's done is done, is there any point running a pressure test now or should I just drive it and see what happens?

I don't want to spend a lot of money on the car but at the same time I don't want to brick the thing either.

I'm guessing it doesn't help that I've chucked a big gloopy mess into my cooling system on the coldest day of the year right?

Edited by mattinahat999 on 29/11/2010 at 21:10

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Tue 30 Nov 2010 11:25
Ford KA - Radweld on Ford KA 53 plate - dieselnut

I've used Radweld quite a few times on different engines & only ever had good results.

This product has been around for years & the manufacturer would have gone out of business long ago if it caused major problems.

Have you been topping up with the correct coolant mixture or just water.

If water, make sure you restore the correct anti-freeze ratio, especially in this cold snap.

Keep checking the level & if still dropping look for the leak on a dry bit of hard standing or go for the dye test.

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