radweld good or bad?

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shezads
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radweld good or bad?

Post by shezads »

I have the dreaded matrix leak - all of a sudden.
Steam in the cab, damp carpets. Tried a bottle of holts radweld - seems to have stopped the leak, and I have warm air, although my windscreen has slight steaming.
I was wandering if I should throw in another bottle of radweld - or will this be inviting trouble? (Blocking passages in the engine / cooling system...).
I have read the instructions, and one bottle (I think its 250ml) treats up to 22 litres of coolant.
Any ideas??
micitroen
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Post by micitroen »

I can only speak about my own experience and that was bad...eventually leading to a head gasket failure due to the Radweld 'gumming up' things it maybe ought not to. Don't know of anything else though. They all seem to work the same way ie block anything that moves or leaks. As a temp fix you could always try bypassing the heater for the moment..although I supoose you are only delaying the inevitable........but at least that could be at a time thats more convenient to you.
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fastandfurryous
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Post by fastandfurryous »

Radweld. Bad bad bad. Horrible nasty stuff that causes more trouble than it's worth.
Barrs leaks, on the other hand, appears to be a much better stop-leak liquid.
citronut
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Post by citronut »

any leak(cure)treatments will block up your system,because thats what they do so the more you put in the more it will block every thing up,the two heater matrix i have replaced have not been coroded,they just had the ends pushed off,i would think may be by water works over heating and causing to much presure
regards malcolm
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citroenbx
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Post by citroenbx »

Dont DO IT...Head Gasket Next
bxbodger
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Post by bxbodger »

I think its only a certain Rover engine where they don't recommend radweld, apart from that its fine-I've never had any bother with it!
They sell millions of bottles a year and if it caused blocking and seizures and didn't work, no-one would stock it or buy it.
As to adding another bottle,I can't see it doing any harm.
den169
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Post by den169 »

Used it many times over the past 30 years never had a problem,About 15 years since i last used it but a couple of months back my toyota hilux sprung a couple of leaks on the radiator stuck a radweld in and been fine since.
shezads
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Post by shezads »

Ok, I bought two bottles yesterday, but only put one in to see if it works. I was going to let it 'harden' over night and see how it performs in the week, and then decide what to do. The bottle does state that Radwel is not suitable for Rover 825 and 827 engines, other wise nothing else.
Why o why they don't design a matrix thats easy to get to I don't know...
What idiot thought of bolting it at a point where the whole dash has to come out...
A friend told me on Vauxhalls - its easy to get to 1hr max to do the job!
Must say - although there was a big difference using one bottle - it looked like mud - not what I would want in the engine / cooling system!
Oh.. and I had a new gasket about 15k ago (Aug 2004)when the cambelt gave way - and the head had to come off. The gasket was a gsf part - and the metal one. Will this have any bearing?
citronut
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Post by citronut »

same old story use in moderation,for 2 years running i had to take my BX heater valve apart because a previous owner had obviously used some sort of water system sealing gunk,because each time i took it apart there where two oxo cubes of this stuff stoping my heater valve from moveing,i think it allowing the car to over heat that causes the matrix to pop its end/s away
regards malcolm
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