What's this in the coolant?

[bfdfix]

Hi everyone I'm looking at a prospective car to buy, this is abroad and getting anything decent at a cheap price is a struggle to say the least...

The best car an old 306, owned from new, clean, clearly well cared for, tight to drive etc, but has this in it

I don't reckon it's k seal, but maybe one of the other brands, or is it some kind of reminant of something not so sinister?

The car is a pretty good price and only 195k km so I'd be tempted to buy even if the head gasket needed replacing..

[white exec]

Could be a leak sealant, but maybe also the result of running the cooling system on tapwater (calcium drop-out), tinged rusty because of no corrosion inhibitor.
If that's the only issue with the car, probably worth taking the gamble.

Best to do a complete system drain-down (bottom rad hose off, etc) to see what comes out.
I'd recommend LiquiMoly radiator/cooling system cleaner, ref.21309, for a thorough clean-out after flushing through with a hosepipe. You just need 1 × 300ml can, and follow the instructions on it.

[bfdfix]

Hi thanks very much for the reply... Unless it's the liquid glass sort of system sealer which I don't know how it looks when in the car, I also think it's probably from using normal tap water....

With the system cleaner I'm really cautious of using them to be honest, unless it really is gentle, and actually removed corrosion etc...

I've always just used a hose pipe, but I've probably never had a car used without coolant fluid!

Thanks

[white exec]

The LiquiMoly cleaner is quite safe to use, and will not damage the system or the engine block.
It is designed to remove oil/grease residues, as well as calc build-up.
I have used it twice on our XM, after two failures of the oil-water heat exchanger.

[bfdfix]

No problem thanks very much, I guess after probably a long time with tap water and no coolant, a cleaner would be good!

[Gibbo2286]

That looks like the left overs of this stuff:
https://www.lsengineers.co.uk/bars-seal ... -25g.html

[bfdfix]

That looks like the left overs of this stuff:
https://www.lsengineers.co.uk/bars-seal ... -25g.html

Thanks, I've never seen that stuff to be honest, tried to take a look online but struggling to see it when in header tanks etc...

[CitroJim]

It may have been put in to try and cure a leaky heater matrix... A not uncommon issue on PSA vehicles of the 90s...

The only approved cooling system sealant (by Valeo) for PSA vehicles of that age is Forte Stop Leak. I can attest to how well it works...

Some rad sealant products have been known to weld the heater matrix union/joint together and make replacement of same a 'mare...

Another risk, although no applicable here, is blockage of the automatic gearbox cooler. I had a V6 Xantia where just that had happened and it severely damaged the gearbox. All because of a leaky heater matrix...