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[Oddball]

The radiator has begun to leak, not too badly at first. But i'm now losing about a litre of coolant a week. I'm off to get some radweld just now, to hopefully bung it up for now.

I reckon a new rad will be on the cards within a week to a month, depending on how well the radweld works.

So does anyone know a good place to get a new, or even a used/good cond one? Preferably not too pricey, the cheapest ones I can find are about £160-170 on the bay. Asked lighthouse if they could get me one but he told me they didn't do rads.

[Nosebolt]

have it re cored, should cost around 90-100 quid

or try here, recon about 130

[Oddball]

Thanks, i'll look into re-coring.

One question about the radweld though. The bottle says to pour into the radiator, but I can't seem to get the rad cap off. It's a little plastic plug on the driver's side of the radiator, I can twist it 90 degrees anti-clockwise but nothing else. Does it unscrew, or do I twist it then pull it out? Or should I just put the radweld into the header tank?

[Panic mechanic!]

are you 100% sure its the rad? it could be the start of your cylinder head gaskets going, I mean you have a 2.5.td don't you and they are renown for it!
 usually you need to turn 90' then depress and turn it a tad further then it will release.

[greggmo]

you will need to poor it into the header tank. the plastick bottle that you put the water for the rad into. k seal is better than rad weld mate. can you see the leak on the rad?

[Mike Pavelin]

You're trying to put it in through the air bleed screw.

[Oddball]

Lucky I haven't done anything yet. The leak appears to be coming from the lower drivers side of the rad, I can see the support plate it sits on through the grille, and there is a pooling of coolant there. After a drive of about half an hour, once i'm parked up coolant will drip from just behind the bumper, just under where it's pooling. Drips maybe once every few seconds. If I unscrew the header tank cap to let the pressure out, it stops after about twenty minutes.

[daggie]

get it re-cored asap, or you will fuck the engine.!

[Dave69]

As greegmo says with these forget the rad weld and buy some k-seal if your leaving the rad repair for the time being. overheat the diesel and your looking at a very expensive reapir bill for blown gaskets and heads. a good radiator and cooling is essential to smooth running of these engines.

[Oddball]

Righty ho, really can't afford a re-core for the time being, since i've already spent a good deal on the parts to repair the brakes. I'll get some k-seal tomorrow. Have a few 2 litre juice bottles filled with water in the back just in case.

It seems I vastly overestimated the extent of the leak. My estimate of a litre a week and drips lasting 20 minutes after shutdown was founded after I put a little too much water into the tank. The excess seems to have been purged, giving me a false impression of major leakage. I drove her around for two hours in today's unusual 25 degree heat. Made sure to check the temp constantly. Temp gauge never moved a millimetre past 90 degrees C the whole time, even in some heavy traffic. When I parked her up, let the pressure out of the system, I sat and watched for half an hour. The result was a few drips leaving a patch of water/coolant roughly twice the size of a 50p peice. Checked the water level after and it's approx a millimetre below the cold-full line. It was dead on the line four days ago.

I will still k-seal it, but i'm less worried now than I was a couple of days ago.

[Oddball]

Drove it to a town outside edinburgh and back a while ago, about 40 miles overall. Again i'm still getting to know the ins and outs, so I realise that the temp gauge goes up in 15dC increments, not 10, therefore the temp needle has went no higher than 85dC all day. Got back and parked her in pretty much the exact same place as earlier. This is the size of the patch an hour later (earlier patch from today and plus new leakage). There were no more drips within 10-15 minutes. The area where it pools is almost dry again. It therefore seems to only be leaking when the system is under pressure.

Too dark to get a photo of the pooling area, but i'll try and get one tomorrow.

[dxmedia]

Dont use rad weld on anything !! It'll screw your cooling system through out the engine. Great if your in the middle of the sahara and NEED to get to civilisation and doesn't matter if you kill the engine in the process. For anything else leave it on the shelf and spend a ton on a new rad.  If you can see which fins are leaking, clean them out and fold over with a pair of plyers as a temp measure.

[Dave69]

i wouldn't say fold the leak with a set of pliers to stop it especially on an old rad as the crack will run all the way down the tube since they are not very thick. Brazing the repair will most likely not be succesful as well ( been there and done it). just fill the area around the crack with p38 filler from both sides. when cured it will create a seal and no leaks. might look unsightly but at least the leak will have stopped and the coolant will still be flowing through the radiator

[mack]

That's definitely coolant leaking and not condensate from using the air-con?

If it is coolant get the rad fixed asap, I had a small leak on mine and it burst 20 miles later and cost me 2 cylinder heads  

Get an exchange rad out in Whitburn, see ad in Yellow Pages. Or buy an new one from Ebay and keep your old one to get re-cored for future use.

If you want any help or advice on fitting the rad let me know.

[Panic mechanic!]

is there any difference in the rad between diesel and petrol xj's? If not I may have a cheap replacement for you!

[mack]

Yes, they are different.