We have a slight leak from the radiator matrix and wonder if anyone knows whether we can use rad seal or similar to fix it. We were quoted £132.00 + labour to replace and rad seal sounds a cheaper option but we are unsure whether it will affect anything else or cause more problems
A quick & easy fix use rad weld until it seals sometimes you have to use 2 bottles, now depending where the hole is, presuming its not around the matrix edge get some liquid metal ( simlar to body filler ) mix it & apply over & around the hole make sure it gets into all the fins , had this fix last for 40k on many occasions
Radweld can't really be called a permanent fix. If you are keeping vehicle for the foreseeable future your garages' quote for a new rad sounds reasonable.
Hi speaking from my experience i went to a breakers yard for one and the man said,he would only sell the whole matrix as to many times people tried to take the part they needed and broke it,i bought the complete unit,£25,took about 30mins to take off and about 1hour to fit,easy job.I tried all the so called quick fixes,none fixed it,if your not mechanicly minde most breakers will do it for you,hope this helps.
Thanks for the advice. The garage have patched it up for the time being so we will see how it goes. We do have a Fiat breakers yard near us and have managed to buy and they fixed the windscreen wiper motor so they are quite good and we will bear them in mind should this temp repair to radiator matrix not work.
We had three or four pin hole leaks and the AA fixed this with a rad seal type product and it worked. We replace the rad when we returned from holiday a few hundred miles later.