Club 80-90 Forums

Hi,

Our van (1988 1.9 DG) has a slight leak (just a few drips) from the jacket seals (both sides). I've suspected this for a while so when it was in the garage in April for a new exhaust and MOT it was checked over for leaks. I was fully prepared to pay for a head re-seal before camping season arrived (snapped studs risk accepted). The garage is a good VW place (although mainly air-cooled) and were happy to take the job. The result was that some corroded clips and hoses were found and the garage convinced me that was where the leaks were from (in fairness, there were some from there).

Fast forward six weeks (and possibly precipitated by fitting a working/quacking dalek cap?) the drips are back. We have lots of trips planned (including Brittany and back) and there is not really a time to where it could be off the road until the autumn. So what to do?

1. Keep an eye on it and hope for the best?
2. Try a Wynns or K-Seal treatment? I've seen both suggested in the wiki and other posts as solutions for minor drips but obviously worry what other issues it would cause.
3. Try and book it with elite for a swap (they are local'ish). I'm reticent to do this as there is nothing really wrong with mine. The coolant is clean and pink and it runs well. Its the original engine but we have loads of service history - the last owner bought it in 1998 and had the engine rebuilt, so it been apart once before. With time on my side I'd even consider tackling it myself as a winter project.

Really its between 1 and 2!

Any thoughts gratefully accepted as a the moment I'm just arguing with myself!

Cheers,

Phin

1

carry some leak treatmant as a backup if it gets worse but I would try not to use it.

Many opinions on this but overwhelming support from the Samba for Holts radweld. You'd need two bottles (about £8 all in). At least one said they'd done 50k without a trace of a leak after treatment. Bought a couple myself so happy to feed back on this

Ideally needs new seals but as said, if needs must....

I'd seen mention of the RadWeld - referred to as the Subaru conditioner - on the Samba. They do seem very keen on it!

The general consensus is to only use Kseal on our vans.

If you are choosing option 2 then K-Seal is the one that I have heard recommended most frequently.

Next step up for a metal failure rather than a seal failure would be a specialist ceramic block sealer, but I don't think that's suitable in your situation.

I have used k seal ( with copper particles ) in our other car but one of the concerns I have in a t25 is, would it prevent proper operation of the coolant level sensor? Perhaps at a time when you need it most.

I have used it in the past and it had no detrimental effect at all.

R0B wrote:I have used it in the past and it had no detrimental effect at all.

That's useful feedback

Was reading tencentlife's samba write up on the holts stuff: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewt ... p?t=254346. Seems pretty positive too.

I have used K seal, no problems with coolant level sender. I would also fit an 82 degree thermostat (available from Brickwerks)

Do like they used to do in the old days. Stick an egg white in.

R0B wrote:Do like they used to do in the old days. Stick an egg white in.

Would that be an egg from a battery farm then

I didn't say so earlier, I view the Holts radweld as a DIY solution, K-Seal as a trade solution, that's where my recommendations came from.

I think I'll keep the eggs for the fry-up!

It's good to hear positive results (or at least not detrimental ones). The internet being what it is , its sometimes hard to filter out the bad experiences which inevitably get a higher profile.

Mine leaked for about 3 years, so don't panic too much. I had kseal in it too, but it didn't help in my case. :-\

By way of a little update:

• I read everything I could find.
  I bought a bottle of K-Seal and a bottle of Holts and had a look at them. K-seal definitely more 'solids' than Holts
  I considered the variable thoughts about K-Seal and some of the pictures of engines and water pumps that looked inside like 70s gold plated bathroom suites on here
  I considered the strong feedback and pictures of engine insides with a minimal brown coating on the Samba

In the end, convinced by the US arguments from tencentlife on the samba I chucked in one bottle of Holts (which is a half dose, they are only tiny 125ml bottles and do 7l of coolant each).

Result - no leaks anywhere for 2 weeks. Done about 100miles, nothing else not working so far. More updates if anything leaks or stops working!