GR8-LIFE

I take my car to independent shop. I trust them although their labor is almost dealer labor

1. Slow Coolant Leak for 4 months - needed to add coolant every month

2. Put BARS LIQUID Copper 6 weeks ago and leak stopped immediately.

3. A week ago Car begins to Run Hot to the red and i pulled over to Lower temp - limped home with several stops. .
I duplicated the problem the next day. It takes awhile for it to climb and get hot but soon you see it going past the halfway mark (30-40 minutes) and you know you are in trouble

4. Take it to Mechanic 20 minutes away and the temp never got above normal (which was Expected) He breaks it down. Says water pump was failing, coolant leaking onto Thermostat sensor etc
Sounds logical. Installs all parts - sees no codes but continues to test drive and temp eventually does the same thing

5. Mechanic puts a gun to radiator,& engine. He says Engine is real hot, and radiator 50 degrees colder on one side than the other - says Radiator is likely clogged
Is he right? Any normal scenarios where there is 50 degree diff in the radiator?

Jeebus . I finally got bit and its not over yet. Im just hoping its the radiator.

Should we be inspecting gaskets , heads? Or would there be other signs if it were that bad? is the 50 degree diff and how long it takes to climb a sign of the radiator
being the culprit? He says he really cant always tell if radiator is clogged by inspecting it when he removes it. Is that right?

Again I do trust them but damn.

Andrew12

One of the major drawbacks to any type of stop leaks is clogs...
I have been doing this a very long time. Never do I add anything that doesn't belong.
These units are not like a 48 chevy pickup....
The stop leak is probably plugging up everything in its path..

GR8-LIFE

I think that happens usually right away rather than over time. Ive read threads where the next few days and suddenly, instead of a leak, they are running hot. But hey, you could be right. I hope
Either way I want it to be the radiator so I wont have to keep dropping money. I should mention its a 3.0 SC and the thermostat is under the SC so thats frightening. The time & Labor is killing us

Striker2237

You used stop leak......what did you expect? Time to pull everything apart and replace the rad and maybe other stuff as well

GR8-LIFE

Well I guess we live and learn right? But hey I had a leak over a few months and I kept having to add coolant so it had a problem somewhere anyway. BARS has been around for a long time and I did call them and discuss this with them before the guy's name is Shawn and he was pretty fairly technical and knowledgeable and said that if I had a problem it would happen right away within a couple of days. When after 4 weeks I saw the coolant was no longer going down I assumed it just fixed the problem

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I did have a water pump fault code so it looks like the water pump was failing and he did see coolant coming out of the solenoid and other parts where coolant is not supposed to flow .

Now to your point did I make the problem worse? Possibly maybe even probably .

Andrew12

AFTER stop leak I usually hear stories on heater cores and water pumps. Heater cores plugs and you have no heat and water pumps start leaking after a few months... These stories are with normal cars and normal cooling systems.
These cars are not normal. You have coolant running to your transmission, your altenator, not to mention a complex thermostatic system, not just some spring loaded bi metalic disc.
I would highly reccomend a full coolant drain and replace... Not sure about any kinds of flush...
Maybe someone here has some experience?

GR8-LIFE

They have already drain the coolant twice to make sure the liquid copper gets out of the system. and they're going to have to do it again because now they're chasing down the radiator so that's going to require flushing out the fluid again and that's more labor.

I do not know their expertise on troubleshooting these kinds of issues. I've had shocks replaced by them on another Audi but that's not troubleshooting a problem.

it would seem like they are going the right route. But it seems like the radiator should have been something that should have checked in the beginning

Anyway I'm going down there tomorrow to do a face to face which sometimes can be easier

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