Radiator woes

[clansman]

Noticed water at the front of the car and found the nearly new alloy polo radiator( Rally Design) is leaking. I had a very similar problem hence the new rad but it has happened again in roughly the same area.  Getting the original repaired and will swap it out with the newest one then repair that. I’m thinking to mount the rad on rubber bobbins in case there is some stress/vibration causing this failure. I was thinking it was the Top dressing the council have been Putting down on the roads recently that punctured the radiator, I’ve had a search on here to see if anyone else has done similar and what did they use? 

[Mole]

Coolex make a good aluminium Polo replacement rad. I mounted mine on bobbins..

[TAFKARM]

Mines solidly mounted and has been fine.

 

Where is it leaking from? I had issues with my old rad that had a fan mounted through it with those plastic things, which rubbed through 

[Greenstreak-Andy D]

Calling @IanK (Bagpuss) to the board room!

[Steven Thorne]

If you have silicon hoses they may need an extra tighten after a couple of heat cycles

[clansman]

9 hours ago, Steven (Steve T) - Joint Thames Valley AO said:

If you have silicon hoses they may need an extra tighten after a couple of heat cycles

 

Yes the hoses are silicone but the leak is definitely  not from them. Have ordered rubber bobbins to mount it this time and see how that goes

[Ian Kinder (Bagpuss) - Joint Peak District AO]

On 05/08/2019 at 20:22, Greenstreak-Andy D said:

Calling @IanK (Bagpuss) to the board room!

I've some experience of leaky radtec and coolex rads. I'm still trying to get to the bottom of the root cause.

 

 

This failed after less than 2000 miles and had a rubber bobbin in all 4 corners. do you have any pics to share of your failure @clansman

[clansman]

7 hours ago, IanK (Bagpuss) said:

I've some experience of leaky radtec and coolex rads. I'm still trying to get to the bottom of the root cause.

 

 

This failed after less than 2000 miles and had a rubber bobbin in all 4 corners. do you have any pics to share of your failure @clansman

 

Ian the radiator was leaking from the top 3 right hand rows as you look at your radiator, I’ll get the newer one out of the car tomorrow and in for repair to see where that is leaking from. Both radiators are Rally Design alloy Polo radiators.

[RoyH]

Ian - I'm on my third Coolex rad they have been very good and exchanged the previous two.  I thought this third one was Ok but a couple months ago I saw the dreaded 'pink' stain from on the core. It must be very small amount being lost because I can't notice any significant loss in the header tank. I did Blyton this year and didn't suffer from over heating or a worsening of the leak. Like you I'm completely baffled I've use bobbins, hard mounted and now have rubber tap washer between the rad and the mounts. I've also reduced the concentration of anti freeze from 50% ( as suggested by the suppler) to 25% on the last rad and it still started weeping.  ATB Roy

[DonPeffers]

Sorry to read of your problems.

 

I only use 20% antifreeze but am unsure if that would be sufficient in your area.

 

From picture I get the impression that the alloy welds may not be perfect-- but I'm not an expert.

 

Good luck getting this fixed.

[Mole]

To be honest it could be any number of things or most likely the sum of a number..

I worked in the heat exchanger industry for twenty years and there were a number of very expensive failures when aluminium was first used instead of copper. Some were affected by the fumes in the air around cars, others were big coolers on top of building and corroded from pollution or salt in the air. When big coolers were made similar to our radiators for generator sets these had issues due to vibration.. and another small heater unit used in trucks had issues with erosion..from particles in the cooling water...

I would suggest that you talk to the supplier to try and find out more about the leak..and potentially what is causing it..they most likely will have to work with the manufacturer..who hopefully is UK or European..

I hope you find a solution.. I use distilled water..don't know if it makes a difference but the local water is so hard that I thought it would be better..

[Oily Steve]

3 hours ago, Mole said:

To be honest it could be any number of things or most likely the sum of a number..

I worked in the heat exchanger industry for twenty years and there were a number of very expensive failures when aluminium was first used instead of copper. Some were affected by the fumes in the air around cars, others were big coolers on top of building and corroded from pollution or salt in the air. When big coolers were made similar to our radiators for generator sets these had issues due to vibration.. and another small heater unit used in trucks had issues with erosion..from particles in the cooling water...

I would suggest that you talk to the supplier to try and find out more about the leak..and potentially what is causing it..they most likely will have to work with the manufacturer..who hopefully is UK or European..

I hope you find a solution.. I use distilled water..don't know if it makes a difference but the local water is so hard that I thought it would be better..

 

Interesting info.

Do you use distilled rather than de-ionised water?

[Mole]

Actually deionised..but could use distilled..I was thinking one thing and wrote another!

[Mole]

Another thought with the leaks could just be low spec or poor quality materials and brazing if the main core..which is not made by coolex.. and just not up to the job!

Will be interested to hear how the problem is sorted..

[jonjh1964]

35 minutes ago, Mole said:

Another thought with the leaks could just be low spec or poor quality materials and brazing if the main core..which is not made by coolex.. and just not up to the job!

Will be interested to hear how the problem is sorted..

My thoughts too - IanK, I PM'd you previously about my 3 x Alloy Radiators - same point of failure as yours.