Heater Core Leaking - 230ce w123 advice
mark130
New Member
i have in past used a liquid sealer on memory called q-seal blue/orange 100ml bottle i think, any good motor spares shop will keep this has with success sealed leaks in cooling /heating systems for me . this is my my experience and by no way a guarantee ! best of luck
Bitch to remove & replace.
You might try K Seal first. I was in a motor factors a few weeks back & someone was asking about it. A soldier recently returned from Afghanistan said they had used 2 bottles of it to plug a rad in their truck which had 3 bullet holes in it!
You might try K Seal first. I was in a motor factors a few weeks back & someone was asking about it. A soldier recently returned from Afghanistan said they had used 2 bottles of it to plug a rad in their truck which had 3 bullet holes in it!
K Seal works.
I don't remember the answer as to how you use it but I think you just pour it in the expansion tank & drive around to circulate the stuff. Can't see it would do any harm to introduce it at any point in the system.
Read more here - Welcome to K-Seal.co.uk...You can purchase K-seal Online with Paypal
I don't remember the answer as to how you use it but I think you just pour it in the expansion tank & drive around to circulate the stuff. Can't see it would do any harm to introduce it at any point in the system.
Read more here - Welcome to K-Seal.co.uk...You can purchase K-seal Online with Paypal
Danny DeVito
Active Member
I used Novastop in our peugoet boxers for heater matrix leaks, Then we also put it into the transits just in case before it happened to them. And my sister put it into a toyota starlet herself and the water within minutes stopped filling up the passenger side of the car. 16 euro it cost us. Thats 10/10 in my book
I would be wary about the effect on the cooling system : the danger of sealants is that they may cause blockages where water needs to circulate - especially on an older engine where the channels may not be as clear as they once were .
There really is no proper substitute for doing the job properly and replacing the heater matrix - I know the job is a royal PITA and that the full dash has to be stripped out ( I have done it on a W201 , full days work start to finish ) but you will be glad afterwards that you did it .
The only quick fix , tolerable over the summer , would be to get a length of heater hose , disconnect the heater send and return pipes from the engine , and bypass the heater with the new piece of hose - thus the engine can run with normal coolant and no sealant to cause blockages .
There really is no proper substitute for doing the job properly and replacing the heater matrix - I know the job is a royal PITA and that the full dash has to be stripped out ( I have done it on a W201 , full days work start to finish ) but you will be glad afterwards that you did it .
The only quick fix , tolerable over the summer , would be to get a length of heater hose , disconnect the heater send and return pipes from the engine , and bypass the heater with the new piece of hose - thus the engine can run with normal coolant and no sealant to cause blockages .
I have to agree, K-seal and the like is horrible stuff and will make a nasty mess of your cooling system.
Wouldn't go near it with a barge pole myself, having seen the effects of it first hand before.
Will
Wouldn't go near it with a barge pole myself, having seen the effects of it first hand before.
Will
I have not used K Seal , but have in the past used Radweld , Bars Leaks and similar products - they did not always stop the leaks , usually stopped the heater working altogether , and a proper repair still had to be done afterwards in any case .
Besides that , you have to get all the cr@p out of your cooling system afterwards which is another PITA .
The only times I have used these products is where a leak has occurred and I needed to stop it to get home ( this happened with my 190E 2.6 after I bought it in Yorkshire and was driving home to Scotland - the leak was not apparent on the test drive , but steam coming from the vents after 50 miles or so ! The fault was not enough to warrant returning an otherwise good car so I put sealant in to get home and fitted a new matrix once back ) .
Besides that , you have to get all the cr@p out of your cooling system afterwards which is another PITA .
The only times I have used these products is where a leak has occurred and I needed to stop it to get home ( this happened with my 190E 2.6 after I bought it in Yorkshire and was driving home to Scotland - the leak was not apparent on the test drive , but steam coming from the vents after 50 miles or so ! The fault was not enough to warrant returning an otherwise good car so I put sealant in to get home and fitted a new matrix once back ) .
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Most of the people saying how terrible K Seal "and the like" is have never used it.
Read the info available on K Seal. It works differently from Radweld & the sealants that have been on the market for years & is an effective & very cheap way to plug leaks.
In an old, low value car it can mean the difference between life & death for that car.
Read the info available on K Seal. It works differently from Radweld & the sealants that have been on the market for years & is an effective & very cheap way to plug leaks.
In an old, low value car it can mean the difference between life & death for that car.
sooo the consensus is, k seal or radweld may or may not do the job but will clog everything else up and the real answer is to do the job properly I think i need a stiff drink followed by another one and then spend the weekend in the shed. i have stripped the dash completely out of a w123 before and still failed to get the heater out intact!
wish me luck i am going in.......
wish me luck i am going in.......
Rob77
MB Enthusiast
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- 1990 W201 2.6 Sportline; 2011 S204 C350 CDI Sport; 1978 Foale/Suzuki GS750; 1994 Aprilia Pegaso 650
K Seal seems to be worth a go and there is a decent discussion on its use here: K Seal - mazdarotaryclub.com.
Personally though, I'd replace the heater matrix which is what I did on my 190, when it went, a few years back.
Personally though, I'd replace the heater matrix which is what I did on my 190, when it went, a few years back.
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A car that I bought early last year (190E 1.8), had a bottle of K-seal poured into the cooling system a few weeks before hand (the empty bottle was in the boot).
It was the biggest mess of a cooling system that I have ever come across. Once properly repaired I was flushing the system for months - it gummed up the heater matrix, level sensor in the expansion tank was stuck and copper coloured metallic bits were floating about on every flush for ages.
Sorry to say Neil, but the bullet hole story sounds like BS to me. How on earth can such fine particles of ground up metal and gunk fill a hole the size of a bullet?
So, you haven't actually used it yourself & your experience of it is based on hearsay & deduction.
The bloke who told me the K Seal - bullet story works on the counter at Uniparts in Slough. Don't remember his name but I'm inclined to believe him, partly because he told this story in front of his colleagues & several customers, partly because he had nothing to gain by BS'ing me & partly because I could see from the radical burn scars & the rebuilt face he'd been somewhere pretty hairy & hot.
Anyhoo, I've used K Seal for a rad that was pissing out water. Initially, it was a hopeful get me home move, then a holding move while I sourced a good second hand rad & finally it became a permanent fix as I couldn't see the percentage in replacing a rad that was now working perfectly.
The spare rad is still in my shed, the fix is still fixed & it's had no impact on heating, circulation or anything else to do with cooling. While I'm sure this stuff has it limits & I wouldn't say use it if you CHG was gone but for a cooling system low pressure leak point (what it's designed to fix) I think K Seal is great & would actually recommend it as a preventative measure on any old car
The bloke who told me the K Seal - bullet story works on the counter at Uniparts in Slough. Don't remember his name but I'm inclined to believe him, partly because he told this story in front of his colleagues & several customers, partly because he had nothing to gain by BS'ing me & partly because I could see from the radical burn scars & the rebuilt face he'd been somewhere pretty hairy & hot.
Anyhoo, I've used K Seal for a rad that was pissing out water. Initially, it was a hopeful get me home move, then a holding move while I sourced a good second hand rad & finally it became a permanent fix as I couldn't see the percentage in replacing a rad that was now working perfectly.
The spare rad is still in my shed, the fix is still fixed & it's had no impact on heating, circulation or anything else to do with cooling. While I'm sure this stuff has it limits & I wouldn't say use it if you CHG was gone but for a cooling system low pressure leak point (what it's designed to fix) I think K Seal is great & would actually recommend it as a preventative measure on any old car
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At the end of the day Neil, it's a bodge and you know it.
I wouldn't say my experience is based upon 'hearsay and deduction', it's pretty obvious in the example I gave and I was being honest (I could easily have made up BS if I was inclined...)
Bullet holes - really?...
I wouldn't say my experience is based upon 'hearsay and deduction', it's pretty obvious in the example I gave and I was being honest (I could easily have made up BS if I was inclined...)
Bullet holes - really?...
Thanks - it was the tone of 'hearsay and deduction' that I didn't like. The car had K-seal poured into it and it made a complete mess - that's the important part of my experience.
Most of these 'snake oil' bodges are a emergency fix at best and no replacement for a proper repair - and in some cases they can cause more harm without actually fixing anything.
I still fail to see how such small particles of copper and gunk can fix a hole the size of a bullet
Most of these 'snake oil' bodges are a emergency fix at best and no replacement for a proper repair - and in some cases they can cause more harm without actually fixing anything.
I still fail to see how such small particles of copper and gunk can fix a hole the size of a bullet
Doodle
MB Enthusiast
It was all going fine until the words "works on the counter at Unipart in Slough" 
I've used the stuff a couple of times as an emergency measure; one time it worked, the other it didn't (the rad on my 75 V6 let go leaving a 2mm hole - I knew it was an ambitious fix but it was worth a try).
Bear in mind that the manufacturers themselves spec it for holes up to 0.75mm. There's no way that stuff is ever going to seal the holes from 3 AK rounds, not in a million bloody years.
I've used the stuff a couple of times as an emergency measure; one time it worked, the other it didn't (the rad on my 75 V6 let go leaving a 2mm hole - I knew it was an ambitious fix but it was worth a try).
Bear in mind that the manufacturers themselves spec it for holes up to 0.75mm. There's no way that stuff is ever going to seal the holes from 3 AK rounds, not in a million bloody years.
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