I'm not sure I want to use this Barsleak stuff except as a last resort or
at least until I have a better idea what the real problem is first before I
cover it up. However, I have used Barsleak in the past and it worked quite
well. This was for a leak on a seam on my Toyota Landcruiser's huge
radiator. It stopped the leak until I later changed antifreeze and then I
had to re-add more Barsleak. However, it seemed like the engine ran hotter
afterwards so I still wonder if maybe the Barsleak did decrease cooling
efficiency. I eventually had the radiator fixed three times - the first
time, the fix failed. I had the radiator shop redo it and it held for maybe
three or four years. And now its been a couple of years with no problems
since the last repair. Whether the Barsleak did cause cooling problems, it
appears to clean out easily enough. At least I think so - I haven't been
doing much low speed 4 wheeling with the Landcruiser anymore and my
Barsleak days were back in the much hotter Utah desert, now it is in
Montana where it is much cooler.
So just in the slim case I get tempted to take the easy way out later -
anyone else have an opinion, good or bad on Barsleak? Like I said, I won't
use it until after I try a new radiator cap, run another compression test,
and look around some more. Outside of the coolant loss, the car is running
very well.
David Councill
67 BGT
72 B
At 02:44 PM 7/27/2004 -0700, DON SCOTT wrote:
>My Miata exhibited the dreaded "antifreeze smell from the heater" not long
>after I bought the car two years ago. My '91 BRG Special Edition with low
>mileage and in very nice condition turned out to be not so
>perfect. Replacing a heater core on one of these cars is a dreadful
>prospect- hours and hours of awful work, or about $1,000 at a shop. In
>desperation, I added a container of Barsleak to the coolant. First, I
>researched it on Google, and found very few complaints and many praises of
>the product. Well, it worked. Three days later, no smell. No
>overheating. No problems. About a year later I installed a new timing
>belt, and replaced the coolant, but did not add Barsleak. That's been
>seven months, and it's still fine.
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