[xj-s] radiator leak - Bar's Leaks Anyone?

I know I’m going to get hate mail for my response, since it’s violating the
teachings of our prophet (Kirby) and the holy (Book), but the best thing I’ve
ever done to my car (89 XJ-S conv) and cost me only $2 was to add a bottle of
Bar’s Leaks to my old,leaks ridden radiator. It has been 3 weeks and 150
miles since then, and I can report the following:

1)- The smell of coolant in the engine bay completely disappeared
2)- There are no more leaks in the radiator or at the rubber plugs at the end
of the water rails running above the exhaust headers. There was always
coolant residue around there.
3)- All the funny cow moaning noises I used to hear when the car was warming
up are mostly gone.
4)- The car now runs cooler. First I thought it’s because the weather is
getting colder here in Upstate NY, but even during a couple of warm days I
could not get the temp gauge needle to go to the middle of “N” while running.
On average, it’s about 2 needle widths lower now.
5)- I don’t have to top up the coolant anymore. (used to do that every other
day)
6)- The sound coming out of the radio is much clearer ( just joking guys !)

I can really understand now why Jaguar recommends (over & over again) to add
a leak sealer. After witnessing the effect of what a leak free cooling system
behaves, my recommendation is : Do whatever u can to make your system LEAK -
FREE whether u want to use the easy way (add a sealer) or go after each leak
and fix it, the effect is dramatic. I only wish if the power steering leak
sealer was that effective !

Sherif

I just pulled my rad in the course of replacing the water pump and took it
into get rodded. Unfortunately it was too far gone and had to have it
re-cored and cost around $325CDN. I was filling the coolant about every
other day as well and finally got sick of people asking me if I knew I had a
major coolant leak in parking lots. (Also had to get go ahead and permission
from wife to undertake another multi day Jag repair)
Anyway new pump, gaskets, thermostats from Dealer, rodding and a few hoses
are expected to cost less than $500 CDN($300USD). Why bother with the
temporary Barrs Leak plan?

BTW the Thermostats that came out of the car are Robertshaw controls and
have no temp rating markings and no jiggle pins or air holes.
Patrick
82 HE-----Original Message-----
From: owner-xj-s@jag-lovers.org [mailto:owner-xj-s@jag-lovers.org]On
Behalf Of Sboulos2@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2000 4:23 PM
To: xj-s@jag-lovers.org
Subject: [xj-s] radiator leak - Bar’s Leaks Anyone?

I know I’m going to get hate mail for my response, since it’s violating the
teachings of our prophet (Kirby) and the holy (Book), but the best thing
I’ve
ever done to my car (89 XJ-S conv) and cost me only $2 was to add a bottle
of
Bar’s Leaks to my old,leaks ridden radiator. It has been 3 weeks and 150
miles since then, and I can report the following:

1)- The smell of coolant in the engine bay completely disappeared
2)- There are no more leaks in the radiator or at the rubber plugs at the
end
of the water rails running above the exhaust headers. There was always
coolant residue around there.
3)- All the funny cow moaning noises I used to hear when the car was warming
up are mostly gone.
4)- The car now runs cooler. First I thought it’s because the weather is
getting colder here in Upstate NY, but even during a couple of warm days I
could not get the temp gauge needle to go to the middle of “N” while
running.
On average, it’s about 2 needle widths lower now.
5)- I don’t have to top up the coolant anymore. (used to do that every other
day)
6)- The sound coming out of the radio is much clearer ( just joking guys !)

I can really understand now why Jaguar recommends (over & over again) to
add
a leak sealer. After witnessing the effect of what a leak free cooling
system
behaves, my recommendation is : Do whatever u can to make your system LEAK -
FREE whether u want to use the easy way (add a sealer) or go after each leak
and fix it, the effect is dramatic. I only wish if the power steering leak
sealer was that effective !

Sherif

Sherif

I you would like to see what Bars’s leak does to a radiator, look at my web
site at.

http://www.bernardembden.com/

Bernie

I know I’m going to get hate mail for my response, since it’s violating the>teachings of our prophet (Kirby) and the holy (Book), but the best thing I’ve

ever done to my car (89 XJ-S conv) and cost me only $2 was to add a bottle of
Bar’s Leaks to my old,leaks ridden radiator. It has been 3 weeks and 150
miles since then, and I can report the following:

1)- The smell of coolant in the engine bay completely disappeared
2)- There are no more leaks in the radiator or at the rubber plugs at the end
of the water rails running above the exhaust headers. There was always
coolant residue around there.
3)- All the funny cow moaning noises I used to hear when the car was warming
up are mostly gone.
4)- The car now runs cooler. First I thought it’s because the weather is
getting colder here in Upstate NY, but even during a couple of warm days I
could not get the temp gauge needle to go to the middle of “N” while running.
On average, it’s about 2 needle widths lower now.
5)- I don’t have to top up the coolant anymore. (used to do that every other
day)
6)- The sound coming out of the radio is much clearer ( just joking guys !)

I can really understand now why Jaguar recommends (over & over again) to add
a leak sealer. After witnessing the effect of what a leak free cooling system
behaves, my recommendation is : Do whatever u can to make your system LEAK -
FREE whether u want to use the easy way (add a sealer) or go after each leak
and fix it, the effect is dramatic. I only wish if the power steering leak
sealer was that effective !

Sherif

Back in the 70s my mechanic always suggested using Bar’s leak after replacing the coolant.

Oh no! The scourge of Jaguar radiator/cooling system demise

Bob,
There is some evidence on Jag-Lovers that adding Bar’s to the cooling systems has caused irreparable clogging inside of radiators and resulted in the cooling system problems that we see posted about regularly.
I had to replace the radiators in one of our former XJ6s as well as our XJ-S and XJ12 because of badly clogged radiator tubes and high coolant temperatures. Once I installed the new and/or recored radiators my coolant temperature problems disappeared. The shop that recored the XJ6 radiator showed me the original radiator tubes and there was no way the coolant could have flowed through most of the tubes. The shop owner attributed the clogged tubes to Bar’s.
Not everything that was done in the 70s makes sense now in retrospect. :crazy_face:

Paul

It is ok to use if you’re waiting a couple months before you replace the radiator?

Back in my younger foolish days, my Camaro V8 sprung a coolant leak at one of the freeze plugs. Instead of fixing, i poured in a metallic version of something that was supposed to plug leaks. It stopped the leak. I hate thinking of what else it did.

Greg,
The Jaguar dealership service technicians were happily pouring that Bar’s Stop Leak into engine cooling systems routinely for decades and clogging up radiator cooling tubes. I am certain that doing it for a little longer won’t make a difference especially in your part of the country.

Paul

I would say , don’t do it , even if you were to change your radiator, what about the stuff that creeps by into your water rails engine block (whatever). Clean out your system and keep it fluid, no blockage at pinch points.

It can be used once, once only, and then never, ever again.

Am I the only one noticing…

1 Like

Back in the 20s…coming to a decade soon.

Yes Steve, I noticed that as well.

Like Gregma, I think I may have used a tube of that stuff back in the 70s on a Fireburd or something else I didn’t keep long.