I've been trying to track down an aggrivating coolant leak in my wife's
Jetta. It will go weeks without loosing an drop, and then suddenly a quart
will dissapear.
I almost bought a UV leak detection kit from Eastwood for $90, till I came
across this tip:
Homemade Ultraviolet Leak Detector[700/1989] posted by Steve Ringlee on
Saturday, 24 July 1999, at 7:13 p.m.
I finally got fed up with the unexplained oil leak from my kids' much-abused
car and decided to diagnose whence it came. I went to NAPA and bought a
small bottle of fluorescent dye for engine oil (they make one for coolant,
oil, ATF, freon depending on your leak.) This cost $3. Then I went to
Walmart and picked up a small AC-powered GE Blacklight for kids' rooms, the
kind that emits UV light. This was $10, although I could have bought the big
BrightStik for $22 which would have illuminated better. We cleaned the
engine at the carwash, poured the dye into the oil, ran it for about 15
minutes and played the lamp around the bottom of the engine while it was on
ramps. Sure enough, main seal gone: you could see a dim outline of orange
fluorescent dye where the oil was dripping along the block. It outlines the
oil trace much better and you can see where it is coming from. Neat.
WOW-an LBCers dream-Low buck leak detection!
Paul Burr
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