UV dye for coolants and UV torch needed

londonTiger

My coolant is leaking, I'm losing about 100-200ml per month which is causing me a bit of concern.

I watched on yt how a guy in america was using UV dye to find leaks. Pour the dye into the coolant tank, and leave it to stand for a couple of hours, come back later at night with a UV torch and you can basically see exactly where the leaks are.

Saw on ebay going for £5 a pop just for the dye, and obviously will need to buy a UV torch for maybe another tenner.

Any idea where I can get this for rock bottom prices? if i'm gonna spend £15 just on the indicator, might as well just take it to a garage who knows about my car inside out and will be able to tell me exactly where the leaks are comin from.

mikey72

londonTiger wrote: »

My coolant is leaking, I'm losing about 100-200ml per month which is causing me a bit of concern.

I watched on yt how a guy in america was using UV dye to find leaks. Pour the dye into the coolant tank, and leave it to stand for a couple of hours, come back later at night with a UV torch and you can basically see exactly where the leaks are.

Saw on ebay going for £5 a pop just for the dye, and obviously will need to buy a UV torch for maybe another tenner.

Any idea where I can get this for rock bottom prices? if i'm gonna spend £15 just on the indicator, might as well just take it to a garage who knows about my car inside out and will be able to tell me exactly where the leaks are comin from.

to be honest, if it's losing, you can normally see a white crusty trail from the spot it's leaking from.
When you say you keep topping it up, as it loses 100ml a month, if you don't, does it keep going down?
I've one that always goes down to about 2cm below the mark on the header tank, then stops. Top it up, it loses again, don't and it remains at the same slightly low level. It's done that for 8 years.

Owain_Moneysaver

99p if you can wait for it to come from Hong Kong. £3.20 for an LED torch. Which you can also use for checking for fake banknotes.

forgotmyname

What car is it and what engine?

londonTiger

mikey72 wrote: »

to be honest, if it's losing, you can normally see a white crusty trail from the spot it's leaking from.
When you say you keep topping it up, as it loses 100ml a month, if you don't, does it keep going down?
I've one that always goes down to about 2cm below the mark on the header tank, then stops. Top it up, it loses again, don't and it remains at the same slightly low level. It's done that for 8 years.

nope, it goes all the way down, i got a coolant warning on my dash, checked the colant was shocked at how low it went.

I'm hoping it's a pipe leak its not leaking into the engine, that would be a major headache and an expensive repair.

londonTiger

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

99p if you can wait for it to come from Hong Kong. £3.20 for an LED torch. Which you can also use for checking for fake banknotes.

thanks, the slightly more expensive one looks a bit more durable and obviously quicker, i'll go with that.

londonTiger

forgotmyname wrote: »

What car is it and what engine?

1.6 golf mkiv (2002), BCB engine.

maninthestreet

Are there grey-brown semi-solids in the expansion tank?

londonTiger

maninthestreet wrote: »

Are there grey-brown semi-solids in the expansion tank?

no it's all clean in there.

londonTiger

Ordered 25ml of UV for £6.06 delivered and UV torch for £3.19, the UV will last 3 or 4 uses so it's not all bad.

forgotmyname

Unless its leaking internally then its £9.25 wasted.

Or does that only happen to me?