Radiator Coolant Leaking a little bit, add black pepper powder?

...seems to me Toyota already has leak plugging property in the antifreeze.
Mine was leaking fairly bad around 80-or 90k miles now holding at 132k miles orig pump.
Used the good Toyota stuff to refill as needed.

 

Hey the guy is really interested in trying his experiment. So I say go ahead and do it. Report out to us how it worked. Who knows perhaps a new fix will be discovered. Go for it and stop asking for our permission. There was a great movie not too far back where I recall the comment "Stupid is that stupid does" or something like that.

 

Seriously, most people come to this forum with real issues that they need help on. It would appear you are here primarily for the conversation. Nice but a real waste of everyone's time. You were willing to purchase a bottle of antifreeze from Toyota (you stated) so I imagine that cost is not the real issue here. If you need conversation there are places you can go and pay for that. Otherwise go ahead and add your pepper (assuming you really intended to do so?) and tell us what happens.

 

Have you visually inspected your engine water pump? It's down the left (passenger side) of the engine, near the bottom. It has a large, black pulley. Look inside and around the pulley for pink crusty buildup or pink streaks that indicate the pump is leaking. Sometimes it will also form a pink line on the underside of the hood and or the top of the belly pan.

I'm very wary of adding things to the coolant system now. I tried some of that Bars Leaks metallic powder on my Toyota truck. It caused a bad blockage and pretty well disabled the cooling system. Fortunately, draining what was in there and running it with water (and a few more drain-refills) got enough of it out to be able to refill with coolant and operate normally again.

 

Got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning ??

The only post in this whole thread that appears to be "wasting everyone's time" is the one that YOU made.

For the OP:
If y0u insist on going the cheap and dirty route, at least get something that is made to be put in the radiator to stop leaks.
But I agree with most everyone else who has answered in that it will likely only be a temporary fix and might make matters worse.

Find out where the leak IS and fix it.
Could be as simple as a cracked hose........or as bad as a leaking head gasket.
Don't guess and throw parts at it.

 

I've used the Garfunkel Method.
That's adding Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.

But really? I have to agree with the majority. Just get it fixed properly. These "folk" remedies that may or may not of worked with cars of yester year, are just not worth risking a more modern Prius on.

I wouldn't want to "hope" the addition of Pepper to my cooling system did no damage.
I wouldn't want to rely on it as a "fix".

Good Luck with whatever avenue to resolution you choose.

 

I have heard of using pepper as an emergency leak stopper, but that it should be flushed out again as soon as possible.

The water pump seals are lubricated with coolant, so I would be worried about the long term water-tightness of the seals if pepper got into them. There are commercially available radiator leak stop additives that supposedly don't contain material harmful to the seals.

If you can first locate the leak before trying to fix it, it might turn out to be just a rubber hose that you can easily replace for only a few dollars.
Flourescent engine coolant dye can be helpful for locating leaks.

To be on the safe side, if you can't see where it is leaking, you might want to examine the engine oil for signs of coolant, such as scum or milkyness. That could be a sign of a leaking head gasket and impending catastrophic failure.

 

Hi Allen,

I still would be interested in your findings regarding:

1. What is the fluid level in the radiator itself, not just the overflow tank. As Ron earlier mentioned, do not assume that the radiator fluid will replenish via the overflow tank. If air gets into the radiator because of a substantial leak, that will prevent the overflow tank from doing its job.

2. What is the actual component that is leaking coolant and what did you decide to do about it?

Thanks.

 

The front cover is held together by some plastic clips that you can "pop out" simply using a screw driver. They look like screws but are made of plastic. Turn them with a screw driver while gently pulling up and they will "pop out". Will take you 1 minute.

 

That black pepper idea would only make sense on the April 1st level, but that could just be an after thought after you thought freely.

 

I wouldn't do this myself, but mainly because I'd never put anything organic in the cooling system. I'm not fundamentally opposed to trying non-sanctioned methods to fix things, but I would be very concerned about long term breakdown of the components in the pepper.

I'd also agree that if this is a leak in a w/p bearing, then it seems highly unlikely that it would work. My guess is that this would work as a temporary fix if the leak is in the radiator or other thin walled, non-moving component. For what it's worth, water pumps are probably the easiest part of a car to replace of the not "user serviceable" type. About the same as simple disk brake pad replacement, but probably harder to screw up.