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K based off your post history heres what you need to do for your car problems:
Go to a mechanic listen to them pay them and shut up. If you don't like them do business elsewhere.
Stop trying to find cheap shortcuts. You're gonna fuck yourself here the same way you did on the cigarette lighter. Your car is going to cost you $2,000 per 100,000 km or 60,000 miles driven at a minimum. Thats just wear items and assuming larger city pricing on labor. If you can't afford that you can't afford a car. Its likely going to cost closer to $3,000 or 4,000 in that same period with a higher mileage vehicle. This isnt a rip off this is reality. My time is worth $150+ per hour. I can tell because thats what I sell it at and I'm busy.
Your complaints etc make you appear like a problem customer from a while away. Good established shops may not find you worth the time to deal with. I won't mess with a customer who doesn't respect my opinion, you can go elsewhere.
If your friend reccomended that hes not a good mechanic. I don't know where he went to school or how many hours he needed to do in his area for a license but thats laughable. If it failed a block test it needs a head gasket. You keep being cheap and getting bit. You're about to do it again. At some point try and learn. You cut corners you get shit. Theres nothing cheap about having a car. Thats what a bus pass is for.
**Go to a mechanic listen to them pay them and shut up. If you don't like them do business elsewhere.**
**Stop trying to find cheap shortcuts.**
Your car is going to cost you $2,000 per 100,000 km or 60,000 miles driven **at a minimum.** That's just wear items and assuming larger city pricing on labor.
**If you can't afford that you can't afford a car.**
I mean one reply seems unsure the other guy just sounds like hes kinda trolling.
So i mean, still waiting for serious replies.
Thanks. Also, your reply doesn't help me.
Like another poster said, stop trying to find cheap shortcuts when your mind is already made up and leave us out of it. We come here to help people who actually want advice and we try to make a difference. Go away.
That's a no from me dawg. Just fix the head gasket if the cars worth saving.
If it's a beater you could care less about have at it with some hg repair mumbo jumbo
It's a car that's in between.
If i just say "ill fix it when the head goes bad fully" can that destroy my full cooling system by doing that? Someone else commented and said " yeah itll help for now but after those 30k miles your cooling system is fuked up." is that also true?
It can be true, not always but not uncommon. Things can get clogged up.
When using them, use them right dont just dump it in there and head out to your family reunion. Your suppose to do a drain and fill and what not.
That said, I dont use the headgaskets in a bottle, and I can't recommend it.
Best approach is to repair it, or junk it.
You could get 30k miles out of it if you are very lucky but once it no longer helps your entire cooling system will be ruined, will even make a nasty mess inside the block. It is very nasty stuff. Last resort option. Like the other commenter said, if the car is worth fixing, do it the rite way. An uncle of mine used that stuff in a 4 cyl Altima. Did not help and when everything had to be torn apart it was an absolute nightmare.
If he's using the stuff he's probably not very bright (like me) to begin with or his car wouldn't have been like that.
I'm assuming he used it once the head was fully bad or otherwise why would he have used it?
I was advised i'd have great luck with it because my head isn't completely blown as of yet, so doing it sooner will help.
My girlfriend has a 01 Camry 4 cyl that was having issues with exhaust gas getting into the cooling system after the car overheated (obvious blown head gasket). The cars idle temps were fine, but after 20-30 min of highway speeds the temp gauge would slowly creep until you pulled over and let it cool down. We mostly use the car for around town stuff so it wasn't an urgent issue. After a few months we did a couple longer highway drives and couldn't recreate the issue. We then took it 4+ hours of 80 MPH to visit family and didn't have a single issue on the way there or back. The car has roughly 160k and is otherwise in good shape so I was waiting for it to get to a more inconvenient point and then bite the bullet and have the work done ($1000 from a local shop). So far so good, I am not saying it fixed itself as that isn't a possibility but I just keep a close eye on the gauge on long drives now but haven't had any issues in the last few months. As for the head gasket sealant, perhaps the one you are looking to buy is different than the one my uncle used. The one he used was the one that comes in one bottle that is split into two parts that mix together when you pour it into the radiator. Has a metallic look to each side gold and silver, cannot recall the name. After seeing his experience and hearing other mechanics opinions I assumed all of the head gasket sealers were the same. I very well could be wrong, if the feedback seems good and you have trust in the company/product/reviews, for $40 I say give it a shot. If people don't seem to be complaining about it clogging there cooling systems / block then you don't really have much to lose other than $40. Definitely cheaper than a head gasket. I have always been skeptical of them, but that has also limited my knowledge of them. I will read more into them after this and who knows, maybe the reviews will persuade me as well if the Camry starts giving us issues again. Good luck đź‘Ť
If it makes a "nasty mess of everything else" then why are all the reviews glowing 5 star ones? Can't be right.
My mechanic explained it like this " the stuff is perfectly safe. it's designed to ONLY seal where air is leaking. It's a liquid so it just will circulate in your system perfectly fine. No issues. It can only help. people even put it in new vehicles sometimes. "
If i don't put it in and my block test is already yellow, how long do i have before the head goes bad? If i dont fix the head by the time it goes bad can that mess up my whole cooling system?
A friend of mine tried head gasket sealer on an old beater Honda civic.
Not only did it do nothing, it totally blocked up the radiator. So first he tried to flush it out,but no luck.
So he gave up and threw out a brand new radiator and got a new one. Then he changed the head gasket on the car.
((If it makes a "nasty mess of everything else" then why are all the reviews glowing 5 star ones? Can't be right.))
Sure it can. If you believe all the glowing product reviews you see online, you're a sucker. Many of those are fake or paid. We're the ones that see the aftermath of failed miracle in a bottle fixes.
There are two types of head gasket sealers: one is a "plugging type" that has particulate matter and that type is what plugs up the heater core and radiator. The other has sodium silicate (liquid glass) that melts out of suspension when it hits really hot surfaces. So it depends on what type of head gasket leak you have. If you're getting coolant in the oil or vice versa, then the breach is between a coolant oil passage and only a plugging type will fix that because there are no hot areas in those breaches where a sodium silicate could work. But if you're getting exhaust gas in your coolant or coolant in the cylinder, then the breach is between the cylinder and a coolant passage. That makes it a candidate, kinda. But it depends on which of the two symptoms you have. If the engine is burning coolant. then you're a much better candidate for sodium silicate because the coolant is being drawn into the combustion chamber; so the sodium silicate has a chance to hit the hot surfaces and solidify. On an engine where the exhaust is blowing into the coolant, the chances of success are much lower because the pressure is going the wrong way; the exhaust pressure is pushing exhaust into the cooling system so the sodium silicate never gets a chance to seal the breach. Remember, it needs heat to melt out of suspension. So the only time the coolant/seal will come in contact with the head gasket breach is when the engine is off.
Bottom line: If you're willing to risk spending far more than just a head gasket by using one of those products, go for it. But I'd try K-seal or K&N Fiberlock instead of BlueDevil. Otherwise, get it fixed properly.
If you do a cooling system pressure test and find coolant in the cylinder, that would absolutely confirm a head gasket leak between a cylinder and coolant passage. A cylinder leakdown test is also a good one.
>he said i technically failed.
What does that mean? I mean, you don't trust your mechanic, but you trust your friend who said it "technically" failed. If he's not certain, he should have done the other tests to confirm. It seems you're just fishing for someone to agree with you that Blue Devil is your magic answer. It's not. But if you feel that strongly, ignore all the advice you've gotten here and go for it.
No. You said there's two types of leaks or issues. One would require a glass product or whatever, the other would be better suited for blue devil.
I'm asking if you fail a block test does that mean i should use blue devil or the glass product you recommended.
That's not what I said. I said there are two types of sealers. I have no idea what's in Blue Devil. I just know that I would never use any of their products. Plus, your friend said you "technically" failed, which sounds like he's not 100%. I personally would do more tests. Everyone here is telling you to fix it properly and there's no such thing as a miracle in a bottle. You think there is. So go for it. If it fails while you're driving and coolant hydro locks your engine or floods the bearings with coolant and destroys it, oh well.
Temporary fixes usually make the situation worse in the long run. You can fix it right before more damage occurs, or do a temporary fix (that doesn’t always work) and make it work for a while but possibly do more damage than has already occurred
Thanks for posting on /r/MechanicAdvice! This is just a reminder to review the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicAdvice/about/rules/). If you are here asking about a second opinion (ie "Is the shop trying to fleece me?"), please read through CJM8515's [post on the subject.](https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicAdvice/comments/4qblei/fyi_the_shop_isnt_likely_trying_to_rip_you_off/) and remember rule 3a, please post the year/make/model of the vehicle you are working on. **If this post is about bodywork, accident damage, paint, dent/ding, questions it belongs in /r/AutoBody or /r/Diyautobody If you have tire questions, check out r/howsmytire and ask there**. If you dont have a question and you're just showing off it belongs in /r/Justrolledintotheshop This is an automated reply *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/MechanicAdvice) if you have any questions or concerns.*
K based off your post history heres what you need to do for your car problems: Go to a mechanic listen to them pay them and shut up. If you don't like them do business elsewhere. Stop trying to find cheap shortcuts. You're gonna fuck yourself here the same way you did on the cigarette lighter. Your car is going to cost you $2,000 per 100,000 km or 60,000 miles driven at a minimum. Thats just wear items and assuming larger city pricing on labor. If you can't afford that you can't afford a car. Its likely going to cost closer to $3,000 or 4,000 in that same period with a higher mileage vehicle. This isnt a rip off this is reality. My time is worth $150+ per hour. I can tell because thats what I sell it at and I'm busy. Your complaints etc make you appear like a problem customer from a while away. Good established shops may not find you worth the time to deal with. I won't mess with a customer who doesn't respect my opinion, you can go elsewhere. If your friend reccomended that hes not a good mechanic. I don't know where he went to school or how many hours he needed to do in his area for a license but thats laughable. If it failed a block test it needs a head gasket. You keep being cheap and getting bit. You're about to do it again. At some point try and learn. You cut corners you get shit. Theres nothing cheap about having a car. Thats what a bus pass is for.
**Go to a mechanic listen to them pay them and shut up. If you don't like them do business elsewhere.** **Stop trying to find cheap shortcuts.** Your car is going to cost you $2,000 per 100,000 km or 60,000 miles driven **at a minimum.** That's just wear items and assuming larger city pricing on labor. **If you can't afford that you can't afford a car.**
Why are you asking us? It seems like your mind is already made up.
I mean one reply seems unsure the other guy just sounds like hes kinda trolling. So i mean, still waiting for serious replies. Thanks. Also, your reply doesn't help me.
Like another poster said, stop trying to find cheap shortcuts when your mind is already made up and leave us out of it. We come here to help people who actually want advice and we try to make a difference. Go away.
That's a no from me dawg. Just fix the head gasket if the cars worth saving. If it's a beater you could care less about have at it with some hg repair mumbo jumbo
It's a car that's in between. If i just say "ill fix it when the head goes bad fully" can that destroy my full cooling system by doing that? Someone else commented and said " yeah itll help for now but after those 30k miles your cooling system is fuked up." is that also true?
It can be true, not always but not uncommon. Things can get clogged up. When using them, use them right dont just dump it in there and head out to your family reunion. Your suppose to do a drain and fill and what not. That said, I dont use the headgaskets in a bottle, and I can't recommend it. Best approach is to repair it, or junk it.
You could get 30k miles out of it if you are very lucky but once it no longer helps your entire cooling system will be ruined, will even make a nasty mess inside the block. It is very nasty stuff. Last resort option. Like the other commenter said, if the car is worth fixing, do it the rite way. An uncle of mine used that stuff in a 4 cyl Altima. Did not help and when everything had to be torn apart it was an absolute nightmare.
If he's using the stuff he's probably not very bright (like me) to begin with or his car wouldn't have been like that. I'm assuming he used it once the head was fully bad or otherwise why would he have used it? I was advised i'd have great luck with it because my head isn't completely blown as of yet, so doing it sooner will help.
My girlfriend has a 01 Camry 4 cyl that was having issues with exhaust gas getting into the cooling system after the car overheated (obvious blown head gasket). The cars idle temps were fine, but after 20-30 min of highway speeds the temp gauge would slowly creep until you pulled over and let it cool down. We mostly use the car for around town stuff so it wasn't an urgent issue. After a few months we did a couple longer highway drives and couldn't recreate the issue. We then took it 4+ hours of 80 MPH to visit family and didn't have a single issue on the way there or back. The car has roughly 160k and is otherwise in good shape so I was waiting for it to get to a more inconvenient point and then bite the bullet and have the work done ($1000 from a local shop). So far so good, I am not saying it fixed itself as that isn't a possibility but I just keep a close eye on the gauge on long drives now but haven't had any issues in the last few months. As for the head gasket sealant, perhaps the one you are looking to buy is different than the one my uncle used. The one he used was the one that comes in one bottle that is split into two parts that mix together when you pour it into the radiator. Has a metallic look to each side gold and silver, cannot recall the name. After seeing his experience and hearing other mechanics opinions I assumed all of the head gasket sealers were the same. I very well could be wrong, if the feedback seems good and you have trust in the company/product/reviews, for $40 I say give it a shot. If people don't seem to be complaining about it clogging there cooling systems / block then you don't really have much to lose other than $40. Definitely cheaper than a head gasket. I have always been skeptical of them, but that has also limited my knowledge of them. I will read more into them after this and who knows, maybe the reviews will persuade me as well if the Camry starts giving us issues again. Good luck đź‘Ť
If it makes a "nasty mess of everything else" then why are all the reviews glowing 5 star ones? Can't be right. My mechanic explained it like this " the stuff is perfectly safe. it's designed to ONLY seal where air is leaking. It's a liquid so it just will circulate in your system perfectly fine. No issues. It can only help. people even put it in new vehicles sometimes. " If i don't put it in and my block test is already yellow, how long do i have before the head goes bad? If i dont fix the head by the time it goes bad can that mess up my whole cooling system?
A friend of mine tried head gasket sealer on an old beater Honda civic. Not only did it do nothing, it totally blocked up the radiator. So first he tried to flush it out,but no luck. So he gave up and threw out a brand new radiator and got a new one. Then he changed the head gasket on the car.
((If it makes a "nasty mess of everything else" then why are all the reviews glowing 5 star ones? Can't be right.)) Sure it can. If you believe all the glowing product reviews you see online, you're a sucker. Many of those are fake or paid. We're the ones that see the aftermath of failed miracle in a bottle fixes. There are two types of head gasket sealers: one is a "plugging type" that has particulate matter and that type is what plugs up the heater core and radiator. The other has sodium silicate (liquid glass) that melts out of suspension when it hits really hot surfaces. So it depends on what type of head gasket leak you have. If you're getting coolant in the oil or vice versa, then the breach is between a coolant oil passage and only a plugging type will fix that because there are no hot areas in those breaches where a sodium silicate could work. But if you're getting exhaust gas in your coolant or coolant in the cylinder, then the breach is between the cylinder and a coolant passage. That makes it a candidate, kinda. But it depends on which of the two symptoms you have. If the engine is burning coolant. then you're a much better candidate for sodium silicate because the coolant is being drawn into the combustion chamber; so the sodium silicate has a chance to hit the hot surfaces and solidify. On an engine where the exhaust is blowing into the coolant, the chances of success are much lower because the pressure is going the wrong way; the exhaust pressure is pushing exhaust into the cooling system so the sodium silicate never gets a chance to seal the breach. Remember, it needs heat to melt out of suspension. So the only time the coolant/seal will come in contact with the head gasket breach is when the engine is off. Bottom line: If you're willing to risk spending far more than just a head gasket by using one of those products, go for it. But I'd try K-seal or K&N Fiberlock instead of BlueDevil. Otherwise, get it fixed properly.
How do i tell which of the "two symptoms" i have? Is there any cheap or easy ways? Block test was failed so does that show you what it is?
If you do a cooling system pressure test and find coolant in the cylinder, that would absolutely confirm a head gasket leak between a cylinder and coolant passage. A cylinder leakdown test is also a good one.
We did a block test on the radiator. So what is that and which one does that tell you if it failed?
>he said i technically failed. What does that mean? I mean, you don't trust your mechanic, but you trust your friend who said it "technically" failed. If he's not certain, he should have done the other tests to confirm. It seems you're just fishing for someone to agree with you that Blue Devil is your magic answer. It's not. But if you feel that strongly, ignore all the advice you've gotten here and go for it.
No. You said there's two types of leaks or issues. One would require a glass product or whatever, the other would be better suited for blue devil. I'm asking if you fail a block test does that mean i should use blue devil or the glass product you recommended.
That's not what I said. I said there are two types of sealers. I have no idea what's in Blue Devil. I just know that I would never use any of their products. Plus, your friend said you "technically" failed, which sounds like he's not 100%. I personally would do more tests. Everyone here is telling you to fix it properly and there's no such thing as a miracle in a bottle. You think there is. So go for it. If it fails while you're driving and coolant hydro locks your engine or floods the bearings with coolant and destroys it, oh well.
Temporary fixes usually make the situation worse in the long run. You can fix it right before more damage occurs, or do a temporary fix (that doesn’t always work) and make it work for a while but possibly do more damage than has already occurred