Automotive Folk Remedies: Does Cracking An Egg In Your Radiator Stop Leaks?

I grew up in rural north central Ohio, in a little town that was home to a small, prestigious, eye-wateringly expensive liberal arts college (my alma mater, in fact) and had hitchin' rails downtown for the Amish to lash their horses to. The rolling green hills out past the city limits were big ag country — dairy, cattle, corn, and soybeans mostly. We were also home to THE Ohio State University's ag school, where my dad graduated with a degree in animal husbandry. To say I was steeped in farm culture is an understatement, and despite trying to rebel against it my whole young life, some of it rubbed off on me whether I wanted it to or not.

The main thing I learned from all the farmers I grew up around — both Amish and "English" as the Amish call those of us not of The Church — is a talent for make-do, DIY, automotive field repairs. Your average farmer, at least the kind who actually farms and isn't just a landlord on a larger scale, could put MacGyver to shame. You ever seen what a farmer can do with some baling wire, a zip tie, and a handful of random hardware from an old coffee can? It's wild, man. When the chips are down and you need to get a busted tractor back in action so you don't lose your crop, you get real good at thinking outside of the box.

Farmers have a lot of what I like to call "folk remedies" for temporarily fixing broken tractors, pick-em-up trucks, and farm equipment. One of my favorites, and one that's saved my bacon on more than one occasion, is fixing a leaky radiator with raw eggs.

Here's how you do it. If your radiator's leaking, crack a couple of raw eggs into the filler neck. That's it. Crack the eggs in there, start the car, get it to operating temp, et voila — leak fixed. How many eggs? Depends on both the size of the radiator and the size of the leak, but I don't know that I've ever used more than three. It works, though. How does it work? Absolutely no idea. I've never looked into the science behind it before despite being an experienced mechanic and a trained chef. Something with proteins, I'm sure.

Now, obviously, there are some caveats. First, it's a temporary fix and you shouldn't keep putting eggs in your radiator or your engine's water passages will end up looking like a breakfast buffet. Second, this only really works for small leaks. If you have a great big hole in your rad or a split hose or something, no amount of eggs is gonna help you. Third, I honestly don't know if it'll work in modern cars. Fourth, and this is very much a 2025 problem, a couple eggs might be worth as much as a couple bottles of Bars Leaks, so your mileage may vary.

The last time I tried this trick was on my 1990 Dodge Daytona when I was living in St. Louis back in the late '90s. I got a pinhole leak about halfway down the face of the rad, so I cracked a couple eggs into the filler neck. That got me through a couple days of work and allowed me to limp it to the radiator shop on the other side of my neighborhood with nary a drop of coolant spilled. When the shop called me to tell me the car was done, the first thing they asked me was, "Did you grow up on a farm or something?" Let me tell you, I was really proud of my country upbringing at that moment.

What about you? Do you guys have any automotive folk remedies that you've leaned on before in a pinch? Let us know in the comments.