Radiator line leak

Hey,

In advance, thanks to everyone for supporting this forum and helping me with my car issues.

my recent issue is that I recently got the radiator changed on my 2000 impala 3.8L. Lately, I've been noticing a very slow decrease in fluid level. I don't want to go blame my mechanic for something very simple, which might have not been his fault. So I found the problem, which is located where a metal pipe connects to the radiator (the rad line). It looks like it's a simple hex nut that I can tighten. Then I realized there's a plastic ring thing behind the nut. I read somewhere that there's a special rad line wrench. I obviously don't have this wrench.

1. Can I tighten the line myself with a regular hex wrench?
2. what does the plastic ring behind the nut do?
3. Should I remove the line and add some sort of sealant to it>

I thought people would know the answer to this one easily.. I'm just afraid of damaging the line or the radiator if I just tighten the line with a regular wrench.

I don't know a whole lot about cooling systems, but any steel lines going to the radiator probably go to a transmission cooler or an oil cooler. If you're losing fluid from one, I'd trace the line to where it comes from and then check the fluid in whatever component it leads to. The coolant could be mixing in with whatever is in there.

Other than that, I'd assume its just a regular pipe fitting that can be tightened with a wrench. You might want to tighten it cold though, since the line is steel and the threads are likely made of copper.

I'm trying to visualize the type of hose clamp you're discribing, and I'm drawing a blank. Not sure what type it is, but I've yet to see a hose clamp that was a worm-gear type that required anything special when tightening it.

If you paid a shop to do coolant work and you now have a leak, I think its quite reasonable to take it back to them and have them recheck their work, and who knows, there might be a new/different leak, but they could probably very quickly find the problem and fix it.

and don't add sealants to hoses. If you have a leak, there's a reason. Fix the cause of the leak, not the symptom.

Haha, thanx for the advice. I was just about to go out and buy sealant. But obviously you know what you're doing. I'm gonna tighten it by hand a little bit and then take it back to the mechanic if there's anything wrong. Thanks for the advice.