Oil in Coolant??

[nickhack]

Hi

I've just opened the blue-lidded engine coolant in my 1.9TDi (130) to find a smattering of thick oil!!!

Warranty ended in October.


Any ideas and how much is this going to hurt?!?!?!

 

[Nath.]

lots of £££ at a guess £600 as it's most likely a head gasket failure but not always, there are other not so common reasons for oil in the water

the very best of luck to you

 

[gazjones]

could b faulty oil cooler allowing oil to mix with coolant not many cases of tdi's having the nead go soon after warenty i would get it checked out though

 

[Guinness]

seat might be ok about it if it is just out of warranty, my mates Xr5 day out of warranty broke and they said they would go half with him noting this was FORD not seat though

 

[mhill]

They should still cover it as there is little piece of consumer law which states items have to be fit for intended purpose!

 

[sssstew]

agreed with Gaz, ive done loads of reading about this on tdiclub, and our golf has had the cooler bypassed for this reason. Im going to replace it and flush the cooing system through and refill.

Apparently the channels in the oil cooler break down allowing oil into the coolant, apparently its this way round because the oil is under higher pressure. Other wise you would have coolant in the oil if it was head gasket, you lifted the oil filler cap to check for mayonaise type stuff?

 

[nickhack]

Thank you all so much for your info. Once again seatcupra.net users are bang on the money!! My local Seat dealer reported (good news) it was the oil cooling unit that was goosed at a relatively cheap £200. There was however the problem that having carried out the repair in the past, the mechanic had found residual oil (tough to shift from the rubber coolant pipes and radiator) had seeped back into the coolant and within a couple of days, it would look as bad as ever, even though the problem had been rectified. The cost for replacing the pipes and radiator? £700+!!
He went on to say that in the past he had tried everything to shift the residual oil with far from perfect results. When I hopefully enquired about warranties, etc he said this wouldn't have been a warranty repair even if the car was under warranty. (I don't think I believe that but with the warranty ending 3 months ago its a moot point anyway)

I sought out a couple of second opinions: Mechanic mate #1 recommended getting the cheap repair, adding washing liquid to the coolant for a couple of days, draining it out, and then filling up with some product from land rover garages (apparently rovers suffer this problem a lot) and it would likely be OK.
Mechanic mate #2 said he'd only ever repaired the faulty unit and steam cleaned the system and their had been no complaints.

After consideration (and because I'm about to put the car on the market - the timing of this couldn't have been much worse - and I don't think a repair receipt as an excuse for residual oil in the coolant is going to wash with many buyers!) I have gone with the repair and plan to steam clean followed by rover product followed by steam clean. Any one got any alternative advice on whether this would be the preferable, most cost effective option?

 

[inkafone]

Oil residue in the water won't do much harm,it's water in the oil that's the killer ("mayonnaise" in the oil filler cap). Flushing the cooling system will help (you can pressurise the cooling system with one of those large garden sprays) otherwise just keeping cleaning out the header (blue lid) tank,oil's lighter than water so will rise to the top making it seem worse than it really is. Keep an eye on the temperature guage and make sure that the heater still gives hot air.

 

[sssstew]

have a read in the TDI section for a post i did recently about removing oil from the coolant. im going to do the washing powder method on the golf.

PS bought a new cooler from euro car parts for £32, am replacing it myself.

 

[nickhack]

Well by means of an update (for any other hapless souls who find themselves in my position in the future!):

Seat have repaired the fault although informed me (as expected) that the coolant hoses and radiator were still heavily contaminated which was depressingly confirmed when I parked up, inspected the expansion tank and found it to look exactly as black and gloopy as before I'd had £200 removed from my bank account!

From numerous sources I decided to go with washing powder to try and cleanse the oil. I've put in maybe 5 tablespoons and driven it today. This evening the expansion tank has a lot less oil than on previous inspections and by dipping a kitchen towel down into it, the coolant seems to have a dirty tinge with occasional patches of emulsified oil. Both bits of evidence would seem to suggest that the washing powder is working its magic on the oil.

I've got it booked in tomorrow (at a reputable non Seat dealer, now the warranty has gone, I have that 'luxury') for two flushes of Forte's degreasing miracle (or whatever its actually called!) and a good steam clean. Fingers crossed it will all but see off the oil

As a footnote I did consider draining the coolant would be fairly doable - even to someone as non-mechanic-like as myself. Having attempted it last night in the rain and wind with a single jack and a star key I admitted defeat!! I looked on a number of forums but couldnt find any engine photos or schematics of exactly where the radiator could be drained from and with my very limited clearance (and very poor LED torch - yes, yes, lap it up mechanic types!) decided I could go no further. I was looking for the flat head screw mentioned on VW pages but it was either behind some more plastic or I should 've been looking for something else entirely!! For future reference, for some other hapless soul I hasten to add, can anyone confirm what the correct procedure is?

 

[sssstew]

good to know nick, keep us informed of how it goes. Im flushing with washing power system this weekend hopefully on the old golf too.

 

[bigrj]

Guys Sorry to bring up an old post, but i wanted to know how the Washing powder trick went down.

I think the oil cooler has gone on my MK3 Ibiza Cupra and i'm planning the repair.

Cheers

 

[sssstew]

i didnt end up needing to flush in the end, as when it came to it the system had already been flushed with special stuff and refilled.