Getting some oil in my anti-freeze

[slow_jazz]

I seem to be getting some engine oil in my radiator reservoir on the top of it.

Car seems to run fine and doesn't overheat. i don't see any white smoke when starting or running.

Oil dipstick seems fine also.

1999 Toyota Solara
180,000 miles
V-6 engine.

Any ideas?? Is it possible to get oil in the anti-freeze and not get anti-freeze in the engine??

thanks,
greg

 

[All-Trac]

How much oil is there? And how long has it been in there?

Clean out the resivoir and see if the problem continues.

Maybe it's carbon from combustion getting in there, thats the way my Celica is.

 

[rushfan]

My engine displayed the same symptoms. Turned out to be a defective intake manifold gasket. It cost me $700 to have repaired.

Not trying to be a scare monger but something worth checking. Let it go too long and it could ruin your engine.

 

[All-Trac]

My engine displayed the same symptoms. Turned out to be a defective intake manifold gasket. It cost me $700 to have repaired.

Not trying to be a scare monger but something worth checking. Let it go too long and it could ruin your engine.

Ouch, what was that on? I've never seen that cause oil to get into the antifreeze because I've never known oil to go through the intake besides the residue from the PCV. Not saying it couldn't happen but I just don't know about some cars.

 

[Dudeman258]

Most likely is the headgasket beginning to let go. Oil does not run through the intake manifold, although coolant does. There is no way for oil to circulate into the coolant from the intake manifold/throttlebody.

Any other chance of oil getting into the coolant is nearly impossible. I would keep a close eye on it. Pull up the dipstick and see if it is white and/or foamy, indicating coolant in the oil.

Remember oil/coolant don't have to be getting into the combustion chamber in order for the two fluids to mix. they run directly next to each other through the head so it is not uncommon. You run the risk of contaminating your oil with water and potentially destroying bearings if the problem gets too bad since water is a poor lubricant. Although that would take longer then you might expect.

Let me know if you have any questions. Best of luck.

Walker

 

[ccheath]

Oil going into antifreeze is not unheard of. But I have seen plenty of antifreeze going to the block. Even antifreeze shooting out of the spark plug hole while doing compression check. I had to replace the cracked head on my former 2.5L 4cyl engine. (gosh, missed that car).

 

[All-Trac]

Toyota does use an oil cooler on some applications like my Celica and that could be a source for oil/coolant mixing, although I haven't seen it an issue.

I would check under the oil fill cap for milky oil as steam goes to the highest point of an engine. It's not the water that is as bad in the oil, it's the antifreeze as it cuts the lubricity in the oil and kills the bearings in an engine very rapiditly.

If there is no water in the oil, start back with what I told you, clean the overflow out and make sure it's oil and not carbon. Carbon could also be signs of combustion leaking into the coolant through the headgasket. One simple way to test that is if the car is absolutly cold start it up and rev it a couple times then shut it off and quickly remove the radiator cap, if theres pressure I would recomend doing a compression test to verify the problem. Your car can go a long time before this becomes a problem.

If there is actually oil in the antifreeze, after you clean it out see how long it takes to come back again and keep an eye on it.When you clean the overflow make sure oil is not still in the radiator top, if there is oil in the radiator add water and run the engine to normal operating temprature til it pushes it out of the radiator, then clean the overflow. If oil comes back rapiditly I would further investigate the headgasket. But if this oil in the antifreeze happened over 90K miles I wouldn't worry too much. When was the last time you changed the antifreeze btw, and is it still the Toyota red? No sense in doing a headgasket right away until you diagnose the problem thouroughly, always start simple and cheapest scenario first.

Have you gotten the car hot at all by any chance?

 

[rushfan]

Ouch, what was that on? I've never seen that cause oil to get into the antifreeze because I've never known oil to go through the intake besides the residue from the PCV. Not saying it couldn't happen but I just don't know about some cars.

It happened to my 3.1L Chevrolet Malibu engine. There was a big stink about GM's 3.1L and 3.4L engines whereby the intake manifold gasket deteriorated way ahead of its time. Tens of thousands of cars were affected. I joined a class action lawsuit and recovered $400 of my $700 expense.

Good thing that the kid who changed my oil knew about the problem. He spotted some coolant on the engine block and the oily reservoir cap.

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20060330/whistleblower_gm_060406/

 

[slow_jazz]

Thanks for the replies.

I had the radiator flushed about 3 months ago and replaced with multi-mix antifreeze that works with everything not the red stuff.

It's winter here so the car hasn't been close to overheating.

 

[olson_jr]

I would remove the coolant reservoir, drain it, clean it, reinstall it, and top off with the same coolant, and drive it for a while to see what happens. Just to make sure it is actually engine oil and not some leftover residue from your recent flush.

Were there any cooling system components replaced when you had the flush done? New components can have residue from manufacturing (oil) that will look like oil in the top of radiators and reservoir bottles.

 

[Smwilli]

Also realise that even if coolant is getting into the combustion chamber, often times the catalytic converter will burn it up so no smoke out the tailpipe...

 

[warch]

Oil going into antifreeze is not unheard of. But I have seen plenty of antifreeze going to the block. Even antifreeze shooting out of the spark plug hole while doing compression check. I had to replace the cracked head on my former 2.5L 4cyl engine. (gosh, missed that car).

Had to laugh in memory of my Datsun 510 back in the late 70's. The head got a wee warped and to start it, I had to remove a plug and turn it over. The coolant would shoot out quite a distance.

 

[parman]

With that many miles on it it could very well be a head gasket. Don't wait to long or the bill could be alot worse.

 

[blhagstrom]

a little

A little oil in the water (coolant) is run-able. Could be a head gasket or internal crack. It doesn't really hurt. As long as its minor.

Antifreeze/water in the oil is BAD. Watch the engine oil and tranny fluid.
If the engine oil gets white and foamy, STOP. A head gasket/warped head even cracked head can be fixed. Although that bill may be more than she's worth. A cracked block is a gonner.

If the tranny oil is getting contaminated, its a bad intercooler in the radiator. STOP and get that fixed. Trannys hate cotamination and die in a heartbeat.

 

[slow_jazz]

No components have been changed on the engine. The car is a manual transmission so I don't think it's an intercooler problem.

I will clean the reservoir and see how soon it comes back.

 

[zman]

Thses guys pretty much covered it. I had combustion in my water for about a year, not allot but I knew something was up. It turned out to be a crack in the head but I still could have driven it longer. Water in the oil is much worse.

 

[pioneervato]

It happened to my 3.1L Chevrolet Malibu engine. There was a big stink about GM's 3.1L and 3.4L engines whereby the intake manifold gasket deteriorated way ahead of its time. Tens of thousands of cars were affected. I joined a class action lawsuit and recovered $400 of my $700 expense.

Good thing that the kid who changed my oil knew about the problem. He spotted some coolant on the engine block and the oily reservoir cap.

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20060330/whistleblower_gm_060406/

Wished I had known about that several years ago. I spent $800 on my daughter's Corsica that had that problem. What a piece of crap IMO.

 

[olson_jr]

No components have been changed on the engine. The car is a manual transmission so I don't think it's an intercooler problem.

I will clean the reservoir and see how soon it comes back.

And introduce yourself to Dmax99 and myself at the next SMAC?

 

[Mark W.]

I'm in the final stages of replacing the head on the wife's Saturn SC-2 Sport coupe. It had a loosing water problem that I couldn't tell where it was going. And with the holidays we let it get away from us.

The other day on her way to work the car over heated and the head CRACKED Now $450.00 later (just parts doing my own work) I have about 3 hours of reattaching all the stuff connected to the serpentine belt that had to be removed to get at the Timing chain cover.

It now appears as if the head gasket gave out water was passing through the engine and because of the Cat there was no white smoke. One of the clues I should have caught was the car would idle about 1100rpm even after warmed up. Well the steam cools the exhaust and fools the computer into thinking the engine hasn't warmed up yet. So leave it on fast idle.

I have my fingers crossed this thing with it's new junk yard Head and the HUGE PITA it was to get it all timed correctly will start and run properly.

 

[Tarl Of Gor]

Well the steam cools the exhaust and fools the computer into thinking the engine hasn't warmed up yet. So leave it on fast idle.

More than likely it was just low on coolant and the ECT wasn't getting a proper temp reading.