Saturday, December 26, 2009

Oil in radiator fluid?

i have a 05 nissan pathfinder, i took it to get and oil change and the tech said there is oil in the radiator, he showed me and there was beige slime on the radiator cap and some of the same slime right at the top of opening. he said it was a blown head gasket, called the dealer and they said that they never heard such in an 05 pathfinder. truck has 107,000 miles on it, not overheating, or smoking. what should i do?Oil in radiator fluid?
Head gaskets have been a problem ever since the automobile industry went to aluminum blocks and steel heads. The two metals expand and contract at different rates shortening the life of the head gaskets. They went to aluminum to cut weight, but had to keep steel heads in order to handle the heat and valve train. Sometimes you can just re torque the head bolts to stop the leak, but more often you need to have the gaskets replaced. It could even be a cracked head or cracked block. Get a few price quotes on the repair and get it fixed if you plan to keep the car. Some people would get the radiator flushed and trade it in. I had one car that had slime forming in the coolant overflow reservoir. I removed the reservoir, cleaned it and put it back and the slime never reappeared. But I think that was related to Dex Cool coolant in a GM car. I would try retorqing the head bolts, flushing the cooling system and see if the problem comes back before spending a bunch of money.Oil in radiator fluid?
if its an automatic ,that could be transmission fluid leaking through the radiator and causing that too happen,it will appear to be oil like and cause it to do that,the cooler for the transmission runs through the radiator,so its possible all you have is a bad radiator,if it is engine oil you should notice a slight difference on the temperature hand on it,it should be running a little hotter and you will also notice the top radiator hose getting real hard and stiff on it when its running,try running it some and see if the top or bottom hose gets real hard and stiff on it,im kind of doubting it being a blown head gasket,you can have it a pressure test done on to to determine if it s blown gasket this will take all the guess work out of it,good luck.
if the color of the water like red or pink so its transmission oil,and if its like gray so its motor oil,check the filling cover of the engine oil from any gray color ....some times the antifreeze looks like the oil,
Your cooling antifreeze has broken down. Get a complete rad flush and refill for about $125 and you'll see no more gunk at the rad cap. That grease monkey doesn't know what he's talking about.
  • sunshine
  • No comments:

    Post a Comment