Oil in Coolant

[surfBC]

Hi, I have a 1994 3.0td surf. Just got the rad flushed and coolant changed. I thought the coolant looked a little oily. And indeed the shop said they found oil in the coolant. They thought that there may be a problem with the head gasket, but that was just a guess.

Last weekend I took the vehicle on a bit of a trip 1200 km roundtrip. I didn't have any overheating issues according to the temp gauge, no steaming either. The rad and engine area seemed a bit hotter, but could be from the hotter weather and longer haul trip. During daily driving the temp gauge never goes past halfway.

The engine does not burn oil, and I have not noticed any thing unusual with the exhaust, either white or blue smoke. There are no oil or coolant leaks dripping. But a bit of greasy substance looks to be on the metal where the upper rad hose to attaches to the block.

The engine lacks nothing for power as far as I can tell. Just wondering what might cause oil in the coolant?

I have no money to spare, at the moment. Can I continue to drive with this issue? Or should I look at it before something worse happens?

thanks,

Jordan

[Hazzo]

There's nothing worse can happen than the head cooking, I'd sort it, hopefully its the gasket, $100 fix, new head $3000. H

[TonyN]

It could be the gasket, but its very rare, there is an oil cooler behind the oil filter, that sits in a chamber of coolant, the gaskets here can fail and mix oil and coolant. Does you engine or AFT oil look like it has water in it?

Also it could be the AFT cooler leaking into the rad.

If its not much oil, then moniter it for a while.

You can prssure test the cooling system, to see if it leaking anywhere, but trickier to tell what it is

[surfBC]

Thanks

Hi, thanks for both replies. I will try to get it sorted.

Tony I have watched this forum closely and you always put in great advice. Thanks for chiming in on this. I was hoping you might. It is too bad I am not in the UK where I could pop over to your shop and have a look around the surf with you.

I changed the oil before my trip and didn't notice any water. As far as I could tell just now, no water in the tranny fluid neither. I just crawled under the car, and could see a bit of oil seeping from the gearbox. Just a wipe with a rag at the seem, no dripping.

On the trip last week I did note the transmission acted a little bit funny almost seemed to stall like a manual (not a manual unfortunately) at a stop light. But it was minor, like a bit of a slip not a big jerking halt.

One last question, please don't berate me for this. The lights on the dash that would indicate a problem will they come on while running, or only when I turn the key to accessories? I get the AT Oil Temp light, as well as the Rad light when key is on Accessories. Nothing stays on after turning over.


thanks,

Jordan

[g3po]

I had the same problem on an Audi a4 tdi, it was the oil cooler which was built into the base of the oil filter housing. It leaked oil in very small amounts into the coolant but not the other way, the reason for only leaking from oil cooler to water system was that the oil system worked at a higher pressure.
Dont know if the surf has a similar set up ?

p.s. I never changed the cooler or re-sealed it and apart from occasionally cleaning out oily scum from the expansion tank it had no adverse affect.