oil in radiator

cagy1

what does oil in radiator mean? sort brown/white
1.4 petrol engine,
what the solution

anon11

What kind of car is it?

cagy1

peugeot 306

Saab Ed

Sounds like the head gasket is gone. Take off the oil filler cap and see is the same brown sludge there. If so its gone. Its common enough on the 1.4 engine in them.

cagy1

I tried that it has no sludge on it,
head gasket how big a job ?

cnocbui

Second vote for a blown head gasket.

Seth Brundle

+1 on HG (unless the OP is my sister who poured oil into her rad once!)

Saab Ed

cagy1 wrote: »

I tried that it has no sludge on it,
head gasket how big a job ?

Pull out the dipstick and have a look on it too, there might be some evidence of the sludge there. The last little simple test to do is leave the coolant filler bottle open and start the engine. From a safe distance back look down into the coolant bottle and look out for little bubbles in the coolant itself. Not vibrating water but little bubbles. Oh and make sure the engine is good and cold before you open the coolant bottle or you'll hurt youself badly. Head gasket is a simple enough job on those Pug 1.4's. I'd say you'll get out under 250 quid with a good local mechanic.

cagy1

is their likely to be other damage

Saab Ed

cagy1 wrote: »

is their likely to be other damage

Depends. So long as you havent let it over heat then you should get away with a simple enough job. Best not to drive it though, if it boils then you could warp the head on the engine and at that stage its probably time to throw the car in the bin.

cagy1

thanks all,
looks like on shanks mare tomorrow!!

sogood

Dont know if your car has an oil cooler in the radiator, but if so and it leaks, then that can also be a possible source.

Slidey

sogood wrote: »

Dont know if your car has an oil cooler in the radiator, but if so and it leaks, then that can also be a possible source.

What he said.

Saying that it probably is a headgasket.

Could also be a cracked head though.

Seth Brundle

Aren't oil coolers on spearate pipework from the rads? There is no oil cooler 'in' the rad.

robtri

kbannon wrote: »

+1 on HG (unless the OP is my sister who poured oil into her rad once!)

Ha ha brilliant

kbannon wrote: »

Aren't oil coolers on spearate pipework from the rads? There is no oil cooler 'in' the rad.

iirc, your spot on..

sounds liek a HG failing, seals or a crack.... common enough

Slidey

kbannon wrote: »

Aren't oil coolers on spearate pipework from the rads? There is no oil cooler 'in' the rad.

They may well be separate but the coolant is all in the one system and since oil is lighter than water it will more than likely may its way to the top of the radiator

johndaman66

If it is a croaked headgasket cagy1 which imo more than likely is I wouldn't be inclined to skimp too much on the repair job. By all means shop around for good reputable garages that wont absolutely fleece you but I wouldn't skimp on parts or processes that some may say are not absolutely necessary. Ive blown a headgasket on pretty much every car I've had down through the years apart from a Toyota Corolla so know from experience;)

On my first car which was a diesel I got the job done as cheap as possible and it was very much a pointless exercise. I got the headgasket done some months back on a Vectra and a few 1,000 miles later no issues to report. I bought the parts from the UK through ebay and saved a small fortune as bought timing belt, tb kit and waterpump also. The downside about this is the lead time until you receive the parts, in particular if you were to pay by draft and also not all mechanics or garage men will allow you to do this, some will refuse point blank from their experience of people getting incorrect parts and/ or as they are loosing their mark-up on the parts no doubt. Also if you were to go down this road make sure and double sure you are ordering correct parts for your car. If your peugeot 306 is like my vectra I'd be inclined to change the complete timing belt kit and definately the waterpump (as this may have given up and caused or contributed to the cause of the problem in the first place or at least is probably well croaked now if oil and coolant are mixing). The mechanic would need to take of timing belt anyway to do headgasket and as tb renewal is a costly labour intensive job to do chances are it would probably make sense to change it when doing headgasket even if not yet due if you understand what I'm trying to say. A complete headgasket set and new headbolts are necessary for a good job also in my experience.

On the job itself more often than not it would be necessary to get the head checked for hairline cracks and skimmed which costs around 50 quid in this part of the country. The mechanic would seldom have the facilities to do this job and send it off to an engineering works type place, not many of which there would be around the country. Also if there is oil in the radiator I'd be inclined to insist that the mechanic flush the cooling system and put in new coolant as you could be fairly sure problems would be caused with circulation in time.

Another subscriber suggested you should get the job done for 250 Euro I think. I don't think you would get it done for this imo if you were to get a proper job done. Only if you weren't being charged for labour perhaps but if not I want to be friends with your friends;). I would say if you were some way savvy you should get job done for 500 to 600 including all parts and processes I mentioned which probably isin't too bad as a garage could well charge you at least 300 to do a timing belt kit and waterpump.

HungryJoey

The 1.4 306 I drove use to always have a bit of oil residue in the rad, it use to sip away at the coolant over a long period of time - I use to top it up every 2 months or so. Mind you it never burned a drop of oil in the 2 years I drove it, It never once overheated or went above halfway on the temp, I did about 15,000miles in it before I sold it. I suspected a slightly leakey HG.

The 1.4 engine is quite a simple SOHC design and is quite cheap to remove the head and replace the HG if it is at fault. HG's on these are notorious for blowing or cracking. Mine had over 125,000 on it when I sold it still pulled like a train! Oh and I didn't drive it easy either and it never let me down.

If you do go for a repair shop around, it won't be too expensive to repair (if the head isn't cracked).

Out of curiosity what year is your one?

cagy1

it a 99 with 145k on thr clock,
i am waiting on a garage to put a price on the job

mondeo

145k is good mileage to get out of the original hg. I would not blame the car at all for giving up at that rate. I had Rovers in the past blow their gaskets at 60k and less. I did my own HG myself on a Rover 45 several years back and it was a pig doing it because I was an amateur with a Haynes manual. Still it was a success.