What could be the problem? Please advise!!

pcardin

Hi all,
cleaned the snow off my wifes car this afternoon and decided to take a look on coolant level (sixth sense). Opened the upper tank and the picture I saw shocked me a bit...wtf?! Anyone knows what the cause for that could be? This brownish stuff looks like a soufflé cake.
Car is 03' Alfa Romeo 166 2.0 petrol.

peasant

Several possibilities:
- a mixture of incompatible coolants could cause this.
- could be a mixture of rust and oil
- or just oil

either way, it doesn't look good ...wouldn't drive it any more

PS : is it semi-frozen as well?

sogood

Looks like it was allowed to run fairly dry and what you're left with is a sludge of rusty gunk. It can happen by constant topping up with plain water, thus diluting the proper coolant, which would have rust inhibitors and antifreeze added. The system would probably benefit from being flushed clean and filled up with the appropriate anti freeze/ coolant. Was it overheating at all? Whats the oil on the dipstick like or inside the oil filler cap? No harm to be sure that the head gasket is ok.

pcardin

peasant wrote: »

Several possibilities:
- a mixture of incompatible coolants could cause this.
- could be a mixture of rust and oil
- or just oil

either way, it doesn't look good ...wouldn't drive it any more

PS : is it semi-frozen as well?

Thanks for an answer.
It is not semi frozen. It's just like a foam, like soufflé. The only smell this substance has is a smell of coolant.

pcardin

sogood wrote: »

Looks like it was allowed to run fairly dry and what you're left with is a sludge of rusty gunk. It can happen by constant topping up with plain water, thus diluting the proper coolant, which would have rust inhibitors and antifreeze added. The system would probably benefit from being flushed clean and filled up with the appropriate anti freeze/ coolant. Was it overheating at all? Whats the oil on the dipstick like or inside the oil filler cap? No harm to be sure that the head gasket is ok.

The car didn't overheat at all. In fact, it was badly keeping the temperature. Cabin was warm only in the traffic. On any open road it wasn't heating almost at all. Temperature gauge was mostly on the bottom. But as the car was only used for getting to the job and back with a distance of driving around 7 min I thought the low temperature is because of so short distance.
Last week I've checked the car and noticed that coolant level is too low and as the outside temperature was pretty chill I didn't risk to topup the system with watter. I took the car to the nearest Halfords. The guy cam out to see what coolant would be for this car. He said coolant didn't have any colour left but he thinks it must be pink one. So I bought the pink one, topped up and drove home. Everything was fine with the car.

sogood

Maybe it ran dry rather suddenly as a result of a leak. Fill it up and run it for a while, long enough for the thermostat to open and check for leaks. You might also check that the thermostat itself is working, though as you said, on short journeys its hard to get the car up to proper operating temperature, which might account for the lack of heating, especially in this weather.

mickdw

That is crazy looking. Now if the stuff throughout the engine was like that, you would be getting zero cooling so I would hope that the whole water system isnt that bad.
When did halfords do the top up?
Did it look like coolant at that time?

Ive never seen coolant so bad as that. Could it be a reaction with the wrong coolant I wonder. Are you sure it was coolant that was put into it? Halfords staff arent usually awake while at work.
It could be gasket failure but its just so thick, its hard to work it out

I used to have a 166. Nice car when everything going well!

pcardin

mickdw wrote: »

That is crazy looking. Now if the stuff throughout the engine was like that, you would be getting zero cooling so I would hope that the whole water system isn't that bad.
When did halfords do the top up?
Did it look like coolant at that time?

Ive never seen coolant so bad as that. Could it be a reaction with the wrong coolant I wonder. Are you sure it was coolant that was put into it? Halfords staff aren't usually awake while at work.
It could be gasket failure but its just so thick, its hard to work it out

I used to have a 166. Nice car when everything going well!

top up was done a week ago. The old coolant before the top-up looked like a watter tbh. I still have a half of bottle and it says Antifreeze-coolant (Halfords brand). The top-up was about 200ml or so. Unfortunately it I haven't check it until today but car wasn't used all this time anyway.
I was browsing web today and have seen the pictures where oil was mixed with coolant. The substance in those pictures was much thiner. Mine is really thick. Like a foam and no signs or smell of oil.

pcardin

sogood wrote: »

Maybe it ran dry rather suddenly as a result of a leak. Fill it up and run it for a while, long enough for the thermostat to open and check for leaks. You might also check that the thermostat itself is working, though as you said, on short journeys its hard to get the car up to proper operating temperature, which might account for the lack of heating, especially in this weather.

The upper tank wasn't dry before the top-up. It was like approx 200ml less then required and looked like watter. As far as I could check there is no signs of leakage anywhere.

TheColl

pcardin wrote: »

He said coolant didn't have any colour left but he thinks it must be pink one. So I bought the pink one, topped up and drove home. Everything was fine with the car.

i drive an alfa too, a 147, and it had the pink stuff in when i bought so this could be right

pcardin

TheColl wrote: »

i drive an alfa too, a 147, and it had the pink stuff in when i bought so this could be right

Well...there was no word in cars manual about what colour of coolant is required and quick web research didn't confirm any colour (both types can be used just don't mix them) and unfortunately the system at that moment had more watter then coolant in it so it was hard to say what colour was used. Halfords member said that according to his finger pink one was used before and I should go for that.
Does anyone knows how much the system flush may cost?

TheColl

you could try askin on the alfa owners forums... plenty of very helpful guys on there who know alfas inside out

http://www.alfaowner.com/Forum/

mondeo

It looks like it could be somthing serious, anything unusual like that in your expansion tank would indicate to me that oil is mixing with your coolant...
I had an Alfa 156 twinspark and it was a beautiful car but I had the head gasket go, although my expansion tank did not get flooded with creamy oil. I don't know what that is in your expansion bottle but I would not drive the car until i get it checked out...Maybe try draining the coolant from the rad and wash out the expansion bottle and refill everything back up with the proper antifreeze/water and see if it happens again on idle.

pcardin

mondeo wrote: »

It looks like it could be somthing serious, anything unusual like that in your expansion tank would indicate to me that oil is mixing with your coolant...
I had an Alfa 156 twinspark and it was a beautiful car but I had the head gasket go, although my expansion tank did not get flooded with creamy oil. I don't know what that is in your expansion bottle but I would not drive the car until i get it checked out...Maybe try draining the coolant from the rad and wash out the expansion bottle and refill everything back up with the proper antifreeze/water and see if it happens again on idle.

I'm not driving the car and I'll try to wash out tomorrow. Thanks to all for help!

Nonoperational

The car not coming up to temperature is due to a thermostat stuck open. Cost around €100 for parts and labout at a dealer.