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Grey film in coolant expansion tank

  • 30-04-2014 6:28pm
    #1
    macwal
    Closed Accounts Posts: 148 ✭✭


    Car is a Mk1 Leon ('02), with a 1.4L petrol engine, nearly 90k miles.

    Was checking the oil and coolant this afternoon, and noticed a grayish film in the coolant expansion tank. I dipped a kitchen towel in, and some of the film came out; initially it looked like the tank was full of it, but it seems like it's a thin film coating the insides. Without the film, the coolant seems to still be pink.

    The engine oil doesn't look like it's contaminated with water/coolant, it looks fine, nothing untoward on the dipstick or under the cap.

    Engine temps are ok too, goes up the the 90oC mark after 5-10 minutes, and stays there; did a 3 hour non-stop journey last week, no issues.

    I'd be fairly certain the film isn't due to oil, the stuff doesn't feel oily at all, it wipes away off my finger very easily, and leaves a greyish smear on a kitchen towel, and the liquid quickly dries away to leave the smear looking like sediment/grit (though doesn't feel gritty, more powdery-like).

    I've been driving the car about 3 months, it had been off the road almost a year before that. Timing belt and water pump was done at 57k miles (Aug 2007).

    Another thing is that I noticed a noise a couple of weeks ago, I thought perhaps it was a bearing somewhere on the auxiliary belts, an intermittent click, but since then the click isn't as pronounced, but the engine seems slightly consistently noisier/rougher (though not excessively), though it's performance has been fine.

    Having now seen the gray film in the coolant, I'm wondering perhaps whether the water pump is beginning to give up. Does this sound plausible? Perhaps the noise was the pump beginning to fail, and now the grayish film is parts of the pump breaking down? Could the pump sitting for a year in coolant, not running, have had an effect on the pump? If it is the pump, anything else I can check myself to rule it in/out?

    I have been thinking of doing the timing belt soon, given the time since it was last done, even if the mileage wouldn't necessarily warrant it. Obviously a water pump change and now a coolant flush and change would be needed too.

    Anything else to consider?


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