the wife was driving home last night and had to stop a few times when this message came up , I checked the coolant and it was full but seemed discoloured and there was a sludge on top of it ,
thanks for any help
oil in the coolant? a quick google suggests a possible blown head gasket.
Engine-oil mayonnaise. The vehicle needs to be towed to the dealer/repair shop. It's probably the head-gasket as the magic one says. What year and how many km's on it?
get towed to garage. Do not drive. Oil is mixing into the coolant for whatever reason.
thanks for the quick reply's , was thinking that myself ,just needed someone to confirm , the dealer collected the car and drove it away , which i thought was a bit crazy , the car is a 231 with only 6000 km , regged last may .
Jesus that's baaaad for 6000km . What engine is it ?
1L TCE 90
at least it's under warranty i presume?
I'd echo the others, looks like a severe oil leak. Crazy of the dealer to drive it but that's their problem now. As annoying it is to deal with, I'd look to get a replacement car and consider yourself lucky that you won't have to pay anything for repairs as it will be a relatively extensive job.
Did you mean get a temp replacement car or make them replace the car itself ?
I'd say that's a replacement engine. There's no good that could possible come from that level of oil mix. That's either long running or a very catastrophic failure between the cooling side and the business side of the engine block.
Initially I meant to get replacement car but given that such a fatal issue occurred after just 6k km, I'd be concerned what else was not put together properly so would try to get a permanent car replacement.
You've about >< this much hope of swapping a year old car.... that's not a sensible option regardless of how the engine went. It's warrantied. It'll probably be swapped and should be.
Could it be something as simple as the oil cooler malfunctioning causing this?
It certainly looks bad, and the warning message all but confirms it.
As an aside, my sister had a Corsa which had similar mayo under the oil cap, but never lost a drop of coolant. I think it was just condensation, due to successive very short trips every day.
Certainly.
The tank is packed with oil mix. Not just some on the lid tbf. Imagine how all the pipes look.
I don't know that looks a lot worse than a bit of condensation. If it is an engine fault you just got an unlucky one as that 1 litre engine is out a few years at this stage a couple in the Clio(it was out in the Clio long before the Dacia's) and three years in the Sandero and I forget how many in the Duster. If it was a widespread problem we would have heard about it.
Does a 1l even have an oil cooler?
Oh yeah sorry I should have been more clear. This is oil in the coolant, not water in the oil, so this Dacia looks like it needs a new engine due to the coolant color, or work so serious that it would never be done and re-warrantied by the manufacturer.
It was really just to mention that you can have quite a serious build up on the oil cap (it was worse than this), and it may not be a major issue.
That's typically a condensate buildup which becomes an emulsion and then sits under the oil cap. You're right, that's not a concern, but buckets of mayo in the cooler header sure is!
Yeah yours right, for some reason I thought was just 3 months old.
Yes, it’s the Renault 1.0 turbo engine.
Thanks for all the helpful insights , have calmed the boss down a bit now and hopefully all will be sorted ASAP, got a Duster on loan in the meantime
Do those cars have a temperature gauge? If not, I'd wager the engine failure message is because it's running quite hot. Agree on the face of it that this looks like head gasket failure and is something those baby Renault engines are known for
something those baby Renault engines are known for
Where did you hear that as I never did. Got a link or anything?
Google "renault 0.9 tce engine problems". The HB4 engine has popped head gaskets and chewed timing chains. The newer 1.2TCE and 1.3TCe's are problematic too. Separate to the engines, the Renault electrics in some of them are comical. I've replaced a few UPC's for the weirdest faults imaginable.
That's a different engine. There an older 0.9 and the one the OP has is the newer 1 litre. Also that 0.9 litre engine is reliable too.
Maybe the dealer decided that the engine was cooked anyway so not much further harm in driving it?
Also, I guess it would depend on how far he had to drive it too. If the garage was only a couple of km away there wouldn't be time to build up that much heat. My car takes about 5 to 10km for the engine temp to reach 90C.
That's what it was ,part ordered should have it back soon , wife calmed down so all is good again ,
Thanks again for all the helpful input really appreciated
You want to make sure that entire coolant system is crystal clear when you get it back and monitor it going forward for a good few weeks. Every bit of oil needs to be flushed out of it.
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