Brown coolant Vrs

[kellaway86]

Guys

I've only had my Vrs a month and the coolant is a nasty brown Colour.

Now first thoughts are head gasket, but there is no oil in the coolant / water in the oil. It's not using any water / oil and runs fine and at the correct temp.

I was thinking that some one had mixed g12 with normal anti freeze and caused It, how ever I've now changed the coolant flushed the system with a hose pipe and the new g13 coolant has returned stright away to brown.

I'm thinking my next option is drop the coolant again run some sort of coolant flush then refill and try again.

Any one else came across this problem before.

I'm hoping the previous owner has not chucked a bottle of rad weld in the system.

[VRSD30]

Was it that colour when you got it?  I'd be surprised if head gasket leaking oil into the coolant would've turned the new G13 brown straight away. Could be rust if the coolant has degraded over time and hasn't been changed for many years/miles and they've been topping it up with just water which would cause corrosion, and I think radweld can make coolant turn a rusty colour. 

[SuperbTWM]

Due to the thermostat being closed you have probably only flushed out half the system. I would disconnect the radiator and flush that out separately.

[sepulchrave]

Brown coolant is usually due to the presence of vile Radweld put in by a previous owner, as stated you must remove the thermostat if you want to thoroughly flush the system through but don't be surprised if your rad starts leaking.

[kellaway86]

Due to the thermostat being closed you have probably only flushed out half the system. I would disconnect the radiator and flush that out separately.

That makes sense to me! As it stayed the correct colour untill it got up to temp!

Yer the coolant was that colour when I purchased the car, but coming from French cars I wasn't overly concerned untill i did abit more reading and discovered what colour the system should be. The system is not pressurised either when cold so pretty sure it's not head gasket.

I think my game plan is going to be buy a new thermostat as it's most likely original and having dune 117k I might as well change it if I remove it to flush the system again.

I'm probably going to need a new expansion tank as well as the current one is stained this lovely brown colour!

[SuperbTWM]

Sounds like a plan, It would also be worth inspecting the radiator for damage or looking at the bottom for corrosion. At least then you might be able to tell if somebody has rad-welded it or not

[kellaway86]

Sounds like a plan, It would also be worth inspecting the radiator for damage or looking at the bottom for corrosion. At least then you might be able to tell if somebody has rad-welded it or not

Will do cheers [emoji3]