Did my weekly check of the Octy yesterday morning before taking it for a long drive.  It's done a total of 1200km.
Oil looked super clean and hadn't moved in level since I collected the car a month ago.
BUT
Found this oily smelling and oily feeling fluid inside the coolant reservoir, and all this scum floating on the top of the red coolant. Immediately panicked that the engine was blown - I've heard of water in the oil before, but never oil in the water.

Urgent call to Skoda service dude at the dealership and described it, and he assured me that if the temp gauge never moves (it sits on a dedicated 90degrees) and the coolant level (without the scum) was between the min & max markers, then it was completely safe to drive.
He described the scum as remnants of slight lubrication fluids left inside the cooling system when the car was manufactured, which has just mixed with the coolant and caused the sludge.

What he described sounds reasonable to me, but I just want to know if anyone else has encountered this before?
I've had previous engines rebuilt & refitted and never found that in my coolant.

It's due for it's complimentary 1500km inspection (it's not really a service) next weekend, so I've asked them to make sure they do a complete drain, flush & refill of my cooling system, which they've agreed to do.

I'm no mechanic but don't feel that that is normal. My 63 plate VRS with 39k never had it and my current 66 VRS with 2k hasn't had it either.

Email that photo to them and see if they still say it's  nothing to worry about.

As above, the scum in your tank is not a normal feature.

 

Somebody has either accidentally poured oil into the coolant reservoir or you have a major issue developing.

 

Coolant should be a pink colour, as you look into the coolant reservoir on a new vehicle it should ppear clear & pink.

 

I would treat the mess you have in your tank as an item urgently requiring a Skoda Assist visit.

That's really not right.

Let's put it this way if I was looking at a car with that in the coolant I would walk away from it.

Yep - I agree it doesn't look right.

 

Have emailed them some more photos I took tonight - I've driven about 350km further since he told me yesterday it was OK to drive, so we'll see what they say tomorrow when they see the photos.

The sludge is very smooth and runny today - yesterday it was lumpy like soggy old cereal.

 

Coolant is still above minimum level, but is lower than it was yesterday - and the sludge layer looks thicker than yesterday too.

 

it's mixing oil and coolant. Dont drive it before fixing.

That's definite an emulsion of oil and water

That's happening either because of an issue with the head gasket or do these engines have a coolant fed oil cooler on them?

Well the engine oil looks perfect.  Nice colour and hasn't changed level since I picked up the car.  It's definitely not milky, the way I would expect it to be with a blown head gasket.

 

However, I'm unsure of the oil cooler arrangement.

 

Unless - as someone else has suggested - someone accidentally filled the wrong reservoir with oil instead of coolant, and it simply hasn't been flushed properly, and they're just trying to keep a bit quiet about it thinking they've already flushed the system sufficiently?

I`ve had an oil cooler failure on my old diesel Seat but didn`t look anything like yours. All my coolant turned into a black oily liquid. I was travelling long distance so I didn't`t notice until the next morning when the coolant warning light was flashing at me.

 

Got it replaced and I had to flush the reservoir for about 10 times until the oil disappeared from the system.  

Too much gunge there for it to align with their excuse about original manufacture debri. Milky appearance for light oil/water mix but added heat and mixing makes a big difference. Clearly needs some quick and in-depth investigation so insist on full written report of their investigations and findings, and at absolute minimum a full flush until you yourself see nice clear pink coolant (and I would check and record after their checks just for your absolute surety). Hope you get it sorted without further excuses.

Too much gunge there for it to align with their excuse about original manufacture debri. Milky appearance for light oil/water mix but added heat and mixing makes a big difference. Clearly needs some quick and in-depth investigation so insist on full written report of their investigations and findings, and at absolute minimum a full flush until you yourself see nice clear pink coolant (and I would check and record after their checks just for your absolute surety). Hope you get it sorted without further excuses.

 

Agreed that it looks excessive.  And my description over the phone on saturday morning may not have fully-conveyed the true extent of the scum involved - even though I made it pretty clear it was funky stuff inside the reservoir!

 

Will do as you've suggested - I've already insisted on a full flush/clean, but I'm going to make sure I have everything documented clearly.

The dealer I purchased from is 2-hours drive away, but there is a closer dealer that I will probably have to end up dealing with, if it turns out to be a serious issue that needs immediate work.

They should be able to do a sniff test on the coolant. It's quick and will answer the question.

They should be able to do a sniff test on the coolant. It's quick and will answer the question.

 

That would only detect hydrocarbons in the water where exhaust gasses are getting in to the cooling circuit as a result of HGF between a cooling gallery and a cylinder

 

HGF can also occur between oil and water galleries and the higher pressure oil is forced into the coolant (as appears to be the case in this thread) and wont be picked up by sniffer test

 

Whatever is at fault, the car here is in danger of critical damage from compromised cooling/lubrication IF HGF and I'd have them collect it asap - that's very unlikely to be remnants from manufacture - way, way too much.

Edited 16 October, 20169 yr by Wakey

That could be the result of the silica bag in the header tank splitting and causing the coolant to congeal.

A flush and retest might be the first thing for the dealer to try.

Oil in coolant can be a faulty head gasket, oil cooler or turbo charger.

I dont understand why that schould be a danger of critical damage.

Water in oil is a different story.

Let them flush the coolant system and see what happens.

I had this problem on my Octavia mk1 1.8-20v, and used it daily for almost a year before I changed the headgasket.

Oil in coolant can be a faulty head gasket, oil cooler or turbo charger.

I dont understand why that schould be a danger of critical damage.

Water in oil is a different story.

Let them flush the coolant system and see what happens.

I had this problem on my Octavia mk1 1.8-20v, and used it daily for almost a year before I changed the headgasket.

 

Because if the oil continues to contaminate the water it can clog up the narrow coolant galleries in the cylinder head and turbo and lead to overheating, blockages, hotspots all generally not good

Damn..... really panicking now! I followed the guys advice and drove a considerable distance since noticing/reporting it!

Silica bag? What's that about?

It's there to filter the coolant. It's just like a silica bag you get in a box of trainer etc but a bit more robust. They can split which causes the coolant to coagulate.

A new header tank (with the silica in a capsule rather than a bag) and a flush out will usually see you right.

I seriously hope that's the issue.... but very concerned about the oily consistency/smell.  There's definitely oil/hydrocarbons in that header tank.

Skoda Assist collecting the car today to take to service agent.

Will keep you guys updated on the results.

I wouldn't have driven it out of the dealers like that myself.

Whatever the cause, the coolant system isn't going to work like it should.

Hopefully it will be all ok.

Rather worrying a skoda dealership would suggest it's ok to drive like that.

Yeh - it wasn't like that when collecting the car.  Only since I've had it the last 4 weeks.

I think their suggestion that it was ok to drive, was based on the assumption that my panicked phone call was indicating there was a "slight oil film" on the coolant, rather than a half-inch thick layer or scum.

Probably just miscommunication at the time..... as soon as they saw the photos, they rang me and said "yeh mate, don't drive it like that."

 

4 days later - the service shop is still waiting for Skoda Australia to tell them what to do.... I suspect it's just a paperwork trail that needs to be done, to approve the warranty repair..... but they haven't told me exactly what the problem is yet.

All they've told me is that they SUSPECT it's a broken oil cooler.... but I won't have a definite answer until next week now.

If you have not already done so, request a coutesy car. If the scum turns out to be anything major they may keep your car for weeks.