Unhappy looking coolant

[Blairyc]

2015 Octavia Rs TSI
 

As we’re coming out of lockdown now I did some general checks on the car (last service was 10 months ago), oil looked good and the level was fine but when I checked the coolant it was disgusting. It had a kind of oily gunk floating on the top that’s got me a bit worried. Could it be a water pump issue? The temp never goes over 90, but it only does fairly short journeys for the last few months, just to the shops and back usually 10-20 min tops. 
 

included some photos… 

 

keen on folks thoughts?.. 

 

think I’m going to book it into the garage regardless…. 

[SydneyVRS]

Unless there’s something I’m unaware of it won’t be the water pump as it’s typically just an impeller attached to a belt with it’s own bearing and no connection to the oil system. 
It’s a strange one as normally when you get oil in the coolant it goes a weird creamy colour. Possibly this is just fresh and you’ve caught it before it’s had time to happen. 
without being able to see touch and smell it I can’t speculate more than I have. Certainly get it checked.  

[Blairyc]

There wasn’t any milky residue around the oil cap either… I’ve seen head gaskets go and it’s a much more ‘rusty’ sludge that ends up in the coolant, but as you say might be just happening now… although the car only has 96k Km on it and I usually drive pretty gently as we have a baby. 
 

😞

[KenONeill]

@Blairyc - Never seen that before without mayonnaise (name used advisedly since the white stuff is an oil and water emulsion). I still suspect head gasket failure, but in the last 160km or so!

[Breezy_Pete]

Oil cooler I would guess.

[varaderoguy]

Oil mess - yuk. Agree with @Winoiit will probably be the oil cooler. Worst case there is something wrong with the internals of the engine and coolant is getting into the cylinder head.

 

Investigate replacement of the cooler, then do a coolant change....if it's still going that colour then it's the latter more serious issue.

 

The other thing to check is has your silica bag burst in the coolant tank as it would also cause similar (not exactly) the same issues.

[Swirly182]

4 hours ago, varaderoguy said:

The other thing to check is has your silica bag burst in the coolant tank as it would also cause similar (not exactly) the same issues.

Silica bag.... What's this for? 

[Blairyc]

Checked again this morning, I don’t see any bubbles or anything in the reservoir while the engine is running, but it’s definitely oil in there as it smells it feels oily. 
 

I did also notice a puff of white smoke this morning after the engine was warm and when under Harder acceleration… 

😞

[TheClient]

It looks like oil to me and if no bubbling and compression ok my first go to would be oil cooler as per some previous posters.

 

I wouldn't be driving it far prefer not at all if you can get recovered or do checks yourself. If  you've got oil in coolant you must have coolant in oil. 

 

Ps. Is it DSG? That also has an oil cooler. 

Edited 31 October, 2021 by TheClient

[varaderoguy]

9 hours ago, Swirly182 said:

Silica bag.... What's this for? 

It is meant for the lubrication and longevity of the coolant but they have a nasty habit of bursting and blocking the heater matrix and turning the coolant a horrible slidgy colour.

[Blairyc]

3 hours ago, TheClient said:

It looks like oil to me and if no bubbling and compression ok my first go to would be oil cooler as per some previous posters.

 

I wouldn't be driving it far prefer not at all if you can get recovered or do checks yourself. If  you've got oil in coolant you must have coolant in oil. 

 

Ps. Is it DSG? That also has an oil cooler. 

Yeah it is a DSG, I’m crossing my fingers it’s only the oil cooler if it’s the head I’ll be asking the Skoda dealer to help pay for it as I only bought it from 9 months ago with a full Skoda history and it’s only done 3k km since I bought it .

[Blairyc]

Took it to the garage this morning, they can’t say for sure if it’s the head or not but think it’s unlikely, they’re going to swap the Oil cooler, and the transmission cooler… and as the water pump was the original that will get swapped too…. My wallet will be a lot lighter… and still can’t say for sure it’s not the head… 😕 

[Boatman1]

Blairyc let us know how you get on, I have the same issue though fluid not as dark as yours, yet. Garage seems to think it's the head gasket but I'm thinking it's the original water pump problem. I had the silica bag in the reservoir and though the bag hadn't burst I had a blocked heater matrix twice. There are other threads on this topic and it seemed to come back to the water pump not being able to circulate the coolant resulting in a breakdown of the coolant hence the silica bag as a bodge solution. Many owners got their dealer to contribute to the installation of a new water pump/drive belt assembly. My coolant was a more ginger colour with a definite residue and drop in coolant level.

[Blairyc]

1 hour ago, Boatman1 said:

Blairyc let us know how you get on, I have the same issue though fluid not as dark as yours, yet. Garage seems to think it's the head gasket but I'm thinking it's the original water pump problem. I had the silica bag in the reservoir and though the bag hadn't burst I had a blocked heater matrix twice. There are other threads on this topic and it seemed to come back to the water pump not being able to circulate the coolant resulting in a breakdown of the coolant hence the silica bag as a bodge solution. Many owners got their dealer to contribute to the installation of a new water pump/drive belt assembly. My coolant was a more ginger colour with a definite residue and drop in coolant level.

Did you have any kind of milky residue on the oil cap? Mines didn’t, but that was always a sure fire sign of a head gasket failure, but I’m just not sure if i caught it early and hasn’t had time to crystallise as I’ve no idea quickly that happens.

 

garage said it might be a couple of days before I get it back. Will be sure to provide an update… 

 

I’d tried to book it into the dealer but they said it would be 2 weeks before they can even look at it so took it to the VW specialist I used with my last car. They’re usually pretty good so fingers crossed!! 

[KenONeill]

5 hours ago, Blairyc said:

milky residue on the oil cap? Mines didn’t, but that was always a sure fire sign of a head gasket failure

No it wasn't; it was a sure sign of water condensing in the rocker cover though.

[TheClient]

On 02/11/2021 at 01:56, Blairyc said:

Took it to the garage this morning, they can’t say for sure if it’s the head or not but think it’s unlikely, they’re going to swap the Oil cooler, and the transmission cooler… and as the water pump was the original that will get swapped too…. My wallet will be a lot lighter… and still can’t say for sure it’s not the head… 😕 

Well that sounds sensible replacements. It would be "nice" if they could of been a little more certain about ruling out the head gasket with diagnostics, suppose they're just covering their behinds..... If you did purchase from a dealer recently I'd go back to them and inform them you have a problem that is being investigated and fixed and see what their attitude is to statutory consumer protections.....

[Blairyc]

Got the car back this evening my wallet is $3700 lighter, the garage said I should bring it back in 500km to recheck the coolant and probably flush it again. I usually drive like a granny and only do short trips but they said I should try and do a longer drive (but not too long)… 
 

Will be keeping my eye on the coolant each day… I hope it’s all sorted but we’ll see. 

[TheClient]

Wow that's a lot of aud plastic notes!!! Parts are expensive on euro cars in oz too but boy. That hurts. No come back to who you purchased car from? 

[Blairyc]

Since my last post....

 

It's been a month since the car was in getting the oil and transmission coolers changed, everything was going till last week when parking after a short trip there was a weird gurgling noise from the engine, when i got out i noticed that there was coolant all over the road and parking bay... the cap on the expansion tank had failed and 1.5 L of coolant had escaped, bought a new cap and topped up the coolant and all was well again.

 

Took the car in this morning for the agreed 2nd visit to the garage (it was also due a service and it's Rego - bit like an MOT here in Oz), garage called me to tell me that the car has now sprung oil leaks from several spots, sump, timing chain cover, rocker cover etc. they think the PCV valve has failed and the increased pressure has caused a bunch of oil leaks.

 

FML... so that's going to be another $3400 (AUD) to fix the seals, PCV valve, service and coolant flush.

 

I haven't followed up with the dealer, maybe i should but i don't have the energy to listen to their bullsh!t, every time I've spoken to the service manager he has lied to me... parts he had ordered for me but clearly didn't, accessories that he told me didn't exist but i then bought from another Skoda dealer, some nonsense about how the rear passenger door is suppose to let water gather in the bottom of it.

 

I love the car, but it's killing my wallet. hoping this is the end of it now otherwise i might need to consider what i'm going to do with it as that's $7.5k i'll have spent on fixing it this year and i'm trying to save for our first home... 😞

 

 

[SydneyVRS]

Which dealer is this out of interest? 

[Blairyc]

Botany, sales guy was good, not pushy at all. Took the car back in twice to get a few things sorted under warranty in the first 3 months. First time was the gearbox (DSG) was feeling weird they arranged for a tech to come out with me for a drive(who was a really nice and knowledgable guy) and he agreed it felt really wrong, but before had I had the service manager tell me how you had to really drive the cars and not ‘granny’ them, he then told me how he took another customers car for a weekend after they had brought it in with a similar gearbox query. He said he ragged the car a bit and when he handed it back the customer was happy as the gearbox had learned a different shift pattern. 

second time I took it in was to get some accessories fitted and to get a coolant leak looked at. On the phone I told him the issue with the car and we booked it in, then I told him the accessories I wanted, gave him the part numbers but I could tell he wasn’t paying any attention and was just saying ‘yep’. Brought the car in as requested and asked him about the accessories and if he had them, he said yes, then when I asked for the price he then said he had entered them into the system but no one had ordered them, then asked me what I had asked for again as he couldn’t find a record to give me a price.

 

he called me later to tell me you don’t get mud flaps for the Octavia (you do) and he told me the rear bumper protector was Aluminium when in fact it’s plastic, even when we went out look at it he swore it was metal even although we’re looking at it and it’s clearly plastic. 
 

Anyway, that was my experience, not keen on going back… 

Edited 6 December, 2021 by Blairyc
Clarity

[SydneyVRS]

On 06/12/2021 at 12:43, Blairyc said:

Botany, sales guy was good, not pushy at all. Took the car back in twice to get a few things sorted under warranty in the first 3 months. First time was the gearbox (DSG) was feeling weird they arranged for a tech to come out with me for a drive(who was a really nice and knowledgable guy) and he agreed it felt really wrong, but before had I had the service manager tell me how you had to really drive the cars and not ‘granny’ them, he then told me how he took another customers car for a weekend after they had brought it in with a similar gearbox query. He said he ragged the car a bit and when he handed it back the customer was happy as the gearbox had learned a different shift pattern. 

second time I took it in was to get some accessories fitted and to get a coolant leak looked at. On the phone I told him the issue with the car and we booked it in, then I told him the accessories I wanted, gave him the part numbers but I could tell he wasn’t paying any attention and was just saying ‘yep’. Brought the car in as requested and asked him about the accessories and if he had them, he said yes, then when I asked for the price he then said he had entered them into the system but no one had ordered them, then asked me what I had asked for again as he couldn’t find a record to give me a price.

 

he called me later to tell me you don’t get mud flaps for the Octavia (you do) and he told me the rear bumper protector was Aluminium when in fact it’s plastic, even when we went out look at it he swore it was metal even although we’re looking at it and it’s clearly plastic. 
 

Anyway, that was my experience, not keen on going back… 

 

Well I'm a filthy westy so I won't be venturing that far that i have to worry about it ha.