oil + coolant = disaster ?

MB44

My car was overheating and I got a friednt o have a look at it. So he said i was low on oil. He filled it up and all was fine. until it was driven . It smoked up again and white foam started to leak from the bottom of the car. After checking out the engine i realised he poured the oil into the coolant container. Can this be easily fixed or has the car been destroyed. plase let me know

Revelation Joe

Well you've now got oil in the cooling system, which means it's probably in the radiator and also the waterways in the engine block.
Plus you *haven't* got oil where you should have.
It certainly doesn't look good I'm afraid...
But if it overheated, surely you're more likely to be low on coolant than oil?

Del

cpoh1

That is absolutely hilarious!

Seriously though, empty your coolant system out flush it with more collant and then top it up. What type of car is it?

MB44

its a fiat. how do you empty it. Btw it is quite funny

Jumpy

This is just a guess, but would you need to flush it with some sort of degreaser as well?

Esel

The car will probably need to be flushed out using a proprietary flushing product. I think you would be well advised to consider getting this done by a trained mechanic, given the unusual nature of the situation.

Oh, and don't let that friend near anything again! What a dork tbh.

MB44

thanks for the advice. I wont be lettin him near it trust me. He is the type of person that knows it all saying "trust me your in good hands with me" ye rite

Darragh29

MB44 wrote:

My car was overheating and I got a friednt o have a look at it. So he said i was low on oil. He filled it up and all was fine. until it was driven . It smoked up again and white foam started to leak from the bottom of the car. After checking out the engine i realised he poured the oil into the coolant container. Can this be easily fixed or has the car been destroyed. plase let me know

OK, problem is not as bad as it sounds. First things first, don't run the engine for the moment until you do the tasks below:

(1) Get someone (other than your friend above!), to top up the engine oil to the correct level...

(2) What you need to do then is disconnect the rubber water hose from the bottom of the radiator and let the oil/coolant mixture drain out. Use come kind of container to collect it and dispose of this stuff.

(3) Remove the plastic coolant expansion tank (this is what your mate put the oil into by mistake), and drain out whatever oil/coolant is in there. If you can remove this tank (should be easy as its small and easily assessible), bring it into the kitchen and rinse it out a few times with some washing up liquid to break down any oil thats in there and rinse it out.

(4) Buy some radiator flushing oil from a motor factor.

(5) Refit the coolant expansion tank & hoses above, reconnect bottom radiator hose and read & follow the instructions on the container for the flushing fluid. This fluid is used mainly when a head gasket goes and the oil and coolant get mixed. This flushing oil is put into the radiator instead of the coolant and allowed flow through the system with the engine for about 30 minutes (depending on type of flushing oil, always follow the instructions!) and will clean out the radiator, and the whole cooling system of oil and any other contaminants that might be in there. Note, you might have to bleed some air out of the system by opening a bleed valve on the thermostat housing or on an upper cooling hose to get air out of the system and to get the system completely full with solution.

You'll have to disconnect the bottom radiator hose to let this flushing oil out again after you've run the engine for about 30 minutes, which will have picked up all the oil and gunk in your cooling system. Be careful as it will be very hot, approximately 95-100 degrees.

For some flushing oils, this is a two stage process, you have to do one flush with one type of oil, drain this out as above and then repeat the process with a second solution.

Lastly, you'll have to disconnect the bottom radiator hose to let the flushing mix out and reconnect this hose put in proper engine coolant onto the radiator or expansion tank. Be sure there is no air left in the system, otherwise you'll have overheating problems.

If you haven't run the engine for too long after the mistake was made, the problem shouldn't be too bad.

You mentioned that there was a white foam coming from under the car, this probably just passsed by the cap on the expansion valve when the engine overheated and dripped over the engine and down onto the ground. It could be a case though where there is a leak in the system, when your doing your flushing, check for drips/leaks under the car, especially when it was overheating before your friend put the oil in. If you find a leak/drip, get someone to rev the engine while you look at the leak and see if the rate of drip increases with the increase in engine RPM, If it does, you could have a leak in an engine hose of you could have a water pump problem and need to get it replaced.

If you see signs of serious overheating at the dashboard gauge, stop the test until you know what the problem is to prevent serious engine damage.

Let me know how you get on, whole excercise should take no more than a hour...

sohappy

would it be fair to say that the car wasn't low on oil at all but low on water, as the guy looked into the expansion bottle instead of lookin at the dipstick,,
also after he flushes the system he still needs to find out why the car overheated in the first place,,,,,,

did he have a water leak?.......
faulty thermostat? ,,,
faulty water pump?,,
head gasket?,,,,

peasant

Darragh29 wrote:

(2) What you need to do then is disconnect the rubber water hose from the bottom of the radiator and let the oil/coolant mixture drain out. Use come kind of container to collect it and dispose of this stuff.

(3) Remove the plastic coolant expansion tank (this is what your mate put the oil into by mistake), and drain out whatever oil/coolant is in there. ..

Where would you actually dispose off this mess??

Surely you wouldn't just pour it down the drain ...coolant is poisonous and oil is a massive pollutant to ground water.

Are there any places where you can actually dispose of this properly?

Seth Brundle

consult your local authority about disposal of the fluids.
My sister did the same thing as the OPs dopey friend! Nice mess alright

byte

Amenity Centres usually have a facility for waste oil, so I'd imagine this stuff will fall under that category also.

crosstownk

Locate the lowest hose on the radiator. Remove it. Collect the fluid that spills out. Fill the cooling system again and use some degreaser/coolant system cleanser from a motor factors. Run the engine for 10 mins. Repeat a few times. Dispose of all fluids in an environmentally friendly fashion. All will be well. Get your mate to buy you a load of pints.

Interceptor

Did he actually tell you he poured the oil into the expansion tank? If your head gasket is badly blown, oil will be transferred across into the coolant channels and will collect in the expansion tank, also you may get oil/water mix being forced out where the head and block meet - hence the white gack you describe leaking from the bottom of the car.

Get someone familiar with Fiat head gaskets to check it before you waste a saturday flushing a cooling system when you need something more serious.

If it is only accidental filling of the expansion tank, then buy a bottle of Bardahl cooling system flush and leave it in for a few days while you drive around - it removes oil and corrosion in the cooling system.

'cptr

Darragh29

peasant wrote:

Where would you actually dispose off this mess??

Surely you wouldn't just pour it down the drain ...coolant is poisonous and oil is a massive pollutant to ground water.

Are there any places where you can actually dispose of this properly?

Put it in your friends petrol tank! ;-) Only messin, I think the Co. Councils have a disposal facility for this kind of stuff...

JohnCleary

Flush it with a de-greaser. Don't know the name of the stuff but I used it to flush a system in the past after a HG failure