oil in the coolant tank

[tossman]

Hi all
just wondering if anybody has had a head gasket fail on an axe engine ?
A couple of weeks a go I got the low coolant level message, and sure enough the coolant was down a bit.
Topped it up , but a couple of days later the message came back.
This time there was engine oil floating the top of the coolant, not much but it coated the level probes.
Cleaned out the bottle, refilled and away I went.
Next day same thing, oil where it shouldn't be. A bit of searching on the web says the oil cooler will be the culprit, new one of those and new seals..... but the same thing after fitting.

Its possible that the new cooler is a dud but
So now im thinking head gasket ?
Its done 300k which is pretty good going I know, but I would like to fix it.

Mark

[Umai Naa!!]

How well did you flush the cooling system?

VW sells a cleaning agent you can run through it to get the oil out.

[Sunny43.5]

Water pump comes to mind it will leak into the engine from what has been reported here before .

[tossman]

I just used a radiator cleaner /degreaser but did it 3 times, ran it through the engine for 20 mins each time then hooked the garden hose and ran it till the water ran out clean with the engine running.
I would love it to be the water pump but the oil is in the water , not the water in the oil

[The One]

Oil cooler always the culprit, you need to flush it proper with the VW flushing agent, I would flush for well over 30 mins each flush, it's tedious but it will fix it .

[Umai Naa!!]

Replace the coolant bottle too once its all clean.

[tossman]

That was my plan , but I want to get it all lovely and clean... even before I put the proper coolant in.
when I was cleaning it the water was grey and horrible for the first couple of times but its sort of clean with the black oil on top now
I have the feeling that with the cleaner in it the oil was still getting in the system but just "dissolved" hence the grey water.

[Umai Naa!!]

Yeah, you've got to get it up to operating temperature each time you drain it. The heat will help the oil break down in the detergent.

[grtuned]

Good luck with that it's a prick of a job cleaning out the oil even with the cleaning agent takes forever
My only advise is if you keep flushing clean out the reservoir every time until you feel it's all gone then replace the reservoir otherwise you'll be wasting your money.

[tossman]

I plan on replacing the bottle, but just want to be sure I clean out the system so I don't crap up the new one.
if its that bad a job maybe I have solved the problem but just need to clean some more.
as I said I have done the degrease, flush with a hose 3 times over 3 days...
may as well do it a couple more times, nothing to loose !

[Umai Naa!!]

Dump the coolant while it's at operating temperature.

Easiest way is to pull the temp sensor out of the radiator on the passenger's side.

[tossman]

Flushed and flushed but the oil keeps coming back.
I thought id give the old cooler a quick clean and then pressure test to make sure it was actually faulty.
Out of the cooler came some bits of rubber, quite large about 15mm long and 6mm wide .
One side of these rubber bits is smooth , the other side is matt like they have been bonded to something,
I reccon its the head gasket sealing layer delaminating.
I haven't seen a new gasket in the flesh, has anybody out there got one or had a look at one ?

[Umai Naa!!]

They're a multi-layer steel gasket.

No rubber on them at all.