The penetration of engine oil into the coolant in a car is a fairly common phenomenon. If such a problem is found, it is necessary to contact a specialist to fix it.
Devices through which two components pass - oil and coolant, are completely sealed and independent of each other, so the presence of oil particles in the cooling system is not the norm. In this case, special attention should be paid, if there is oil in the cooling system of a diesel engine, find out the reasons.
The first signs of leakage of engine oil and cooling element
Vehicle owners, while servicing their vehicle periodically, may encounter some problems indicating the fact that fluid is leaking in the vehicle. These include:
- the presence of dense smoke;
- if the color of the engine fluid or coolant has changed;
- when checking the cylinder liners, their curvature was detected;
- the amount of coolant has decreased;
- clots are observed on the oil filter;
- there was a rather unpleasant smell in the coolant.
If such signs are found, then you need to find the reason for the ingress of engine oil into the cooling elements.
Why does oil get into the engine coolant?
After detecting the first signs of a leak, it is necessary to determine the problem that led the relevant devices of the car to such a state. The presence of oil in the cooling system of an automobile engine is affected by the following reasons:
- there is mechanical damage in the radiator or oil cooler;
- the cylinder block or oil cooler gasket is worn and has lost its elasticity or cracked.
The cooling system and the oil cooler are absolutely sealed, but their constituent elements (hoses, pipes) are in contact with each other. In places of friction of hoses and gaskets of systems, cracks may occur, as a result of which the engine fluid immediately enters the vehicle's cooling system or vice versa.
A separate reason for oil to get into antifreeze should be noted the use of a coolant that is not appropriate for a particular car. No need to add any antifreeze to the required level. Different refrigerant manufacturers use a variety of additives that are necessary to maintain a protective oxide layer on the cylinder liner.
Using refrigerants with different additives can damage the cooling elements. An insufficient amount of additives in the refrigerant used will accelerate chemical reactions and system deformation, and an excessive amount increases the likelihood of premature corrosion of the system surface.
Causes of engine oil getting into the diesel engine cooling system
Particular attention should be paid to the diesel car engine. The diesel engine is more polluted when it is not in operation. During the cooling process of a diesel engine, thermal changes occur in the cylinder head, leading to a change in the location of gaskets and seals. All this is the reason for oil to enter the diesel engine cooling radiator and vice versa.
Drivers with experience can correctly determine the cause of the leak. But sometimes they also need the help of a specialized service company. In such services, a special luminous liquid is added to the cooling system to determine the location of the leak, which allows you to accurately determine the location of the leak.
But it is not always possible to find cracks or a place of system depressurization in this way. In this case, specialists have to disassemble the entire structure and determine the elements of the malfunction.
How to understand if engine oil and refrigerant are mixed?
It is necessary to contact a service company to diagnose a car on the issue of oil leakage into antifreeze if the motorist understands by certain signs that this has happened. So, if in the process of getting rid of the coolant in the car, a rather thick dark liquid is found, particles of which are on the surface of the coolant, then most likely the oil got into the antifreeze.
By dipping an ordinary napkin into particles floating on the surface of antifreeze, and setting it on fire, the napkin will burn. The presence of soot particles in engine oil also indicates a leak. Another problem is possible here, when soot particles are clogged into the filter. This can lead to a complete lack of oil passing through the filter and, consequently, to cylinder failure.
The coolant is based on an alcohol solution, therefore, when oil enters it, a certain chemical reaction takes place with oil and antifreeze additives. This is subsequently reflected in the cleanliness of important elements of both diesel and gasoline engines.
The most dangerous in diesel engines is the curvature of the walls of the cylinder liner, which leads to the entry of part of the antifreeze into the combustion chamber. As a result, the coolant will not have the correct density and the engine will stop.
Replacing the gasket when repairing a leak
To eliminate the leakage of engine oil into the car's coolant due to a worn gasket, you need to install a new one. For the replacement procedure, you will need distilled water, a new gasket, a new coolant.
First, the structure should be washed with a special cleaning liquid. To do this, you need to pour cleaning liquid into the cooling structure of the car, turn on the engine for the time it takes to start the fan. Then you need to empty the system by draining the used antifreeze from it. Antifreeze is drained through a hole located behind the engine or radiator plugs.
The oil cooler is disassembled into its component parts. In this case, the motorist should be guided by the server description for the vehicle, since the disassembly procedure depends on the particular vehicle. After disassembly, the entire system must be thoroughly cleaned and worn gaskets replaced with new ones. Gaskets should be purchased for a specific car.
After replacing the gasket, the car owner should clean the coolant reservoir. Alternatively, you can purchase a new tank and install in place of the old one. After washing or buying, the tank is fixed in place. Pour the required amount of distilled water into the tank and turn on the engine.
The engine should run until the cooling fan turns on. After the engine has been running for 10 minutes, it should be stopped. Here you can see that as the motor cools down, the fan also turns off. After these manipulations, the motorist needs to drain the distilled water.
Washing is carried out several times. It is necessary to pay attention to the poured distilled water. It must not contain engine oil particles. After flushing the coolant system, you can fill in a new high-quality antifreeze recommended by experts.
The final stage of the repair of the cooling system
At the end of the procedure, you must turn on the engine and press the gas pedal. At the same time, you need to squeeze the pipes of the car's cooling system with the cover of the expansion tank closed. This procedure will prevent the formation of air in the cooling system. Because one person cannot cope with the process, an assistant is required.
When using the car in the future, you should periodically open the expansion tank to release air plugs.
The basic rule for a motorist is to keep the engine clean. In order to contact service companies less often, it is necessary to undergo maintenance in a timely manner, check the quantity and quality of oil in the system, regularly replace engine oil and coolant.
In motor oil - a very unpleasant situation. But you need to separate the concepts of “antifreeze getting into oil” and “water getting into oil”. This issue is very relevant for passenger car engines, because. very many of them are equipped with a heat exchanger located on the oil filter housing, in which the oil performs heat exchange with the coolant. Internal leakage of these heat exchangers is a very common occurrence, in connection with this, antifreeze gets into the oil.
The probability of oil getting into oils is much higher when the engine is running, and when the engine is not running, when the system pressure is equal to the outside atmospheric pressure, the plug will hold pressure (about 0.5 bar) for about 10 minutes. It is very difficult to detect such a defect in a timely manner, because the volume of leaks is very small (with the exception of "neglected" cases, when oil stains are visible on the surface in the expansion tank).
It's even harder to detect antifreeze in oil. Although the main component of the coolant is water, the oil is affected not only by water, but also by other substances present in the composition of antifreeze. Ethylene glycol negatively affects the processes in the engine more than water. Studies show that the content in the system becomes dangerous already at a value of 0.3 - 0.4%.
After antifreeze gets into the oil, the following can happen:
- With a high content of antifreeze in the oil, soot clots are formed with the formation of deposits in the cavities and oil channels. In this regard, the throughput of the oil filter and oil channels in particular is reduced.
- Balls of ethylene glycol and oil are formed, very hard, having an abrasive property. These balls can severely clog the oil filter and cause abrasion and scuffing of cylinders, camshaft and crankshaft plain bearings.
- Ethylene glycol is capable of forming acids, some of which are unstable and some of which are converted to salts that cause engine corrosion.
- Reduced antifriction properties in the oil.
- The oil film becomes unstable, i.e. “breaks” very quickly.
Engine lubricant and technical cooling fluid, with the optimal operation of all mechanisms of the system, should not come into contact - each product moves along its own paths and performs a specific function. If some working elements of the auto system become unusable, the car owner, with an additional visual inspection of the coolant level, may find that the oil gets into the antifreeze, and as you know, the penetration of lubricant into the antifreeze system is not considered common for cars. If such a flaw appears, then you should ask what factor this problem is associated with, and how you can get rid of it.
How to check that motor lubricant has entered the coolant
In practice, most car owners notice too late that lubricant is getting into the coolant. This creates serious problems. This situation may occur as a result of a defective cylinder seal, or a fistula in the area of the heat exchanger seal. The presence of lubrication in the cooler can also indicate problems related to the failure of the oil cooler. Symptoms of the problem:
Changing the properties of antifreeze
When the coolant is removed, it becomes clear that the remnants of antifreeze flowed down in dark streaks, that the liquid changed density - it thickened and poured out unreasonably slowly. This indicator is characterized by the fact that the lubricant cannot be mixed with TOSOL, since they have different viscosities and massiveness. Therefore, the lubricant that has entered the tank always rises to the top and, when the technical fluid is removed from the system, it flows out last.
The coolant acquires the ability to ignite
To make sure there is lubricant in the antifreeze system, the solution is ignited. To do all this in a smart way, you need an ordinary napkin, which should be lowered into a tank with a technical composition and ignited in a safe place. If a certain amount of lubricant is present in the system, then the paper personal care item will quickly ignite and burn. If there is pure antifreeze without impurities in the tank, then it will not work to set fire to the paper with the solution.
Car filtration system clogged with mixing elements
When mixing TOSOL and oil, small lumps appear that are not able to pass through the filtration channel. Eventually the oil filter will quickly lose its performance and circulation of the oil solution will become impossible. It is important to know that such accumulations can lead to wear of bearing assemblies and cylinders.
It is worth mentioning the fact of the reverse mixing of liquids, that is, antifreeze gets into the oil. This situation leads to the formation of a reaction between the liquids, and this accelerates the corrosion process of the mechanisms of the power unit. In addition, engine oil begins to lose its useful characteristics.
What to do if oil gets into the cooler?
If the driver of the vehicle noticed that the coolant and engine oil are mixed with each other, then it is advisable to start troubleshooting without delay. Typically, this problem occurs as a result of worn coolant oil packing. The seal cannot be regenerated, so it must be replaced.
To replace the oil cooler packing, you need to use the recommendations of experts:
First you need to flush the circulation system through which the coolant moves. You need to do this with a special solution - it can be purchased at any automotive point of sale. The solution is poured into the antifreeze container, the car engine starts for several minutes so that the technical fluid can warm up to the optimum value. When the cooling fan starts, this will be a signal that the engine of the machine should be turned off, completing the flushing of the channel.
Waste fluid must be removed from the device. For this, containers are prepared in advance and placed under the bottom of the machine. The antifreeze drain plug is unscrewed until the composition has completely drained from the tank.
The oil cooler needs to be removed. On each brand of car, this is done differently, so before starting the operation, you should carefully study the technical documentation of the transport.
After removing the element, it must be disassembled and cleaned, getting rid of the remnants of the previous seal. In place of the old gaskets, you should install new ones previously purchased for a specific brand of machine. After that, the coolant container is removed and also cleaned well. If it is worn out, it should be replaced with a new one.
The next operation will be the reverse installation of the tank and the oil cooler to the previous point. After that, you can flush the channel. Purified water is required to flush the system. It must be poured into the antifreeze tank and the car engine turned on, while turning off the secondary process of blowing the cabin. When the engine warms up, you need to turn the blower back on. In this position, let the power unit run for several minutes. Then turn off the engine of the machine and let the water cool down.
After cooling, the purified water from the tank can be poured out and a fresh portion of the purified composition added, and the channel flushing procedure repeated. Then the water is again poured out of the system and antifreeze recommended by the manufacturer is poured into the container.
The final step in the process will be getting rid of the air. It is impossible to do it alone, you will need outside help. Assistant actions: start the engine by repeatedly pressing the gas pedal. At this time, the owner of the car in unison squeezes the cooler pipe. Then the lid is slightly opened to allow excess air masses to escape into the atmosphere. The process of replacing the oil cooler seal can be considered completed.
If a situation arose when the described operations for changing the packing did not give the desired result and the oil still gets into the antifreeze, then you can try to install a new cylinder block seal or consult with specialists in the maintenance service.
The first sign getting antifreeze or antifreeze into the engine oil (into the sump) is a constant decrease in the level of this coolant without visible streaks from the outside. Simply put, if you look under the engine on dry asphalt and it is dry there, but at the same time the antifreeze “disappears” somewhere, then there is a possibility that it “leaves” into the engine sump. As they said before - "the water went into the pan."Second way determine that the antifreeze went into the pan - by the color of the oil. If you pull out the dipstick and look closely at it, then the oil should be thick black or brown (if it was recently changed). But if the color of the oil has changed or a white veil has appeared, it means that antifreeze is clearly getting there. When antifreeze is mixed with oil, this whole mixture becomes like white soap suds with a brown tint. (The color may also be yellow or green, depending on the color of the antifreeze filled in). It is highly undesirable to drive on such oil. In no case do not start the engine with such oil in severe frost.
There can be three reasons why antifreeze gets into the oil:
1. Punched cylinder head gasket
2. It pierced the cylinder head itself.
3. Deformation of the head (Head "led").
This can be found out only after removing (dismantling) the cylinder head from the engine.
In the first case repairs will be relatively inexpensive - a new gasket costs an average of 800-1000 rubles, the main costs will be during dismantling (removing and installing) the block head from the engine (plus new antifreeze and oil)
In the second case- pierced the cylinder head itself, i.e. somewhere the partition separating the oil and water channels cracked.
In the third case- the inner part of the block head, which is adjacent to the engine, is deformed.
The second and third options are complex repairs and serious expenses. You will have to fork out for a new block head, gasket and possibly some other elements of the cooling system (pipes, clamps, etc.), plus you will have to fill in new antifreeze and new oil. If you don’t feel sorry for the money, also change the pump (water pump), if it has never been changed.
The price of a new cylinder head (cylinder head) is impressive. There is reason to think - if the car is already "over 40", then it may be better to sell it "as is" and buy another one. There is an option to put a used head, in this case you will have to travel around the disassembly, where emergency vehicles are dismantled. I STRONGLY recommend changing the head in a normal (verified) car service,
Otherwise, you will have to redo everything later in another service. You can do it at the official - they will give a guarantee.
I would not advise repairing my old head,(boil with argon or “grind”). Overheated heads do not last long, it can crack somewhere else or (if it is led) - deform again. It is better to get rid of it (hand over to the non-ferrous metal collection point).
The cause of this malfunction is frequent overheating of the engine. You should always monitor the coolant level and look at the engine temperature arrow. If it often began to go off scale, then there is a reason to open the hood and check the level of antifreeze. In some models, the cooling systems are quite reliable and there is not even a temperature sensor on the instrument panel; the automation quickly monitors changes in the temperature of the coolant. Such cars are found, for example, in the model range of Fiat and Volkswagen. (Fiat-500, diesel VW-Caddy).
There can be several reasons for an engine overheating. For example, on some early Peugeot models (Peugeot-206, Peugeot-Partner), a thermal sensor or relay sometimes fails, which turn on the radiator cooling fan. Or the contacts on the fan itself or on the relay (which is on the fan casing) are oxidized, due to which the fan either stops working altogether, or turns on late (at t about 110 C), or works intermittently (sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t) . In this case, it is better to fill in good antifreeze with a boiling point above 110 C. There are times when the thermostat fails. Or as they say "jammed". Those. it simply stops “opening up” and does not let antifreeze in a large circle. On my Peugeot Partner, I GENERALLY dismantled it and it became much easier. After that, the fan began to work 100% without failures. True, in winter the engine warms up longer than usual, but with good oil (5W30 synthetics) this is not a problem. It is not recommended to do this on diesel engines, because. diesel engines are not prone to overheating, and in winter they heat up for a very long time, even with a normal thermostat.
May 2015. Based on site materials
Among the various malfunctions of an internal combustion engine, one may encounter the fact that the working fluid from the cooling system begins to enter. We note right away that there are several reasons for such a breakdown, ranging from and ending.
Given the above information, it becomes clear that if antifreeze or antifreeze gets into the oil, the consequences for the engine can be catastrophic. The same can be said about cases where ordinary water is used in the cooling system.
The entry of coolant into the lubrication system will be indicated by air bubbles in the expansion tank, a decrease in the liquid level in the cooling system, an increase in the engine oil level, an emulsion on the dipstick and the oil filler cap, and a number of other signs.
It is important to understand that water in oil will lead to a major overhaul in the further operation of the engine. Even a slight ingress of water into the lubrication system is already a reason for the immediate termination of the operation of the power unit. Also, after complete troubleshooting, the engine oil must be changed, and the lubrication system must be flushed.
To this we can add that the composition of the latest generations of motor oils includes a whole package of active detergents, antiwear and extreme pressure, as well as antifriction (energy saving) and antioxidant additives. In practice, this means that there are at least 1/3 of such additives in the oil base. It turns out that the ingress of water into the oil will inevitably cause a whole chain of undesirable chemical reactions.
Finally, we note that if antifreeze, antifreeze or water get into the engine lubrication system, it is better to stop the engine immediately and deliver the car to the service station not under its own power. It is cheaper to replace a blown gasket or even repair a crack in the head or than to change the liners, and the camshaft or overhaul the engine.
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What malfunctions does the emulsion on the dipstick and oil filler cap indicate. Ways to independently determine the causes of this problem.
