Oil drops in coolant, no intermix
 

I have a new issue with my 2001 986S that I am having trouble sorting out, and would appreciate hearing your thoughts. Car has 107k miles, is driven regularly and runs beautifully.

While checking my coolant, noticed a slimy white film on the cap and around the fill opening. Same stuff floating on top of coolant. Not mixed with coolant - the coolant is clear, nice and pink. Just changed the oil, it and filter looked great with no signs of incursion of any foreign material. Oil level remains steady.

I removed the slimy stuff - when put on paper towel, it is the same color as oil. At this point the coolant tank was clean (although tank is old and faded) and coolant clear all the way to bottom of tank.

Took a spirited drive for about 30 min, came back and found more slimy stuff floating on top of coolant. You can see it in the attached picture - the globs of slimy stuff, and that coolant is clear to bottom of tank.

I think the slimy stuff could be from one of four sources:

1) Residual gunk from when car was built.
2) What is left of different type of coolant the previous owner used - coolant I drained and replaced with pink Porsche coolant was green.
3) Leaking heads, which is an issue with this era (2000-2002) M96. However I would think this would result in more oil incursion and intermix.
4) Oil cooler leak. This is my prime suspect, as the amount of oil is very small, and may be making its way to the coolant tank via the vent line that comes from top of cooler to the reservoir.

I have done a lot of reading, looks like others have had a similar issue that was caused by the oil cooler. Before I buy an oil cooler and hope for the best, thought I would reach out to you guys on the forum to see if you have been through a similar experience, or have thoughts to share.

Thanks!

Gary

Here is what the slimy stuff looks like when absorbed into a paper towel.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1524434430.jpg

Might be the oil cooler o rings...

Please can this persistent impossibility end????? It has far outlived it's time. The exchanger's oil and water inlet and outlet ports have ATMOSPHERE outside the O-rings. There is NO way to leak externally to the atmosphere and then travel into a water or oil port that is pressurized. If the O-rings leak, oil or coolant will leak onto the top of the engine. The exchanger must leak internally to cause intermix. Not externally. Rant over.

Might want to check both rear fog lights.....

Thanks for the education.

Too many years of working on 924S/944 oil coolers where the O rings can cause this problem.

I really miss my old air cooled cars......No coolant.

Good Luck. Hope this helps.

Thanks guys. I will pull the oil cooler and check it out. Hope this is the issue!