Slow Coolant Loss and Tank Coffee

[everwax]

THX ATX, Oxford. Just posted a reply earlier to thstone but moderator intervention for some reason so do not think I'm not responding.

[everwax]

I'll try rephrasing a post that caused an auto-mod intervention.

The car 'feels' right. She wants to go. Just did a late night cool refuel and she was eager to trot. On urbans roads I am a gentle driver but on business runs when I hit the highway I change up at 4-5k and she pulls like a train and wants more. She feels 'right'.

I know this sounds dumb but you get a feel for a motor and this one doesn't feel like she's about to crap out on me.

[jb92563]

The thing that stands out from your symptoms is that you have oil in your coolant but NOT coolant in your oil.

To me this indicates that where the leak is taking place is where the oil pressure is greater than coolant pressure.

Its a tough guess but head gasket perhaps, although there are the other locations that thstone mentioned as well.

Does not sound like the D-Chunk cylinder failure but it does unfortunately sound like something you need to address before continuing to drive it.

Flashing Engine light means the engine needs to be shutdown ASAP to avoid serious damage.

Having air pockets in your coolant system could also cause strange temperature readings and perhaps the engine light is triggering from that.

Sorry to hear about your wife, been there with close family and relatives far too often, my compassion goes out to you.

[everwax]

Thanks, JB...

The engine light came on only after a brief 50 miles run back from the dealer when I first picked it up. The following morning I went to a local guy who had an engine management tester (the thing you plug in and reports diagnostics - not clued on this) and he said there was work done on the car but the EMU was not reset. He did so, and thereafter no warning light. BTW, it was the emission control light that came on. Sorry, was not specific in the earlier post. Still learning.

Can you all please have a little patience with me whilst I try to assimilate what is happening. I am trying to gather sufficient knowledge to understand what is going on and how much it will cost me to be able to take a decision and roll it in to my local workshop.

And thank you JB.... for your kind last remarks.

/Mike

[thstone]

Originally Posted by everwax

I'll try rephrasing a post that caused an auto-mod intervention.

The car 'feels' right. She wants to go. Just did a late night cool refuel and she was eager to trot. On urbans roads I am a gentle driver but on business runs when I hit the highway I change up at 4-5k and she pulls like a train and wants more. She feels 'right'.

I know this sounds dumb but you get a feel for a motor and this one doesn't feel like she's about to crap out on me.

Your car can certainly be running just fine whilst bad things can be happening inside the engine. In your case, do not mis-interpret a well running engine for an engine that has nothing wrong because you have clear evidence of intermix. How the engine drives or feels is somewhat irrelevant - all it tells you is that whatever problem exists either isn't serious or hasn't had time to affect the overall performance.

But the reality is that the failure has already occurred.

At this point, your goal needs to be to find out the root cause. It could be something as simple and easily repaired as a failed oil cooler (which tends to fail with oil in the coolant but not coolant in the oil, which is a good sign). But it could also be something as bad as a cracked head for which the engine will need to be rebuilt or replaced. Only a thorough inspection and testing from your mechanic can determine which it is.

Thus, you need to get the car into the shop and have your mechanic start to determine where the problem is.

I would not drive it any more than absolutely needed to get it into the shop.

I know this sounds dumb but you get a feel for a motor and this one doesn't feel like she's about to crap out on me.

My engine felt 100% normal until the moment that it blew up. They don't always fail gracefully with several indicators that something is wrong. But in your case, you have had two clear indicators that there is a problem (blinking CEL and oil in the coolant).

Let us know how it goes.

[everwax]

Fair enough, th... , I know you're talking sense to me - as are other contributors - I didn't want to listen to bad news last night.

However, best foot forward: I'm going to purge the coolant system and start from scratch because I have no idea when the problem started and therefore it may already have been evident when I purchased the car. (No admonishing me for being a pleb and not checking oil and water before I drove away, please.)

I hadn't driven the car for 2 days so the puff of smoke may have been due to inactivity pooling.

Nevertheless, I will heed comments and do local journeys only - like today, 2 miles for Tesco food hunt.

I'm going to get to the bottom of this but slowly and as funds permit. I don't want to junk her as a roller.