Omega Owners Forum
Omega Help Area => Omega General Help => Topic started by: gbh on 01 July 2016, 20:00:36
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I ran the car today for the first time since an oil cooler change and multi flushes,so was surprised to see the expansion tank had a dark colour,on checking my lovely pink anti freeze was now an oily brown colour. Is this just the old oil still in the water system loosening itself or something more serious?When to remove and refill with fresh anti freeze or should i go for water only?
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Others might
frighten inform you of other possibilities, but it is certainly cheaper to continue flushing with water, especially as we are far enough into our so-called summer for their not to be much risk of a freeze-up.
Ron.
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I ran the car today for the first time since an oil cooler change and multi flushes,so was surprised to see the expansion tank had a dark colour,on checking my lovely pink anti freeze was now an oily brown colour. Is this just the old oil still in the water system loosening itself or something more serious?When to remove and refill with fresh anti freeze or should i go for water only?
It requires a lot of flushing, so I'd make several quick water only flushes until I knew it was clear. The suggestion is to use a dishwasher tablet to help break down the emulsion which seems like a good idea to me.
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Put some liquid dish washer detergent in expansion tank then fill with water, drive for couple miles flush and repeat as required.
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I ran the car today for the first time since an oil cooler change and multi flushes,so was surprised to see the expansion tank had a dark colour,on checking my lovely pink anti freeze was now an oily brown colour. Is this just the old oil still in the water system loosening itself or something more serious?When to remove and refill with fresh anti freeze or should i go for water only?
Requires 25+ flushes, a box of dish washer liquid tabs a hose and only using water until clear. Do not drive it between flushes...
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Before driving and after cooler change i did many flushes with dishwasher tablets and sure enough plenty of oily gunk came out and when i thought i was sure i put the anti freeze in.Of course i ran the car up to temperature as well but this is more liquidy with no bits just thicker than water but the car ran ok and did not overheat although it did get up to almost 90c.
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How many flushes?
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At least 20
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Once oil gets into the radiator no amount of cold flushing is going to shift it - it will stay there until the engine is hot enough to get the thermostat wide open - hence the advice not drive a car with a failing oil cooler.
If you are certain that the oil cooler is fixed and if you can't face another 25 flushes then a new radiator might be worth considering..........
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The oil cooler had failed and i replaced it and have flushed repeatedly to get the oil out which took quite a while and was pale like sewage and have brought car up to temp quite a few times to help shift it.This was my first time out on the road and this is syrupy and dark brown i'm assuming its oil but it could be something else as its form is very different to the oil cooler failure
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When you did your flushes, did the engine get hot enough for the thermostat to open fully and let the coolant flow through the radiator ?
If not, it could be residue out of the radiator (hopefully) :-\
Best bet would be to drain it, refill with plenty of Ariel (or cheaper brand) laundry liquid in there and go for a nice long ride.
If the engine stat opens and the temp goes through the roof, the radiator is blocked with more gunge :-\
Out of interest, how old is the radiator ?
Might be a idea to remove, drain, fill with fernox and leave for a day or too to get any crap out of there ;)
Forget about antifreeze for a while until you get to the bottom of this ;)
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At least 20
Keep going...
Drain current coolant, replace with water.
Two liquitabs into the rad top hose, another two in the tank.
Set climate panel to Hi (blower on lowest speed).
Run engine at idle until the fans kick in twice.
Carefully remove header cap. This needs to be done from a decent distance, and ensure the hand/arm doing it is well protected... hot slurry isn't pleasant.
Repeat.
To (reverse) flush the radiator, simply attach a suitable hose to the drain spigot with a jubilee clip, connect other end to a hot tap. Remove small overflow hose from the header tank and divert it to a bucket. Simply swap to flush tother way.
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Yes the stat opened and flushing took a week,rad i assume is original as car has only done 49000,the good news is the car went well and i was expecting some residue but it is very brown and unlike the solid gunk which came about before which was oil
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At least 20
Keep going...
Drain current coolant, replace with water.
Two liquitabs into the rad top hose, another two in the tank.
Set climate panel to Hi (blower on lowest speed).
Run engine at idle until the fans kick in twice.
[/highlight]Carefully remove header cap.[/highlight] This needs to be done from a decent distance, and ensure the hand/arm doing it is well protected... hot slurry isn't pleasant.
Repeat.
To (reverse) flush the radiator, simply attach a suitable hose to the drain spigot with a jubilee clip, connect other end to a hot tap. Remove small overflow hose from the header tank and divert it to a bucket. Simply swap to flush tother way.
Whilst I appreciate that this might seem like a really, really stupid thing to do... and it is under any other circumstance... consider this:
Oil floats on water, and no matter how hot you get the coolant, when you drain the system down, the oil is the last thing out, so will coat the ENTIRE system as it drains. By removing the cap from the header tank, you allow the system to drain UP, thereby the oil more effectively.
I cannot stress the safety implications enough. You take your own precautions and do this at your own risk. It is effective though.
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Well spent some time today and to start with i could see some pink in the tank so filled it up to overflow and sure enough out came the oil.After that i drained just a little from the rad and that was a lovely pink colour so took the car for a short run and then checked again sure more oil but the heating inside has got a lot hotter so i think its the rad and matrix so i'll just keep clearing the tank as the anti freeze plus heat and pressure is clearing the waterways.Thanks for all your help and i'll keep you posted on results