Whats up guys, kind of a totally messed up day for my friend, he bought a 99 SS two months ago from a lincoln mercury dealership in Long Island N.Y. ... probably a really bad move, the car from the first day seemed kinda weird but my friend went ahead and bought it for 11,500 with 47 K miles on it, well couple of days ago two of the coolant lines broke and he had coolant leaking all over the place, he bought a 3,500 dollar extended motor and tranny warranty so he called up the dealership explained his situation and had the car towed over to the service shop. Well they called him up today and gave him some major B.s. telling him that there was Oil in the coolant system and the oil ate up the rubber hoses and chewed them up from the inside and thats what caused the hoses to break, well ok the oil part sounds ok....... we went over and looked at the car w.o notifying them that we were comming and found crazy amounts of oil in the coolant reservoir, it wasnt milky like the kind found when a head gasket blows, it seemed like someone intentionally poured oil in the coolant system, well they said that they were going to charge 1300 to change the hoses flush the block, radiator , heater core and what not........but now were stunned, i know for damn sure we didnt add the oil cause come on now how F'in dumb can u be to do that, no one else has touched the car, they claim they didnt do it so i decided that i would post here and get some sort of possible answer cause i really dont know what to say beside these damn bastards are a bunch of crooks, and the fact that both me and my friend are 19 doesnt help the situation out at all, they sales manager acted like a total ***** but thats a whole other story , thanks for your time and sorry for the grammer and length

 

After a while, DexCool will appear to "sludge up".

Don't pay $1300 for a coolant flush.

Get the car home.

drain the radiator
remove the radiator hoses
remove the thermostat
remove the battery and then the coolant tank/battery box
clean out the coolant tank and reinstall
use a water hose and flush out the radiator really well.
put in a new thermostat
replace the hoses and belt
replace the radiator cap.

Pour in a new gallon of Dexcool. Get a gallon of distilled water and put in as much as you can. You are looking to keep the coolant to water mix at 50/50.

Start the car with the radiator cap off.

There is a small coolant hose that comes from the throttle body to the filler neck of the radiator. Look inside the radiator where this line attaches. When it is flowing a steady stream of coolant, the engine is purged of air.

As the level of coolant goes down in the radiator, keep adding the distilled water.

When the stream is flowing steady and the level is no longer going down, the system is ready to reinstall the radiator cap.

You should now fill the coolant tank with more Dexcool/water.

Thermostat will cost you $40
Hoses will cost $40
Coolant will cost $8/gallon

this is a 2 hour job.

Now, with fresh coolant, except for what was left in the block, you should be able to see easily if the oil is real or a phantom.

HTH ... Good luck.

 

First off this extended warranty, isn't it for a shop of his chosing to do the work?
Did he take his LS1 car to a ford dealer/place he got it?
I would tell them to get my car out of the shop now, & have it towed if you have too.
$3500 is real high for an extended warranty, these guys took him for a ride huh?

If by chance oil is getting in the coolant from the motor or if it's an automatic, the trans cooler in the radiator it would cause these problems.
On the rare occations that it does happen it doesnt really mix up to a white substance.
It will collect in the resevoir like that, oil floats on water.
But it does sound fishy, what two coolant lines broke?
Located where?
If the hoses ruptered due to this it will be obvious.
Like I said B-4 I would get the car out of there asap, it sounds like B.S.

 

$3500 is not real high, extended warranties aren't cheap. Most extended warranties only let you take the car to a authorized dealer. Flushing the radiator would count as maintenance and not be covered by the warranty. When my waterpump was leaking it leaked over my belts making them squeak and the warranty didn't cover the belts because belts are a maintenance item.

 

Thanks a lot for your replies guys, Yes the coolant looks like a dark brown sludge build up, had no clue Dexcool can get like that. I will notify him about this immediately because this situation seems like a total hoax. They see some young kids and only words that come to their minds are "take advantage." We'll get the car out of that b/s of a dealership bring it home and repair ourselves then get the money back from that garbage of a warranty. Thanks again for the replies!

 

wrencher brings up a good point I hadn't considered ... I have an M6 ...

If you have an A4 or even a PS cooler, oil intrusion could be real and from one of those 2 sources.

It would be a rare occurence, though.

 

3500 for extended warranty is very high, never seen one higher then 2K, mine was about 1300 and it is a 6 yr 100K mile extended warranty that authorizes me to take it to which ever dealership i choose

and it seems like they are trying to f you over