so i got bad news and im really worried about it. so i havent driven my car in about a month and half and it has been in the garage. i got a flat tire that i havent fixed yet and it needs new plugs and wires pretty bad. the last time i started it it ran like crap and the coil was arcing like crazy missing every round of firing. it has also been not starting in the rain i had posted that before so i was still trying to pinpoint that problem. now today i need the garage so i go to start the car up and the battery is dead. kind of knew that was going to happen.

so i hooked up the jumpstarter to it and i check my fluids. oil is fine and now i looked at my coolant and i have oil in my coolant! im worried about this. what does this mean and what kind of repairs am i looking at. what do i need to do. there is oil in my radiator and in my overflow reservoir. never had oil in there before. changed the oil about 1000 miles before i put it up and havent change the coolant in a bout three years. i know it needs it but what do i do. i didnt start it. i need to move it out but i guess ill just push it. how bad is this and what do i need to replace fix. i still need new plugs and wires and probably a coil hoping my opti is still good. but now this problem. can this be caused by just letting it sit. i have let it sit before an not drive it and it has always been fine. what do i do guys.

 

Head gasket is bad. I had this same problem awhile back. Luckily my mechanic is a good friend of mine. i was looking at 1000-1500 for the job elsewhere.He did it for me for 600.00.Good luck

 

I would assume you have a bad opti and when you replace the head gasket & it you should have a much better car.

 

ok so what would have just caused that. the car has never over heated. and the thing is that i always thought the head gasket would cause coolant to be in the oil as in you can see coolant the brown milkshake on the oiil dipstick. my oil in the pan is just oil dirty but just black oil the oil that i found is in the coolant as in the radiator and reservoir. while changing the head gasket do i have to take the opti off and stuff or anything. because if so i might try to tackle this myself. i have been wanting to do some hardcore maintenance to my baby for the longest time. this way if i change the head gasket, i can do plugs, wires, opti, water pump, coil, belt, and anything else i can think of while im at it. if i have to remove that stuff anyway i might s well replace it. ihave never really replaced anything major on it. any write ups or directions to change the head gasket never done it before. thanks guys.

 

You absolutely sure its oil? I just drained my radiator last week and brown stuff came out at one point but it wasn't oil. Although it looked like the "milkshake" color everyone dreads. Turns out it was just corrosion.

Edit: My car had been sitting for about 5 months.

 

im pretty sure its oil. when i ook the cap off the overflow resrvoir then the dipstick was just pure oil at the bottom. just a little upset that all of a sudden i let it sit fora bout a month and half and i find this out. i have let it sit before and it was fine. but i usualy drive it everyday until it stopped starting after it rained that and i just had my house built a few months ago and driving through the neighborhood with lots of onstruction. i piked up a screw.

 

I "may" be wrong, but I thought oil floats in water? So it would make sense if the oil was at the top of the dipstick for the coolant reservoir. I'm not saying its not possible that you have a blown head gasket but you'd save a lot of time and effort trying to rule everything else out before you tackled that.

 

I think I'd drain the coolant, and flush the radiator. Refill and see what happens.

 

good point beause all of the oil seemed to beat the top of the radiator. after i soaked up some of it it seemed to be more coolant than oil. in the resrvoir i thnjk it was just low on coolant ause i havent filled itup in a while and there was hardly any oolant in there so the oil was at the bottom of the dipstick and it seemed to be pure oil. how does oil seep through to get into the reesrvior and radiator over period of time of just sitting. i will try to fllush and refill the radiator and see waht it does. hopefully nothing is wrong with my head gasket just doesnt make sense.

 

If oil is in the cooling system then how could a blown head gasket cause oil to make its way to the coolant? There are no oil passages that transfer oil from the block to the heads.
I'm with mopar... flush the system, new coolant and see what happens.

 

yea its really weird. i always thought the same thing. since the dipsitck seems like its just oil. dirty black oil and no signs of coolant or milkshake color i hope its not the head gasket. cause if it was good like ss rrr said how could oil seep through to the coolant. i will try the flush and hope it is fine. just wierd the reservior and the radiator both ahve oil in it. dont know how it got there though.

 

Do you do your own mechanic work? Is it possible someone else put oil in the cooling system by mistake? Some mechanics will add oil or something to the coolant to "lubricate" the water pump (AFAIK this does nothing, your antifreeze includes lubricants which is why its important to change it on schedule) and perhaps the oil separated out and thats what you are seeing now.

 

since i have had the car yes i have done all of the mechanic work. and as far as i know of before i bought the car, the guy took it to the dealership whenever it needed work and i have records of it as well. i dont really think someone would have put oil in there as a mistake i know i never have. coolant has always been fine till now, i knew it was dirty and ready for a change but didnt think oil was going to show up in it.

 

Besides a blown head gasket, it could also be a defective (KC4) engine oil cooler, if your car has that factory option?

 

if its gonna cost you 1000-1500 bucks to get new head gaskets...you might as well get the 1LE package and a repair manual and throw a new set of heads and a cam by yourself on there.