May have coolant in oil..but not sure

[E30godz]

I was believing for a while that my coolant light was on because there was air in the system, but i checked the resavoir today and it IS low so that is probably it...so i checked the oil and there was a little sliver of a white substance, VERY small on the end of the dipstick, there was also some whitish residue on the little star shapped part of the dipstick, but also a very minute amount...hrmm?

[bimmerphile]

are you sure they're not really fine metal shavings?

[E30godz]

yes, there consistency was nothing like metal shavings, more like gelatin

[kansas-ix]

why not just do an oil change and take a look at the volume and color, and consistency that way. I once had oil in the coolant and it fixed itself,.

[bmwguru007]

A good way to check is to let the car cool overnight and unscrew the drain plug just until it starts to drip. Coolant and oil seperate so any coolant in the crankcase will drip out before the oil. Do you make alot of short trips? If you do you may just have condesation in your oil.

[BavarianBimmer]

Makes the engines much smoke ?
and what color are the clouds ?

[Kavkazia]

Air in system causes car to overheat, and when you turn heat, it will blow cold at idle and little warmer when you hit throttle, or it might blow cold air but in that point it's not really drivable.

Drain oil, and see if there is any antifreeze, it should come out first as it was mentioned first because it's lighter/thiner than oil.

If you have any antifreeze in your oil, probably your headgasket is in need of replacement.

[e30evolution]

if your oil is a milky brown then there is codensation in it from short trips..... the water has homogonized with the oil from being pressurized with the water, same thing can happend with coolant in the oil, meaning the coolant wont seperate from the oil.... but if it is a milky brown color then there are water molecules mixed in with the oil

[AndrewBird]

A good way to check is to let the car cool overnight and unscrew the drain plug just until it starts to drip. Coolant and oil seperate so any coolant in the crankcase will drip out before the oil. Do you make alot of short trips? If you do you may just have condesation in your oil.

Will this work? Isn't Antifreeze less dense then oil so the antifreeze will seperate from the oil and be on top, not the bottom.

Andrew

[E30godz]

yea i read that at school and was like uhh....hrmm....but didnt wanna sign in and post.

Ive also been leaking an insane amount of oil for some reason!! i need to find out from where!! i almost want it to be the headgasket..

[M-technik-3]

Take an oil sample and send out for an anyalsis. The only true way to find out what's going on. You can do that at an FBO at a small airport. They do this with Cessna's and so on to find out what's up with their engines to find out if there is an metal shavings and so on in the engine.

Or any speed shop can recomend a place that does it.

[bimmerphile]

A good way to check is to let the car cool overnight and unscrew the drain plug just until it starts to drip. Coolant and oil seperate so any coolant in the crankcase will drip out before the oil. Do you make alot of short trips? If you do you may just have condesation in your oil.

Will this work? Isn't Antifreeze less dense then oil so the antifreeze will seperate from the oil and be on top, not the bottom.

Andrew

Ethylene Glycol + oil has the same intermolecular forces as water + oil : they dont mix.

Homogenizing into a colloid like that is a pseudo-mixture, and will have the same effect.

[bmwguru007]

The last time I checked a 50/50 mix of ethylene glycol and fresh water has a relative density of around 1.05. Most motor oils have relative densities around 0.85. Therefore, coolant is more dense than motor oil and will EVENTUALLY end up on the bottom. I agree with Greg that if you are uncertain you should get an oil analysis.