Oil in the radiator water!

[cliffdunedin 8]

Just came back from a trip to Chch and was giving the car a clean and thought i'd check the water, the smell of oil came out and there is some oily residue...AWESOME!!!!

I had no loss of power, high temperature or blue smoke on my way home and there does not appear to be the typical milky oil of a head gasket.

Is this a common head gasket problem with Bimmers or could it be a cracked head??

Also how difficult is it to change the gasket? I have changed a few(non Bmw's) before and the 318i does look pretty straight forward!

Cheers

[antil33t 90]

I'd personally try a radiator flush/coolant change and see if it happens again? Could just be crap in the water.

Noticed any loss of oil?

Probably completely wrong.

[pureboiracer 0]

yeah its not uncommon to get a small amount of contamination in the coolant/oil.

i would do as above and just keep an eye on it, usually if a head gasket goes it goes good.

[cliffdunedin 8]

Cheers will try that, maybe some engine stop leak too???

[cliffdunedin 8]

I'd personally try a radiator flush/coolant change and see if it happens again? Could just be crap in the water.

Noticed any loss of oil?

Probably completely wrong.

No loss of oil, I changed filter and oil about 2 weeks ago and it is still as full as it was then!

[tire 10]

Is it automatic? If so, you might have a leak in the radiator fluid coolant bit on the side of the radiator. Does the oily stuff smell like dexron?

[cliffdunedin 8]

Is it automatic? If so, you might have a leak in the radiator fluid coolant bit on the side of the radiator. Does the oily stuff smell like dexron?

Yeah it is! what does dexron smell like? lol

[cliffdunedin 8]

Can anyone tell me if it is still ok to drive it this way?? I have kind of hori flushed the radiator but plan on doing a proper one tomorrow and have also dropped some nulon engine stop leak as well. chur

[QuickSilver 0]

yeah its not uncommon to get a small amount of contamination in the coolant/oil.

i would do as above and just keep an eye on it, usually if a head gasket goes it goes good.

Not always true. I had a hairline crack in my m20, that was gradually depositing ALL my oil into my cooling system, I had no loss of power, no smoke issues, no heating issues or anything, when I checked my oil, it had totally drained into the cooling system. The crack was so minor that it would only push oil through the crack when the oil system was under extreme pressure (ie motor running) but the crack was too small for it to allow coolant/water back through the crack into the motor.

Flush it properly, and check to see if it is depositing oil.

[cliffdunedin 8]

Ok update:

Drove to town to get some radiator flush yesterday and when i got home i noticed water leaking from the radiator, at the seam where the aluminium and plastic combine at the very bottom-next to the empty valve.

Because yesterday was Otago Anny not many places were open so bought a radiator stop leak from supercheap after flushing and putting the stop leak, there was no more leak...until this morning when probably about 500ml-1litre was out of the radiator, and no water on the ground at all!!

What i'm still not sure about is how oil would have gotten in, in the first place and where has the water(even though small amount gone)??

Oil is still fine, level etc no change and no milkyness!

Cheers

[*Glenn* 854]

I suggest you get it professionaly checked before spending money on it, otherwise this could all turn to custard on you. Stop leak will not solve your issue or fix a leak.

[cliffdunedin 8]

I suggest you get it professionaly checked before spending money on it, otherwise this could all turn to custard on you. Stop leak will not solve your issue or fix a leak.

cheers mate i have a service booked in for monday, so they can look at that while its in, was only thinking stop leak as a temp solution...with the hope that someone on the forums had a good idea what was wrong!! though it does seem to be working.