coolant loss 7mge

[Finnon]

First off i hate this dark night malarkey. plus working weekends ive not looked at or driven my car properly for 6 weeks now.

right

I had bought a new stat off toyota as the temp gauge wasnt rising to the usual position and the heater was only blowing warmish not hot.

Now today i had a quick check and when i removed the rad cap the coolant was a bit low. also the exp tank was low. also the top rad pipe didnt feel like there was anything in it when i squeezed it. Obviously ive since added some but it again got too dark to see.

I cant see any signs of leakage from any pipes

ive not noticed any patches underneath

I also have a very slight waterfall type noise from behind the dash.

i had a quick check of the oil and it looked ok on the dip stick

but when i removed the oil filler cap there seemed to be an ever so slight whiteish deposits

First things first though guys any coolant hoses in silly places on the 7mge that could leak?

 

[Nomad707]

blown headgasket brother... sorry.

 

[suprarx7nut]

Is this a test? Because you just mentioned about every single tell-tale sign of a BHG. I would get that fixed asap. Your oil is being contaminated as we speak...

 

[Bad82]

ha

You drive a MKIII Don't you know the only thing that goes wrong with them???

 

[Finnon]

think ill make a check on the hoses first just to be sure. the oil filler cap deposits well its like a very fine dusting.

plus no missfire yet or excessive smoke/steam

 

[Finnon]

ha

You drive a MKIII Don't you know the only thing that goes wrong with them???

ive driven this one for 5 years lol. been spot on in that time aswell

 

[suprarx7nut]

think ill make a check on the hoses first just to be sure. the oil filler cap deposits well its like a very fine dusting.

plus no missfire yet or excessive smoke/steam

Please dont ignore the obvious signs already present...

Any sort of whitish deposit on the oil cap is a huge red flag. Thats most likely from the coolant that has migrated along the mating surface of the head/block form the water jackets to the oil passages. This coolant will ruin your oil's lubricative properties and cause extremely accelerated wear if not rod knock.

If you are losing coolant with no drips under the car its burning off somewhere or its just flowing into your oil...

Do a coolant combustion gas test, aka block test.

Please heed these warnings. If fixed before too much bearing wear has occurred and before the engine overheats and the head warps, you will face a much lower repair bill or less work if you can do this yourself. If you dont want to repair it now I would imagine doing VERY frequent oil changes would help a tiny little bit in avoiding more serious damage from bad oil.

See my sig link for a few pointers from my fix.

 

[Finnon]

ill see about getting a test done. guess a compression test wouldnt go amiss aswell

 

[AJ'S 88NA]

ill see about getting a test done. guess a compression test wouldnt go amiss aswell

Wouldn't hurt. They are right , don't let it go too long once water gets to the bearings, oil won't stick to them, which means metal against metal.

 

[Finnon]

aye, like i said there no evidence yet of oil in the water as in droplets on the dip stick. For the time being ie tomorrow ill keep a check on the filler cap and see if theres any changes there aswell

 

[suprarx7nut]

aye, like i said there no evidence yet of oil in the water as in droplets on the dip stick. For the time being ie tomorrow ill keep a check on the filler cap and see if theres any changes there aswell

I know I keep harping on the same point, but I believe when you can see water droplets on the dipstick the oil is really f-ed. You really want to catch it before that.

Keep us updated on the oil cap though. I'd like to see the whitish residue you are referring to.

 

[Finnon]

will take a piccy tomorrow at work and post it back. its now 1150 pm here so bed time for me now haha

 

[dirtlord420]

i have the same problem. except its blowing more white smoke then normal. am pretty sure mine has a bhg. so a block test will confirm this?

 

[cuel]

dirtlord: In most cases, yes.

Finnon: You need to do a coolant pressure test as well, to find any external leaks. Also, have the rad. tested to be sure it isn't plugged up.

 

[Guyana00]

Check the coolant overflow tank, you'll notice if there's oil in there.

 

[snake82]

I had the same problem about a year ago and waited to long. Same indication you have, only moderate temperature rise, loss of fluid with no leaks evident. Once steam started coming from under the hood it was all over. End result, $2,300 to completely rebuild the engine including planing the heads, grinding the valves all new hoses, sensors, etc.

 

[Nomad707]

it takes one to two days to fix a BHG with all needed parts in hand... then you can change your valve seals, cam seals, and valve cover gaskets while your at it too.

do it and be done.

and get ARPS and torque to 70ft lbs.

 

[Finnon]

had another check today and added less than half a litre if that of water. tiny bit today. weird thing now is the car seems to rise to temp and it wasnt the last 2 or 3 times i used it. I had figured the stat was stuck open but obviously it musnt be.

another quick check of the hoses today and still see no evidence of leaks.

the deposits in the oil filler cap seem to have gone now.

oil still looks ok

hmmmm im gonna borrow a comp tester from a mate and ill ask another mate about testing the coolant at his garage

 

[supera]

I have the exact same thing going on with mine right now. Its a 7mge 86.5, and it always smells of coolant inside the car too. I thought it might be the heater core because theres never any coolant under the car, and it still runs perfect, with no white smoke or antifreeze in the oil. Is it possible that its the heater core, cause I also dont get much heat out of it.

 

[AJ'S 88NA]

I have the exact same thing going on with mine right now. Its a 7mge 86.5, and it always smells of coolant inside the car too. I thought it might be the heater core because theres never any coolant under the car, and it still runs perfect, with no white smoke or antifreeze in the oil. Is it possible that its the heater core, cause I also dont get much heat out of it.

Yep.