bark3rk20

ok so here is the problem.. I have blackish brown liquid in my overflow tank and on the radiator cap itself. The stuff is really sticky kinda like tack???? my car doesnt blow white smoke, my oil isnt watery, so i wouldnt say head gasket. i just bought/replaced radiator and it started happening... my coolant is clean though....any ideas???

Murk 'EM

some ware your leaking oil in your coolant. weather its a head gasket or a crack in the the water jacket

bark3rk20

well its not in my radiator at all..... i drained is and refilled it.... someone told me that it could be buring the radiator fluid.... when this happens it turns brown and tacky.... i smelt the stuff and it doesnt smell or feel like oil and it is caked all over the inside of my overflow tank... thats the only place it is besides on the raiatod cap... it sticks to your hands bad when you touch it.... it took me fifteen minutes to wash is off

bark3rk20

oh and the tacky stuff smells sweet...nothing like oil at all...

newtron63h

sounds like you need a GOOD coolant flush. has the car sat for any length of time? coolant goes bad over time, the additives in it that protect the engine from corrosion and such become less effective.

a good coolant flush with something designed to clean out the cooling system will tell you whether its a more serious problem.

if it were oil, it wouldnt disolve with the coolant so it would be very obvious so i dont think thats whats going on.

TravisCadello

Lol, I had a 94 Toyota Camry 4cyl that my dad had 5 years and then i owned it 3 years and never had a problem and one day i decided to check the water. i pulled the cap off and oh my lord! lol it was brown and was sticky and smelt sweet like i wanted to taste it soo bad lol. and my over flow tank had it to.

Pretty much it had over 170k miles on orignal coolant or water I don't know for sure. but i flushed and and put 50/50 antifreeze in and it never came back.

its just a sign of dirty coolant system nothing to worry about.

bark3rk20

ok cause i just replaced the radiator and filled it back up...i never "flushed" it and it has overheated twice.... but that only happens when i use the a/c??? any ideas about that??? it will never overheat when hearter is on tho. I need this car for school so im kinda freaking out about it.

newtron63h

sounds like maybe you didnt get all the air out of the system. if not, its very possible it will overheat.

newtron63h

auto or manual?

TravisCadello

get a flush from auto zone $3 and follow instruction and also add 50/50 antifreeze $10 assuming you only filled it up with water the first time.

And when the heater is on it is acting as a 2nd radiator and letting the head out the water system. so anytime it overheats that should be the first thing to do is turn the heater on full blast.

If it comes down to it drive to school with the heater on and as long as theirs water in it it will stay a good temp.

But the reason why its getting hot with the ac on is probably because its stresses the engine and the engine is relying on crapping dirty rusted water to cool it off.

newtron63h

not a bad idea.

bark3rk20

its an automatic

bark3rk20

ok so i dont have to worry about the black liquid being a bad head gasket... so ill just flush the coolant system...i just didnt know if it was a bad water pump or not....im not mechanically inclined so ya know. oh and i found my coolant leak...its at a t junction hose above the tranny.. I have been running my car with heater on for about a year now.... thanks guys!!!! i just got myself worked up about a head gasket for nothing lol. any other advice would be helpful too

TravisCadello

if its a water pump then it will over heat within 1 minute man.

newtron63h

yeah, since its an auto, the radiator has to deal with more heat(i dont know if the radiator is different from auto to manual) but combined with old crappy coolant id say its just too much. flush it good, make sure all of the air is out and you should be good to go.

whats the climate where you are? if its a warm climate then 50/50 make be too much freeze protection. water has a better heat transfer rate than antifreeze so there is such a thing as too much coolant. i run about 60/40 in my car and i live in the mountains of VA/NC where it is regularly below freezing in the winter and i have no problems.

bark3rk20

Oh cool man... I live just outside of asheville!!! so just about the same climate. ok another stupid question.... how do you make sure all air is out???

sde780

Fill radiator up, turn engine on. Let it idle for 20 minutes so all the air is gone

newtron63h

it helps if you raise the front of the car, on ramps or jackstand or something. start the engine, make sure its full of coolant and let it run. take off the radiator cap, and start squeezing coolant hoses, you should see air bubbles come out if there is air or if not then youll see the coolant level in the radiator or overflow tank rise a little. id say 10 minutes of that should do the trick....make sure the heater is on when doing this. as bubles come out, make sure you are adding coolant to keep it between "add and full"

also like someone said before, prestone makes a coolant flushing kit available at any parts store. you cut one of your heater hoses and install the correct size t-fitting in line with the hose(the kit comes with a few different sizes for different size hoses) you hook up a water hose to it. run the engine with the radiator cap off and the heater running and just let the coolant spill out the radiator(drain all of the coolant first so you arent dumping antifreeze on the ground so we dont kill all the dogs and such around). do this for 10-20 minutes and this will do a very good job of getting any air out........but you will need to drain some and fill it back up with antifreeze......then do the steps above.

do you have a haynes manual? they are cheap and if nothing else they give good info about fluid capacities so you can figure how much antifreeze it needs to give you the right mix, then drain that ammount out, refill with antifreeze and you should be set.

bark3rk20

dont i just run it with the cap open untill all the bubbles stop??

sde780

Yes, that's how I did mine

bark3rk20

OK guys thank you so much!! im just glad to know my head gasket is alright... ill have to flush is monday, cause i have school sunday.... do you believe that crap!! I have BLET driver training

turbo4life

looks like oil got in there some how?

i know i had that on my first D that i boosted cuz i have no real source of fuel managment so it was all ghetto rigged kept on blowing head gaskets and over heating it i think somthing was craked in my motor,,

bark3rk20

well the oil isnt mixing with the antifreeze to make it a different color.... its just little chunks of black tacky stuff floating around with the same suff on the hose and the inner walls...smells sweet kinda like anitfreeze kinda like power steering( the belt broke a while ago, never got fixed) fluid too...i just think my coolant needs flushing

midnightsdawn

flush the coolant..