Brown sludge inside water cap.

Hello Folks, just done a check on my tyres, oil, water etc and noticed brown sludge inside the water expansion tank cap. Never seen this before on previous check ups, Has anyone any idea what the cause is? The freelander is running fine {touchwood!!}. Its a 2 litre deisal if it makes any difference.
Thanks
Nick.

sounds like oil in the coolant :scratching_chin: although it could be some other contaminant.

have you topped up or changed the anti freeze lately?

When was it last flushed. Your pipes might be clogged with years of crap.I would check some other things before we think of more serious issues.

Thanks, I was hoping it wasn,t oil as it doesn't sound good. Yes, I topped it up about a month ago with some left over anti freeze in my garage. Does that make a difference?

notowbar said:

Thanks, I was hoping it wasn,t oil as it doesn't sound good. Yes, I topped it up about a month ago with some left over anti freeze in my garage. Does that make a difference?

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if it wasn't the same type it could coagulate and make a mess, a sort of brown goo.

flush the entire system, with heater set to hot, then dump it all out and refill with new coolant.

I dont think its ever been flushed but its the first time I,ve seen anything like this gunk!!

flush it anyway, it will eliminate a previous hgf residue gunk and mixing different colour coolants from the equation.
you've nowt to lose but everything to gain at this juncture.

Thanks fellas, I will follow my Haynes instructions for flushing the system. Hope it will be okay for a while until I have some time off to sort it. Thanks again, Cheers, Nick,

sooner rather than later Nick

Someones obviously taken a dump in yer rad

or Weetabix have opened a factory in it.

I have known of the oil cooler to get a hairline crack on the internal's and let oil track accross ever so slightly into the coolant...... Trouble is they are very hard to diagnose as obviously the fault is inside the unit the only real way to iliminate it is to replace it. Obviously try the flush first but if it does it again thats what I'd be going for before a head gasket.

Hi all,
Like the original writer, I today have given the car a once over to prepare for a long journey and to my shock, noticed the coolant bottle full of brown gunk. Thinking of the worst, I think my head may have gone as I checked the oil cap and dip-stick, only to find a similar gunk on that too.
Heck, I really didnt need this at the moment. The heater is fine, the car is running great (apart from from front suspension knocking - bushes?) so it looks as though I have a nail.
Any recommendations as to what I should do next or have fitted to resolve this from happening again? I'm no mechanic but not against a bit of DIY, if its possible..
Thanks

Just an update, I flushed mine as instructed and changed the antifreeze to the pink stuff. That was in December and it still looks pink so it seems to have done the trick, It must have been mixing different antifreeze mixtures.
Try doing the same as long as your not losing water which I think is a sure sign that water is leaking into the oil.

do you do short trips in your car, as this could be a sign of the engine not getting hot enough

Thanks for the advice. I am going to do a full flush tomorrow so will give that a go. The water level hasn't moved since yesterday but it hasn't gone that far, perhaps 40 miles. The Landy is used for a mix, small journeys but the majority are longer 50-100 mile blasts at a time.