Oil residue in cooler header tank

[sheenaontheroad]

Hi all, does anyone know whether you can/shoud drive your van with oil residue in the coolant header tank? I got my T6 back from the workshop today after having had the tank, and the oil coolant gasket replaced under warranty after a component failure. 6 flushes and 2 weeks from the original problem it still has oil residue in the tank after doing 50 miles home. Unfortunately i've been told conflicting things about whether i should drive it for a while and then take it back for a coolant refresh, or whether there might be something else going on so i shouldn't risk it. Any thoughts would be really appreciated.

 

[The Tall Luthier]

If the repair was successful then it’s likely that this oil is just making its way to the highest point in the water cycle.

If it wasn’t successful then your cylinder will fill up with water, stop the engine dead and ruin your day/week/month.

I would be inclined to trust the garage.

 

[andyinluton]

If the repair was successful then it’s likely that this oil is just making its way to the highest point in the water cycle.

If it wasn’t successful then your cylinder will fill up with water, stop the engine dead and ruin your day/week/month.

I would be inclined to trust the garage.

There is zero chance of water getting into the cylinders, the leak would have been on a gasket & the part of the gasket that goes between the high pressure oil way & the low pressure water way fails, hence you end up with oil in the water. If it's just a few globules of oil it will be a bit of residual oil working through.

If there's more than that it could be that the gasket has failed again already.

Keep checking the oil level & also check that water is not getting back into the oil ways.

If in any doubt at all call VW assist & get them out to check.

 

[The Tall Luthier]

There is zero chance of water getting into the cylinders, the leak would have been on a gasket & the part of the gasket that goes between the high pressure oil way & the low pressure water way fails, hence you end up with oil in the water. If it's just a few globules of oil it will be a bit of residual oil working through.

If there's more than that it could be that the gasket has failed again already.

Keep checking the oil level & also check that water is not getting back into the oil ways.

If in any doubt at all call VW assist & get them out to check.

I had a Ford Escort once that this nearly happened to. The oil became an emulsion first. I remember my dad telling me the next stage was water filling the cylinder and never really thought to question it. Perhaps he meant water filling the oil sump! The technical term for that is ’bad’

Obviously it’s not impossible, but there are many more things that would probably go wrong before it happened.

 

[andyinluton]

I had a Ford Escort once that this nearly happened to. The oil became an emulsion first. I remember my dad telling me the next stage was water filling the cylinder and never really thought to question it. Perhaps he meant water filling the oil sump! The technical term for that is ’bad’

Obviously it’s not impossible, but there are many more things that would probably go wrong before it happened.

Your antique Ford escort probably had a head gasket failure - pretty common back then & it usually meant the gasket failed between a waterway & a cylinder, usual symptoms would be water boiling over or lots of steam out the exhaust. Once engines start boiling up you then get bits warping etc & at that point you get oil in the mix as well.

The Op stated in this case it was the usual oil cooler gasket that failed, thats a water / oil interface & no where near a cylinder.
The only results are oil getting in the water & possibly water getting in the oil, if caught reasonably quickly - before you've lost too much oil, or worse water has got into the oil & you've got bearings lubricated by water instead of oil, its just mess in the internals that needs flushing out, liquids changing & obviously the new gasket.