To be brief. I have oil in the expansion tank. black oil not milky.there's no water on the dipstick and it's still new and clear. i have had the radiator replaced with a new one and was told originally it was gearbox oil?Also one garage mentioned a "porous head", whatever that is. after being compression tested by two garages i've been told it's fine but it's not! Any ideas or places to take it to get it checked would be appreciated.

thankz

 

 

have you checked the water in the radiator via the rad cap to see if it is the same ?

 

how much oil is in the expansion tank ? is it just a thin film on top of the water in there, or is it a large amount ?

 

is it residue that may have been left from a previous problem.

 

try removing, emptying and cleaning the expansion tank so you know for sure it is okay, then see if it fills with oily water again.

 

might it be the remains of some old water wetter or other water treatment ?

 

try se 01621858856 asak for pete he will have the answer

 

If you have had oil leaking into the radiator in the past from the transmission oil cooler (which is built into the rad) then it would be a nightmare to clear it completely out of the system. Might be worth a compression test of the cooling system but if that comes clean and you have no cooling problems then you might well not have a problem. There may be some sort of detergent that is safe to put in the cooling system to flush it but I'd be very careful with this.

 

I'd agree with Jools in that if it's a problem which is common, Peter will most likely know it.

 

Dave

 

in reply to your questions, there is probably about 1/2 litre of oil in expansion tank and after replacing the radiator I had the system completely cleaned out. Thanks for suggestions to ask silvia, however they did the radiator initially and were sure that it wasn't the cylinder head, they also flushed out the system completely.Really I need a second opinion from someone else. I was hoping someone might know of somewhere else the oil could breach into the water system.