Overheating (oil in coolant)

2003 ACURA EL
140,000 MILES • 4 CYL • 2WD • AUTOMATIC
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DAVID M CLEGG
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My girlfriends car overheated I picked her up and took a look at the car and when I topped up the coolant I noticed it was not clear. It looked rusty and was not see through.

Initially I topped up the coolant and turned on the car to see what the problem was, then after about fifteen minutes the car started steaming out of the top of the radiator cap and the surge bottle overflowed. The radiator fans did not turn on.

I drained the radiator and changed the thermostat but this did not fix the problem. Fans now kick on at about 75% to hot but the coolant still seems to have some milky residue.

I am not sure the car has an oil cooler, otherwise this is there a way to check to see if this is transmission oil vs engine oil?
Sep 18, 2017 at 9:53 AM
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JIS001
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If transmission oil is leaking into the radiator it will look like a strawberry milk shake. Flush out the system and add a 50/50 mix of blue coolant and water. Next step is the hard part and is why it may still be over heating. You need to properly bleed out the cooling system. The easiest way is to put the cooling system under vacuum so it sucks in the coolant. If you are doing this at home here is how you bleed it.

Fill the reservoir to max. Fill radiator. Install the radiator cap loosely.
Start the engine, and let it run until it warms up (the radiator fan comes on at least twice).
Turn off the engine. Check the level in the radiator and add Honda All Season Antifreeze/Coolant Type 2 if needed.
Put the radiator cap on tightly, then run the engine again and check for leaks.

You may need to do this procedure 3 times. I did this procedure on my friends Acura TL at his house and it drove me crazy the first time because it started over heating when I did the procedure one time. We let it sit for an hour the first air bleed procedure and it sucked up all the coolant in the reservoir. So did it a couple more times and got all the air out.

If you still have a milky residue in radiator and coolant still comes out overflow, then you will need to do a block test to check for a head gasket leak. Let us know what you find.
Sep 18, 2017 at 4:15 PM