Was just changing my spark plugs and decided to check the fluids. I noticed my coolant is an orange color and looks kind of peanut buttery. I'm assuming this would mean there is oil in my coolant?

First reaction would be a blown head gasket but the car is not overheating and there is no white smoke coming out of anywhere . After a quick search on here it seems it could be the oil cooler .

Would be great if some of you experts could chime in and let me know what you think

Here is a pic

 

What year? There were issues with the oil filter housing/cooler on early models.

 

2007 r52 s

 

Thinking the oil filter/cooler issue was fixed by then so the head gasket would be my thought.

 

Wouldn't there be a loss of power, some smoke, or even a cel??

 

Would a combustion leak tester or block tester be able to definitively tell me if it is in fact the head gasket ?

 

Added more pics. Anybody with any more insight ?

 

auto or manual trans? if manual their is a cooler on the oil filter housing that can leak oil into coolant and vice versa. In terms of a head gasket a compression test would be my next step.

 

Manual. I'm also thinking oil cooler. Taking it tomorrow to get checked out. Fingers crossed

 

Check out this post.

 

My issue is the other way around. It looks like I have oil in coolant but no coolant in oil

 

"Usually when the oil cooler fails you get oil in the coolant." in the post.

 

Thanks. Thought you were referring to the cracked head

 

Check out my post which dealt with oil in the coolant. It was the oil cooler.

 

That is one excellent thread. One of the best documented servicing from initial discovery, diagnose, to final closure.

While reading how you guys deal with the mess, I cannot help but to think of the magic oil dispersant BP used with the Deep Water Horiozon. It made 100s of millions of gallon of crude oil disappeared. More like out of sight, out of mind.

 

just had dave @ autobahn in nj take a look. he says its definitely not a head gasket, its the oil cooler or somebody accidentally put oil in the coolant reservoir (doubtful). looks like we are replacing the oil cooler as well as the coolant expansion tank

 

its worth noting if your replacing the coolant tank not to bother with the oem tank and use one like this https://www.waymotorworks.com/polish...-tank-r53.html. the oem tank is prone to failing.

 

Just my 2-cents, but add me to the list of folks that believe that yes, while the OEM tank can fail, it usually doesn't fail catastrophically, or at a rate often enough to cause alarm. Usually, there's a tiny amount of seepage from the middle seam (easily seen and diagnosed) that indicates the tank needs to changed out. 5-minute job. My replacement OEM tank has been in for close to 40,000 miles and is good.

The tank caps in my opinion are more a cause for concern, as these fail more often than the tanks themselves. Always a good thing to keep a spare coolant tank cap at the ready.

The aftermarket steel tanks are very expensive, and due to them being made of metal and thus, opaque, it's impossible to visually gauge proper level of coolant within without dipping something into the tank.

On the semi-transparent OEM tank, the coolant level can be seen through the side of the tank when one places a flashlight onto the tank.

 

Check out my post which dealt with oil in the coolant. It was the oil cooler. Post #14.

Now that's what I call a write up.