Jump to content

Bubbling pink sludge in cooling system


XR6PSI

Recommended Posts

  • Member
  • Member For: 21y 3m 29d

Sunday arvo about 5.20 driving on gateway Mwy northbound about 105ks notice engine was running a tad hotter than usual say 2 needle widths wrong side of halfway rather than the usual 2 width below thought to self that's strange not 5 ks later temp light and warning chine sound temp almost to red!!!! ASAP pull over shut down

Pop bonnet to what looked like a disaster. small rubber pipe about 4 to 5 cm long which joins the metal return cooling hose from turbo had spilt showering engine bay in the contents of radiator. Now that wouldn't be so bad except that rather than just water and coolant I had this pink sludge with the consistency of water downed grease all over the engine bay. Called ford assistant who towed me to a servo and sent racq out who replaced the hose and insited it would be fine and take it back to Ford on monday.

Got home proceeded to degrease and wash engine bay (me thinking coolant and paint do not mix well) trying to get this sludge off was a mission it stuck to everything. got the beast to ford yesterday who are looking into for me. My main concern is how it got this fluid in there to turn the coolant into sludge. my suspiscion would be that its auto trans fluid being red and perhaps something down near the cooler and radiator. If this is the case, how long are any of the other rubber hoses last? how are ford going to throughly flush this stuff out not only the cooling system but all the sensors? the block? the heater? and also what about the tranny and torque convertor? has water got into the fluid and how long has this been going on and how what if any damage both long and short term has this caused.

Sorry for the long post but had to stress how bad this sludge was and both immediate and longer term effects it may or may not have on the car.

Any thoughts or comments would be greatly appreciated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Poison Fish. Poison Fish. TASTY FISH!!!
  • Donating Members
  • Member For: 21y 6m 4d
  • Gender: Male
  • Location: The Bogan Shire

I always thorught 'sludge' in the radiator meant a cracked head or busted head gasket and oil is getting to the water!!!

Hope that's not the case but...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Forum Superhero
  • Donating Members
  • Member For: 20y 9m 24d
  • Location: Eastern Suburbs of Mexico
I always thorught 'sludge' in the radiator meant a cracked head or busted head gasket and oil is getting to the water!!!

Hope that's not the case but...

:w00t2:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Donating Members
  • Member For: 20y 7m 30d
  • Location: Melbourne

I heard that it could be tranmission oil as I am sure I read sonewherelese that this had occurred. make sure the check out your transmission as you could have probs with tranny if coolant has gotten in there. do a search on forum on overheating.

regards

Peter Luck.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
  • Member For: 21y 3m 29d

that's my main concern. Also what damage it could do to areas where the sludge has been within the cooling system which has lines that run to the turbo, all the ares in the block the water pump just everywhere. it may be fine to flush it today but the long term is the question. Hopefully ford will have a good solution for all this.......we can only hope. anyone out there whose in ford care to comment on any previous instances of this occuring?

Edited by XR6PSI
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • FORD FORD FORD
  • Donating Members
  • Member For: 21y 6m 3d
  • Gender: Male
  • Location: Victoria Point In Brissy's eastern side

vik 351 is still stewing on this, you'll need a new radiator chappy.

Scotty

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
  • Create New...
'