Oil in coolant

T

Treymurphin10

New member
hey guys, i'm new to this site and don't know too much about cars, but i purchased a 1996 SR5 4runner with the 3.4L V6 about a year and a half ago.
Back in september i noticed i had a significant amount of oil at the top of my radiator.
I tried a cheap fix, putting on new hoses and flushing the radiator, but was still getting oil in my coolant.
I took it to a shop and they said it was the oil cooler, and replaced that and flushed it.
That was in September, and just back around Christmas time, I drove down to Glamis and noticed a lot of oil in my coolant (radiator and overflow).
I took it back to the same shop and asked them to look at it since they supposedly fixed it about 3 months prior.
The shop checked it and told me they couldn't find a thing.
They pressure tested it and it was fine so it wasn't a head gasket.
They said they flushed it and checked everything and couldn't find out how oil is getting in my coolant.
They said it was definitely engine oil and not transmission fluid.
My engine isn't overheating at all and runs fine.
Just wondering if you guys know anything about this and what it might be before i take it to another shop and get told it's a bunch of stuff i don't need.

Anything is helpful!!!
 
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What color was the coolant originally?
Is your oil level going down?
Is there coolant in your oil?
Have you checked your transmission fluid?
 
This could be a long shot, but is there a chance a gas station attendant or maybe significant other poured oil in the resevior? Only reason I ask is because my dad once asked the guy at a full service station to top off the oil and the dude poured oil in the coolant resevior. We did the drain and flush, but it seemed there was always some residual oil.

Also on a fishing trip to Canada the FS attendant filled up our boat. It was like $70 worth of gas in a 15 gallon tank. Turns out he was filling up the bilge through a flush mount rod holder.

No more full service stations :)
 
alumarine said:
What color was the coolant originally?
Is your oil level going down?
Is there coolant in your oil?
Have you checked your transmission fluid?
Click to expand...

My coolant was green, my oil is going down slowly, but nothing too drastic.
There's no coolant in my oil, so it's only vice versa.
My transmission fluid is fine, it's red and isn't low.
 
Swamp Ape said:
This could be a long shot, but is there a chance a gas station attendant or maybe significant other poured oil in the resevior? Only reason I ask is because my dad once asked the guy at a full service station to top off the oil and the dude poured oil in the coolant resevior. We did the drain and flush, but it seemed there was always some residual oil.

Also on a fishing trip to Canada the FS attendant filled up our boat. It was like $70 worth of gas in a 15 gallon tank. Turns out he was filling up the bilge through a flush mount rod holder.

No more full service stations :)
Click to expand...

Oh wow!! No, I haven't used a full service station or anything like that.
I wish that was the case so I could flush and drain and be on my way!
 
A pressure test probably won't show it because there's no coolant in your oil, meaning the coolant is not going to lose pressure and enter the oil since it hasn't at operating temp. It's the other way around, the oil under pressure is entering your coolant.

And yeah, try a different shop. They will just throw parts at it until it fixes it but you'll be out a lot of money. Worst case scenario? You've got some sort of hairline crack along a coolant passage in your engine block that's small enough to let oil through at high heat but not big enough to allow water through. In that case your engine is toast.
 
Usually this is a bad headgasket. Have it compression and leak down tested. LIke stated worst case is cracked coolant passage in the block or head.
 
Does your engine dipstick have the same sludge on it when you check the oil level? Also if coolant is leaking into your crankcase the oil level would be going up. Check under your oil filler cap for the same sludge in your radiator and coolant. It could be a long shot but it could be possible the lower intake gasket is leaking too. Do a block check, if this test turns out positive, then more than likely it's a head gasket. Pressure test your cooling system.
 
Headgasket issue. 96's had a recall back in the day for faulty HG's. I just bought a 1 owner 96 4runner and it came with all the original sales paperwork and maintenance records. One of the dealer receipts was for Hg replacement covered under warranty due to a recall.
 
Sound like to me a crack in the head or block.... I had a similar thing happen on a frontier of mine. the funny thing was I tested the compression and did a pressure test on the coolant system and all seemed fine.
 
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