[Gubbi05]

Hello dear hyundai owners.

It has been a while since my last "issue" in here  (Flickering radio, which turned out to be broken and replaced)

I have a little story i want to share with you, to hear your opinion.

As i have been cleaning my i30 2008 today, and checking engine room, i noticed that the coolant reservior has been dropping from full to half. My guess would be somewhere between 1-2 months since full.

Other than that, the rest looked good, no sign of leak and everything was clean as always.

As the last step i took a look at the oil stick, which showed 65-70% full, cold engine of course. oil looked clean and smooth.

Next i took a look at the oil cap, and saw a bit of yellow sludge (or how to describe it), kinda like yellow mustard.

This is the 2nd time i spot the sludge, and it doesn't appear visible when i look with a flashlight in the cap hole, only on the cap itself.

Like i always do, before asking too much in forums, i did google myself crazy, and read alot about that the sludge mostly is a common thing, when people do too many short drives without getting the engine warm enough.

Also did it say about driving in cold season causing water in the system, but i haven't seen any water in the oil.

The finale thing which i believe could be a good solution is the PCV Valve, which mostly causes yellow sludge in oil.

Sorry for the short story LONG  but right now i am just throwing all my thoughts in your direction.

Please write your thougt about what u believe could be the reason and hopefully i fix.

Coolant reservior drains faster than i would like, and oil sludge ?

I do not believe the top gasket is damaged, as it was replaced last year during a renovations from the car dealer.


With all this being said, the car does run smooth like a dream, but i rather have everything fixed.



Best regards.

Lasse 

[Dazzler]

Hi Lasse,

Your english is pretty good. I like the term engine room for what we call engine compartment (sounds flash!)

I will let others comment on the sludge (not sure about that)

As for the coolant though, just a few questions...

Was the engine cold when you checked it this time?

Where was the level in relation to the low mark. The level is usually lower when the engine is cold.

How does the coolant look (still fresh and reasonably clean looking?

When was it last replaced?

With regards to the oil level on the dipstick sounds like it needs at least half a litre. Should be at the full mark when left to settle for a while... 

[Gubbi05]

Thank you for the quick response.

Hehe thank you for the credit 

The coolant was last replaced back in december, after that i did top it with another smaller refill, guess it had to fill the radiator.

I am not sure if the engine today was completely cold when i checked the coolant, but it did stand still for at least 2 hours.

The coolant still has a clear red color.

Don't u mean that the level is usually higher when engine is cold? runs back into the reservior? or am i mistaken 

Keep the comments coming.

Always a pleasure to visit this forum.

[tw2005]

Looking at your setup which is different to my diesel, that tank is basically a recovery system. So the levels will fluctuate dependant of temperature. I would check the manual and follow those directions but I would check when cold and have it between  min and max or High and low.

The level should be fairly consistant when the vehicle is cold. You may over a long time have some evaporate as I would not expect the lid to be 100% air tight as the pressure is contained by the radiator cap.

The system is closed so except for expansion and contraction in that tank you should see regular level when hot and regular level when cold.

Radiator caps will degrade over time. If it's original it's now 9 years old. I think one of my last car the cap was falling apart around the 9 -10 year mark.

When the car is hot it will expand into that reservoir and on cooling the contraction will draw fluid providing the radiator cap is in good condition and sealing right.

If you over fill the tank it will expand and then overflow.

When totally cold you could confirm th e radiator if full taking the cap off, will also confirm the recovery system is ok.

As for mustard, sounds like it's clean if it's amber in colour, with no image hard to say.

[nzenigma]

Hej Gubbi05,

I started to reply but tw2005 has covered the reservoir . As he and Daz say, Higher level when hot.

Im more interested in "oil cap, and saw a bit of yellow sludge (or how to describe it), kinda like yellow mustard."
You also say "  do not believe the top gasket is damaged, as it was replaced last year during a renovations from the car dealer."
Why was the gasket replaced?
How many kms has the car done?

The PCV is fairly easy to test. Remove the hose connection at the air inlet side. If you can suck air from the engine, but cannot blow back in, then the valve works and it is not blocked.

Depending on the amount of driving you are doing and cold conditions, you may see yellow streaks through the oil on the oil filler cap. But a thick yellowy sludge is a bad sign. You may have coolant leaking into the oil.

[Dazzler]

Don't u mean that the level is usually higher when engine is cold? runs back into the reservior? or am i mistaken 

You would think so, but coolant expands when hot so (straight from google...)

Do you check coolant when car is hot or cold?
If you check your coolant level when the engine is cold, the coolant should be at or above the "minimum" or "fill" line on the transparent refill container. If you check your coolant level when the engine is hot, the coolant should be at or just below the "max" line.

Thanks gary and Gerard for your input.. 

[Gubbi05]

Wow. what a bunch of useful comments 

So grateful that u all give yourself some time to keep the post alive.


tw2005:

I will take a look at the radiator cap, and replace if it has gone bad. Sounds like a good suggestion.

Nzenigma:

To be honest i am not 100 % sure why it got all those things, but i believe it was the top block that needed a replacement, and then a new top gasket along with the replacement.

Car just reached 130.000 km.

Full service history.

Only thing that annoyes me, is the fact that the dealer doesn't really have any "proofs" that they filled the fluids doing the service when we bought it.

Does cost around 400$ in preparing cost when u buy a car at a dealer in Denmark.

For those money u point out things that you want to get fixed, like bad sidemirror or something like that. ofc everything like oilchange and other service related things needs to be done aswell.

So yeah, would have been great to have more information about what oil they used.

Although i heard that it shouldn't be a problem to fill up with new oil on top of the old one, as long as it remains the same like "5W30" as recommended.

The PCV test sounds like a very good idea, even though it looks a bit crowdy in there. Only saw vidoes and pictures of the PCV valve location hehe.

Dazzler:

Arhhh okay, then it makes sense ;-)



Keep the good answers coming, at any time of the day :-D

[nzenigma]

Your car at 130,000km is still quite young. I would not expect to be topping up the oil. If you are doing a regular service ( oil and filter change)  about every 15,000km, the oil level should remain near full.

You say they replaced the head ( "top block" ). Depending on the type of damage that the old head had, some water may have got into the oil. Even with an oil change it is possible to leave a bit of water behind. That may be causing discolouring.
Since the head was replaced, have the head bolts been retentioned? Needs to be done, you will get leaking and eventually the gasket will fail.
:: ENGINE PROBLEM ::

Im still unsure if its just discolouring or is it sort of thick and muddy ? If the latter, go back to the dealer  and get it fixed.
Cheers G

[Gubbi05]

The car dealer is a good rated certified hyundai dealer. Quite big place 

All services done there by the old owner.

Not saying that it isn't possible, but fingers crossed it ain't that 

I Will post a picture of it today, as good as i can 

[yodm]

as was already stated above. a bad shape radiator cap can cause the expansion container to get empty over time.
I had this on my Citroen, for the last year, I filled the expansion container, and in the last service (120,000km) the garage found that the radiator cap is  bad.

[Gubbi05]

Will buy a new one soon as possible. Can't hurt anyone to buy one, even if the old one should still have some time left hehe.

[nzenigma]

The head re-tension is important.

[nzenigma]

The radiator cap has two functions. To seal the cooling system so that it is under pressure. This raises the boiling point. High temp on your gauge may indicate a bad seal.
Also, in the centre of the cap you will see a small valve. This lets expanding fluid move to the reservoir bottle. As the fluid cools it draws back into the radiator. It is a sealed system therefore you should lose little to no coolant.

[Gubbi05]

Temperature has never been pass halfway point. I keep a track on that all the time hehe.

Here is a picture of the oil cap. Seem to be much less than I thought

http://tinypic.com/r/ab73hz/9

[Gubbi05]

Today we drove from Denmark to Netherlands which is 800 km. Car drove perfect with no temperature change.

Oil car wash cleaned before we left, and at arrival the cap was still clean with fresh oil of course.

Sendt fra min LON-L29 med Tapatalk

[Gubbi05]

Hurray for auto correct.

I meant oil cap was cleaned.

Sendt fra min LON-L29 med Tapatalk

[nzenigma]

The picture of the cap indicates that you have , or have had, water in the oil.
However, it may just be remnant from the past head fault, and will be removed when you change oil.
Hopefully it will stay clean. 

[Gubbi05]

Doesn't seem to be any water signs in it or on oil stick. But I will keep track on it. 

[sundiz]

Could it be that the fluids were mixed and the issue was fixed, but they forgot to clean up the cap?

[Gubbi05]

Lets Hope so hehe. Dealer warrenty expires 4 may

[nzenigma]

Could it be that the fluids were mixed and the issue was fixed, but they forgot to clean up the cap?

could be the case. Hopefully that's all they forgot.

[nzenigma]

Lets Hope so hehe. Dealer warrenty expires 4 may

If you have a warranty , you should have shown them the cap.
 Also, if you don't grasp the importance of pulling the head bolts down again, please ask your local mechanic and get it done as part of the warranty work. 
Irrespective of all the alternative reasons for water to be in the oil, the most logical cause involves the fact that the head has been taken off your engine for some unknown reason.
 To see the oil cap in that condition, I remain highly suspicious, bearing in mind that it is unusual to have done a head job on such a low mileage car and that you also may be losing some coolant.

[Gubbi05]

Car is at the mechanic now.

Gave them a list With clear pictures showing what i wanted them to look at.

They had it since yesterday, and still don't know what is wrong. So today i Will be giving a hyundai i10 to race in, till my own is fixed. 

[nzenigma]

Thanks for the update, we appreciate you taking the time to do so.
Im very happy that you are making your position clear before the warranty expires.
As a matter of interest, try to find out why the head needed to be changed.
Cheers G