A few months back, got an oil change, and had some some hoses replaced. I noticed that the coolant in my tank was all of a sudden green, even though I only replaced it with Dex-Cool colored orange, leading me to believe they topped it with green.

I have been smelling some coolant lately, but when I checked fluid levels, everything was normal, and no puddles or anything were to be found. Today, turn my car on, got low coolant light, and the tank looked damn near empty. It took about half a gallon to fill it up, and there were no puddles or leaks anywhere.

After reading some posts, I'm seeing that mixing the two coolants can lead to serious damage. What would be the best suggested course of action at this point? Take it for a coolant flush and make sure it's replaced with orange coolant, and check for various leaks? I'm afraid to drive it much more at this point after reading all that I have!

 

When you mix Dexcool with the green coolant it causes gel formation which is difficult to clear especially if it is the heater core.

It would not cause a leak however.

Your leak, I would guess, has something to do with the hoses that were changed.

 

+1 on Jackra's comments and yes you need to do a complete flush and backlash.

 

You need to also have a conversation with the shop that mixed the coolants. Demand that they pay for the flush.

 

I think Sean meant "backflush" as opposed to "backlash" although there should be a backlash against the guy that put in the wrong coolant.

 

Yep, sorry - damn auto correct!

 

Oh ok, awesome, thanks guys. Going to take it in tomorrow for this. Pretty frustrating. It took some time and work to get things up to speed with this car (shocks, tires, transmission flush, various hoses), and things had been running smooth. Is there any chance this could have caused the coolant to lessen at all, or is that almost assuredly a separate issue?

 

I think it is a separate issue related to your hose work.

If you can smell coolant and you are losing coolant there has to be a leak somewhere.

 

The colour of a coolant is no longer as simple as green or yellow which would identify it's type. There's all sots of colours now which are fully compatible but may look a different colour again when mixed.

I'd ask the garage first to show you which brand name and more importantly what spec coolant they used. The subsequent low level may have just been a burp of air.

 

Good point. OATS technology was either Red or Orange when it first came out but is now also pink, blue and green.

If it's OATS Organic Acid Technology, then the color is likely irrelevant as Mikey notes.

If it's ethylene glycol, my original feedback applies.

 

So, driving home the other day, car began overheating. I pull over, and get it towed the next day to the mechanic to avoid any further damage. Basically:
Every hose that feeds coolant is brittle and worn
Valley hose needs replacing
There is some debris between the radiator and bumper
Thermostat is shot
They recommended a coolant flush

They told me they use a "chameleon yellow" coolant that is universal and blends with anything, but that there might have been an issue with the blending. I'm honestly thinking at this point, I just want it running, I'll take it to the dealership, trade it in for a lease on an XE until those electric XJs come out in a few years

 

Thanks for following up. I get it. Used cars can be a pain. The hoses are 14 years old probably. That's an issue on any car. It's just time, as is the thermostat.

If they admitted that the coolant may have been an issue, you can have them flush and fill on their dime. And the down and dirty approach would be to change the thermostat only, but it's all a matter of time anyway until the hoses go.

I am curious as to how they know the valley hose needs replacing. You can't see it under the SC so unless it blew, they can only assume based on the condition of the other hoses?

That said, your probably looking @ $1100 - $1400 for the valley hose alone, then maybe $2000k for the rest of the hoses? It's been awhile since I had mine but in total, that's about 3-4 months of lease costs. Pretty easy to do the math and see if it's worth it to you. Peace of mind vs. out of pocket costs.

 

Yes, I am sure they are just assuming since the other hoses are in the condition they are. As far as the cost of the lease, right now Jaguar is running $249 per month on an XE, $3k down for 36 months. The good thing about Vegas is everything is within a short distance, so going over on miles won't be an issue. The peace of mind is what I'd prefer, ha! If I wasn't in school full time, I'd keep this car in a heart beat, I've never had a more enjoyable driving experience in my life!

 

So I get my car back after the mechanic changed my thermostat and flushed coolant. They put in their "chameleon/universal" coolant and the car had been running fine.

Last night I get a low engine coolant light on and see this:



I'm trying my best not to overreact, but does anyone have any idea what this could be or mean?

 

It means your mechanic has a problem, looks as though the coolant used is not compatible.

 

Seeing this gunk in the radiator so soon after your flush reminds me of my travails on 05 super v8.Mine had a leak between the radiator and transmission & the combination of the 2 fluids produced this gunk. I had to rebuild my transmission & change my radiator.Its a bit of a design flaw whereby the radiator helps cool the transmission but can occasionally lead to an expensive failure.

 

That's the direct result of at least two incompatible coolants being intermixed. The entire system needs to be emptied and flushed immediately. Let your garage pay for it.

 

Actually does look like the above to me.

Even when you get the gel formed by OATS coolant mixing with incompatible coolant I do not see why the level would drop that much in the reservoir.

Check your oil dipstick to make sure it is clean oil and also take off the oil filler cap and check that there is no whitish film on that.

If it is not an expensive transmission cooler failure get the system flushed ASAP as suggested.

 

As Jackra points out ASAP check out your transmission fluid.The intercooler for the transmission fluid is built into the radiator. So could be an internal leak within your radiator. Mine threw up a restricted performance code soon after but damage already done to my transmission.

 

There is no dipstick for your transmission unfortunately so it is a bit more complicated to check the fluid.

The transmission fluid is under quite a bit of pressure with engine running and if there is a leak in the transmission cooler inside the radiator it will increase the pressure inside the coolant system.

You really have to hope this is not what has happened.

Checking the engine oil in retrospect will only give you an idea of some gasket failure between the oil system and the coolant system which is somewhat unlikley unless you have had bad overheating for a while.

I had the transmission cooler on my Dodge truck fail a few months ago. It caused the coolant system to blow off the cap of the coolant reservoir and produced milky mixture. My transmission was immediately cooked as the clutch plates padding material disintegrated.

Your pics seem to indicate overflow around the reservoir cap area.