Orange coolant still after flushes

red_dwarfers · Post by **red_dwarfers** » 22 May 2011, 19:32

We're doing a coolant change for someone at the moment, it needed it as it was a bit orangey/brown. We've drained it, given the rad and engine back flushes, filled up with water, ran on fast idle for 10-15 mins, let cool for a bit then drained a couple of times. Filled it up using a comma coolant flushing bottle, did the same then started using plain water again for a couple more goes. Its gradually coming cleaner, now its a kind of light orange.
The coolant reservoir has deposits of rust on the inside of the plastic container.

What should I be doing at this stage, continuing to flush with water until it comes clear or something else?

wright · Post by **wright** » 22 May 2011, 19:42

put coolant in

Post by **myglaren** » 22 May 2011, 19:55

Perhaps the addition of some Forte Cooling System Conditioner would help to keep it in reasonable condition.

The worry there is that as there is considerable rust that the radiator and heater matrix will be deteriorating rapidly and there may be problems with the head gasket and coolant circulation.

As wright says, bung the coolant in and run it for a few days then check it again.
May be worth draining and refilling in a couple of weeks, depending on what it looks like then.

Deanxm · Post by **Deanxm** » 22 May 2011, 20:14

The best way to sort this is to take the rad out and back flush it, remove the stat and flush the engine both ways, also disconnect the matrix hoses and back flush that too, then fill with at least 50% antifreeze and jobs a goodun.
Headgasket will be severly weakened by the amount of corrosion that has taken place though.

D

spider · Post by **spider** » 22 May 2011, 20:16

Unlikely but rusted pipes (do these have the steel cross piece in the lower radiator hose? , I think not but the piece around the back of the block is probably still present) internally could do this although a flush out should fix as has already been said.

Worth taking the bottle off if possible and cleaning that too.

I'd be tempted to say just put 1 litre of coolant in (which will provide corrosion protection but not freeze protection) then run it for a week as normal. It should not get cold enough to cause freezing issues. Then drain it and flush it right out (take thermostat out and back flush block etc) then finally re-fill with coolant as normal.

Clogzz · Post by **Clogzz** » 23 May 2011, 13:09

On the cast iron engines, we used to rinse the cooling system by running the car without thermostat for a week.
The flow is much stronger without thermostat, and we could see the water streaming through the radiator.
That brought out rusty-coloured water that flushing with the garden hose couldn’t.

red_dwarfers · Post by **red_dwarfers** » 28 May 2011, 09:37

I think the thermostat is a bit knackered on this one as there seems to be a constant flow through to the rad!
There isn't any steel cross pieces.

Thanks for the advice. We've stuck in a couple of litres of coolant and we'll see what its like in a week. If we don't have any luck with that we'll move onto back flushing (It suddenly clicked when reading the replies that we were actually forward flushing

) and possibly removing bits to clean off the car.