Low coolant, gritty look in oil fill tube??

Hey everyone, I'm needing some advise on this. I always take my truck into Toyota for the services but it looks like the guy forgot to put the cap back on. This evening I went to look under the hood to get an idea of what im getting myself into as far as detailing the engine. I noticed the overflow bottle cap was off, overflow bottle was almost empty, popped the radiator cap and its low too (can't see coolant), checked under the oil cap to make sure its not mixing with coolant and noticed some grit built up under the cap and in the tube. What do you guys think about all of this?

Thanks everyone.

 

Depending on how long ago it was I would contact the service department to correct the issue . I would have them flush out the coolant system .plus you might of got some air into it .

 

That grit in the oil filler tube is not normal.

 

Top up the antifreeze and sell it to that dealer for big bucks.

 

There's no connection between the grit and the coolant, the coolant simply evaporated
Run the "grit" between your fingers and you'll probably find it's build up that has condensed there and will dissolve back into oil.

 

Another scenario to consider: Going to the service dept is a coincidence. The radiator overflowed popped the overflow bottle cap off.

 

The overflow jug is vented.
If enough radiator fluid / pressure was entering the overflow jug to overwhelm the vent and blow the lid off, it would be highly unlikely the event would go unnoticed during the drive.

 

First off, your two concerns have nothing to do with each other. Concerning the low coolant level, you might have a coolant leak somewhere. To find out, I would fill up the overflow reservoir with some fresh 50/50 coolant-water mix. The radiator will suck in what it needs to be full when you drive the truck. Once the level in the reservoir stabilizes, bring the reservoir level back up to where it's supposed to be and then keep an eye on it. If it never stabilizes and you keep having to add coolant to keep the level in band, then you are loosing coolant somewhere (most likely culprit would be a leaking water pump seal).

Concerning the "grit" in your oil filler cap, I would not sweat it. Looks like normal carbonized engine oil smegma to me. Wipe the cap clean and make sure your oil level is correct. If it needs an oil change, then do that too.

 

The only thing is it was like 3K miles ago that I got my oil changed. But according to the dust setting on the under side of the overflow cap, it looks like its been like that for a while.

 

Oh ok. The only reason I thought they could be connected would be overheating from low coolant causing damage to the engine and that being a sign of wear.

 

Its been 3K miles so idk if they will do anything.

 

You might be correct. Its been about 3k miles since going to the dealer.

 

I may have missed it; did you say your engine overheated? A radiator can be a bit low on coolant but still have enough in it for adequate flow to keep the engine from overheating. If the engine did overheat, I would think you would have definitely known it assuming you look at your gauge cluster occasionally when driving.

 

I didnt notice a rise in temperature, but yesterday wasn't paying much attention. Yesterday I only drove for about 20 minutes total. Im hoping that if it overheated that it would have alerted me with some sort of noise or light on the dash that would have caught my eye.

 

I'll throw in some coolant and see how much it takes minus the overflow bottle before I assume damage has been done I guess.

 

You might have a coolant leak at that bypass pipe on the back of the engine.