Coolant Contamination???

Hello,

Today while looking over the truck for a Mammoth Mntn off road trip I noticed the coolant belch bottle level was down about 1/4". When I removed the radiator cap I see all this fiber's looking contamination.


Next I checked the oil cap. Looks okay.


And here is what the ATF fluid looks like. No pink milkshake that I can tell.


The coolant is a year and a half old with about 7000 miles after a head gasket replacement. Any ideas on what is going on.

Thanks

 

Looks like your rad might be getting a little rusty. Maybe drain some into a clear container and compare it to new coolant?

 

Looks pretty normal honestly, sometimes there's little fleks of junk in them but the color is good still, no oil spots in it.

 

flush with distilled water and new coolant https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/autozone-pentofrost-a4-coolant-10-gallon.548026/

 

That a good next step. I'm going get a fine mesh filter on maybe a paint filter and drain the coolant through it. I'll post a picture later.

 

that coolant is full of rust I would get rid of it ASAP

 

Just checked my DD, 04 Toyota Matrix. Its coolant isn't that clear ether. The Matrix has shiny little specks in its coolant also. Looks like particulates in coolant is nothing to sweat about. I'll recheck in a few months to see if it get much worse.

I may still filter the coolant as a way to procrastinate cleaning the bathroom. LoL

Thanks for the reply's.

 

The coolant is pretty fresh Toyota Super Long Life pink. When I did the HG the water passages looked pretty clear. The previous owner loved this truck and took pretty good care of it.
That gives me an idea. Maybe this is the little bit of gasket scrapings the fell into the water passages while cleaning the deck. I did my best to scrape away from water passages but a little sure fell into a water passage anyway.

I appreciate your opinion but I don't think it is that bad.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt6D4pQseeU

 

Are you able to isolate and identify the contaminant?

 

Could be gasket material but I mean more to rust. Or previous owner put stop leak in the radiator. Bars looks like cardboard strings.

 

Guys, I think he's fine, that looks really typical of a vehicle that hasn't had a block flush ever but it's not enough material to be worth servicing. I'd just do a full flush next time you have to open the system for something else.

 

Looks like Dexcool

 

Okay, found the problem. I first drained the radiator in a clean white bucket with a paint strainer. The coolant was really clean. I used this paper towel to strain the last bit of coolant going back in to the radiator. Pretty clean.


The left over coolant I poured back in the belch bottle and this came up from the bottom. I have no idea what it really is but I know what it looks like...


Anyway the bottle is all rinsed out with fresh coolant. I'll keep an eye out for this and update if it comes (no pun here ) backs.

 

Okay, I think I have discovered were the white slim is coming from. Toyota Super Long Life coolant is sun light intolerant for lack of a better description.
I have been working on my truck a lot lately with the hood open. I noticed that the position of the sun this time a year shines right on to the radiator over flow bottle a large part of the day.

So I tried this experiment.
This is fresh coolant straight from the bottle that I am going to leave in the sun. Nice and clear



Here it is just after one day. It is already cloudy and stringy. I'll leave it for the week and see how bad it gets.


From now on I'll keep the engine hood open as little as possible.

 

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7a/a8/02/7aa802200fd6a350403108d5cefd59f7.jpg

 

Actually looks like someone topped it off with that autozone stuff, when i bought my dcsb the coolant looked similar and I already knew that they mixed coolant in there. Bad.

 

Last time I flushed my radiator there was a thick gray sludge in my coolant tank and I flushed the vehicle 5 times (2 with flush chem) to get satisfactory clear. In my case I had topped off the radiator with prestone 50/50 (previously serviced by dealer). Though the amount of green was minimal I assumed the sludge was a chemical reaction of the two different antifreezes. So I'll be interested in the result of this test.