Brown Stuff In Coolant Tank & Radiator

[AlmightySo]

I looked in the overflow and seen brown stuff at the bottom, I drained out the antifreeze and found the brown stuff on the drain cap. I flushed the radiator with peak super cleaner. (1997 Eclipse GST)


Heres two pics:

http://i.imgur.com/faXuFmK.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/qu0vHFq.jpg

 

[FIBA M - EC17PSE]

Rust, do a complete system flush and add a new thermostat and coolant Will be as good as new. It does get like that if coolants not changed every year but yours is about 3-5 years of crud thats never been flushed haha

 

[AlmightySo]

Just rust in the radiator ? I was scared cause I did some research and it said it could be a head gasket problem or internal engine rust..

 

[AngelOfPassion]

Just rust in the radiator ? I was scared cause I did some research and it said it could be a head gasket problem or internal engine rust..

From the examples in your picture it just looks like some junk got into the coolant/rust buildup. When oil gets into the coolant from somewhere in the block or from the stock oil cooler breaking it turns the coolant into a brown sludge that won't flow at all. This happened to me when we over-tightened the oil filter housing and broke the coolant lines inside. The oil leaked into the coolant slowly and turned it into sludge. You would definitely know if oil was leaking into the coolant haha. Therefore, I would think after doing what was posted above you should be ok.

 

[AlmightySo]

Thank you, was wurried it was something more serious.

 

[JakeGS]

Also check the radiator cap , there's probably build up.

If you can clean it off easily I'd reuse it, if it's kinda hardened you should replace

 

[Kyle_T]

Before I bought my car, it sat for over 5 years not running. Once I got it running and was driving it alot I noticed the same brown goop in my overflow tank. But when I would pop the radiator cap the coolant looked clean. I'd occasionally dump the overflow, clean it and refill with new coolant. After doing this a couple times I finally decided to flush the system. I replaced the thermostat and radiator cap, and did a complete flush. I noticed most of the rusty goo was in the radiator, which was also newer at the time.

After doing the flush and changing out all the old coolant with new stuff I haven't had any brown rust goop anywhere in the cooling system,