Brown stuff under radiator cap ? wtf

[AlmightySo]

wtf is this,
97 Eclipse GST
Coolant dissapears, this under radiator cap, point me in the right direction please. thank you.

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[blesi660r]

Looks like lots of rust and old coolant, do a good flush.

 

[Dsmkauai]

Yummy wonder how clogged the smaller coolant lines are??!

 

[darknezz7]

damn that is nasty
how do people let stuff go so bad

if its oily your looking at a head gasket job
your losing coolant at probably a multitude of gaskets, o rings, rusty water pump along with probably head gasket.

yeah I can imagine some of the small lines, like going into the throttle body I bet the car does not run too well.

 

[rough]

Garden hose will be your best friend. Lot's of great idea's already presented, if you are consuming fluid, then you have a leak, gotta find that!
Once you get the system cleaned and sealed properly, be sure to add in
Anti Rust Inhibitor add in with your 50/50 mix.
This will help prevent future rust.

 

[darknezz7]

Use distilled water for the final fill up too, not your hose water

Also it could be losing coolant cause the radiator is soo clogged it cannot keep up and the coolant is boiling over

 

[ghostinthevr4]

You should look for a radiator flush kit from the parts store run it in the car and drain, repeat the process to help clean out the rust. To check for leaks go to the parts store and rent the coolant pressure check tool. It pressurizes your coolant system so you can find leaks. Once you verified you have no leaks put in distilled water with a bit of anti freeze. Drive the car around and repeat the process a week or two later. When you fill the coolant the second time don't bother buying radiator flush cleaner you don't have to waste the money on it again.

You can also use a water hose like stated up above to help push out a lot of rust before you do the processi provided you with.

 

[AlmightySo]

so its just dirty ? i bought the car with this i didnt even know[DOUBLEPOST=1414761696][/DOUBLEPOST]its not oil right

 

[rough]

Could have been at one point, that's some gnarly looking stuff!

 

[AlmightySo]

it bubbles

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[mercaholik]

Actually it looks like someone put a stop leak in there. There is silver and copper stop leak at auto zone.

 

[AlmightySo]

Whats a stop leak? My brother said something about to but I didnt know what he meant

 

[jbeaton9292]

Stop leak is a bandaid people use if there is a small leak like pinhole leak and yeah it didnt cross my mind at first but could very well be that in there as well as running just water instead of the proper mix

 

[PlanZero]

It's crap you dump into your radiator to stop a leak. Usually causes more damage. I noticed the silicone tubing. Did you do that or did the PO? Have all the lines been replaced? Is your radiator aluminum or stock plastic/ aluminum? I wouldn't even bother flushing. You can get a full aluminum radiator on eBay for under $100 shipped, or an OEM replacement for $60 shipped.

 

[darknezz7]

If thats stop leak your gonna be all clogged and probably need a new water pump. Just expect soon or now to look at doing good flushes THEN water pump, t stat and radiator, few more flushes and fill up with mix.

 

[mercaholik]

The copper colored stuff on the cap in the first pic looks like stop leak. The other crap is from lack of maintenance I believe. Everyone else let you know about the flush and adding rust inhibitors and distilled water, the only other thing I can say is you might need to pressure test and possibly add dye to find any leaks. But clean everything out first .

 

[AlmightySo]

I replaced the water pump already, & its a DNA aluminum radiator

 

[jimsgsx]

Flush that bad boy out. Looks like stop leak to me too. Copper with a possible shimmer in it then its stop leak. Flush it out and problem fixed. I would replace the coolant lines also.

 

[NyTrackstar]

Sucks that its an aluminum radiator but looks like it was filled up with water and corroded pretty bad and stop leak used at some point. You should definitely replace the radiator

 

[asexton6969]

Air is being cavitated in the cooling system. Perform a coolant pressure test. Fix all leaks, flush cooling system and you should be good to go.

 

[mitsubishikid]

Make sure you get the heater core cleaned out... in fact remove the lines from it and force water through it so you get as much of it out as you can, I like to use peak radiator flush additive it works.

 

[pascullon]

mine used to have that too i am the second owner of my 98 spyder with 168k miles it was ran with no tstat

replace with a new tstat after you flush it very well and also add a rust inhibitor should be all better and hopefully no head gasket problems but that can certainly be a issue now

 

[djc1827]

I call it choc milk oil mixed with coolant or stop leak headache