Well I was just checking around the engine of my 97 corolla CE, and when I looked at the coolant reservoir tank. The coolant looked brown, also when I opened up the radiator, the coolant looked brown-ish. The thing is that I just did radiator flush not too long ago....
You have a leak somewhere... Most likely the head... mixing oil and coolant...
__________________ Corolla Number TWO OLD: Corolla 1- 96 4AFE, AE101 w/ 225k Miles orig. motor, 129k trans. - TOTALED. NEW: Corolla 2- 96 4AFE, AE101 w/ 161k Miles on motor and trans.
That brown coolant proves other wise.. flush the system again, first with water (twice), then new coolant.
__________________ Corolla Number TWO OLD: Corolla 1- 96 4AFE, AE101 w/ 225k Miles orig. motor, 129k trans. - TOTALED. NEW: Corolla 2- 96 4AFE, AE101 w/ 161k Miles on motor and trans.
okay would it better if i put water and drive around for couple hours or so? and do it couple times...also put a super flush in there too.
just water...
__________________ Corolla Number TWO OLD: Corolla 1- 96 4AFE, AE101 w/ 225k Miles orig. motor, 129k trans. - TOTALED. NEW: Corolla 2- 96 4AFE, AE101 w/ 161k Miles on motor and trans.
Clean the overflow thoroughly before you do anything else. If you see an irredescent, oily run-off then you have oil and water mixing. Pull teh dipstick and look for bubbles in the oil to confirm this. If you're losing oil as well, then it's definitely oil and water mixing, which can be a sign of either head gasket failure, OR if u recently did headwork, then maybe it's not torqued down properly.
Follow the instructions on the super flush to know what concentrations, how long to keep it in, etc. Here I use a product called Wynn's Radiator Flush that has these little abrasive crystals to clean scum and deposits and can stay in the system for a couple days.
When flushing, take out the top radiator hose and the radiator cap. You can plug the top inlet to the radiator with a rubber bung or stuff it with cloth. start the car and run the water (like through a garden hose) into the radiator cap opening and monitor what runs out the thermostst housing (where it would've come back through the hose you just removed). Do that until it runs clear.
When you're done, u can switch off and drain the system. If you have a compressor, u can flush all the water out with compressed air. Reconnect the hose you removed and fill with coolant/antifreeze and add an anti-corossion agent that can help your cooling like Redline Water Wetter. Burp the system to remove any air bubbles, top up with teh remaining coolant/antifreeze and you should be good to go.
Removing the top hose and just running water through the system is only enough to exchange brown goo for water. there is still a lot of cleaning to do. Get a flush and fill kit and a piece of heater hose and place the kit temporarily in the correct heater hose. A BACKFLUSH will finish removing all the crud left over. I remove the adapter after flushing but you can leave it in if you wish.
Redline is a great product for heat exchange but does little for anti-corrosion AND it is not an antifreeze. Use you favorite from the gallon jug to get both.
If you are mixing water in with it, get distilled water. Tap and especially well water has way too many dissolved minerals that will create more corrosion.
If you have a headgasket on the way out, your coolant is not turning brown because of oil, its because of exhaust gases entering the coolant and creating a highly corrosive chemical. Which then will break down any rust and corrode the system further. You may also loose some amount of coolant every 3k miles. If the headgasket is really bad, obviously white smoke will pour out of the exhaust.
-If the coolant has never been changed that you know of, and has never dropped in level, then the coolant is brown only from it corroding and rusting the system. Rust is brown. Rust and coolant mixed is brown. Buy a coolant system flush additive, fill the system with water and the additive, drive normally for 3 hrs total time. Flush it as listed in above posts and your good to go
It's probably still a factory fill of coolant. Toyota coolant is red in color and it may just have turned into a brown looking color because of it's age. The overflow tank in my Corolla also had the brown looking residue in it. Rinsed the bottle with hot water and it was looking like new.
Drain your whole cooling system - remember that you also need to draing the engine block. Flush it and fill it with fresh coolant.
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1996 Corolla Base 4A-FE 3-speed Auto, blue
Doesn't matter the colour, it's a cast iron block so it'll get brown if it isn't regularly flushed anyway.
I always disconnect the top hose and run fresh water through the system with the engine on till it runs clear, that way the head and block get flushed as well. Then blow it out then refill with coolant and burp the system before replacing the cap. I so it every 15,000km or so (which is like 4 oil changes and roughly translated to once a year) and my coolant stays clean all the way through.
I advise that if there's that much crud in there, that you replace your thermostat if you haven't already done so.
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