Are these signs of bad water seals?
Are these signs of bad water seals?
So my antifreeze is a dark green, I do not know exactly how long ago it was flushed/changed and when i run it to burp it, I get consistent very fine bubbles that surface in the funnel. I’ve read a few things where it said it could be bad water seals but wanted to get everyone’s opinion on it, thanks!
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 842
Likes: 115
From: South Orange County, CA
Whenever I change the coolant and am refilling with the funnel, as I warm up the car to burp the system I also see a stream very fine bubbles, almost like a mist or very fine effervescence floating out of the filler neck into the coolant that is in the funnel. My car has been like this since I bought it 5 years ago and did the first coolant flush, and I don't lose any coolant, overheat, have any other coolant related issues, or have any evidence of coolant entering the combustion chamber. So if you are having this kind of issue and nothing else then I would not worry about it. Or someone else with actual knowledge of what is normal can correct me!!
Last edited by jza80; Dec 6, 2018 at 02:59 PM.
That’s kind of reassuring, what I’m seeing is almost exactly as you described. To be honest this is my first every anything with coolant, is the dark green coolant something to worry about, or is that was old coolant looks like?
I believe the fine bubbles are the result of coolant moving through the system, i.e. normal. If you have a water seal break, you'll get larger bubbles. You can also have similar bubbles from trapped air after you change your coolant, but generally those are more intermitant and non-uniform vs a steady stream of uniform bubbles from leaking combustion gases. Other indicators of a bad o-ring is losing coolant, wet spark plugs, and overflowing fill tank (the combustion gases push the coolant into the overlow tank). If you have none of that, you're fine.
Do a thorough flush of your system to make sure you get all that old coolant out, to include draining it from the engine block. You should also clean, or better replace, the overflow tank because it's probably gunked up with old coolant.
Do a thorough flush of your system to make sure you get all that old coolant out, to include draining it from the engine block. You should also clean, or better replace, the overflow tank because it's probably gunked up with old coolant.
Ok definitely doesn’t blow smoke or anything and I have never had coolant level issues so that’s good. I did have an issue with my overflow tank overflowing. I replaced my old overflow tank which like u said had a ton of gunk in it. I’ll run a flush through it and see what I can do. Is there a place to bleed it at?
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 842
Likes: 115
From: South Orange County, CA
The dark color was probably due to age. When I flushed the coolant I was lazy and did not drain the block since I was hesitant about touching the drain. So I flushed it again about a month later after the first time, and I have been flushing it annually ever since. I've been thinking that may be overkill and maybe every 2 years is enough...
Last edited by jza80; Dec 6, 2018 at 04:49 PM.
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