You know your having a bad day when you find oil in the radiator. I have a 98 honda accord ex with a four cylinder v-tec engine. I noticed oil on my driveway and found it leaking from the radiator over-flow. I do not see any radiator fluid in the engine, only oil in the radiator. The car runs fine, although I will not be driving it until it gets fixed. This sounds bad. Any ideas?

 

Only a guess...........cracked head or block is a possibility.

 

Or a blown head gasket. Check the oil dipstick for coolant.

 

I definitely wouldnt drive it if there is antifreeze in the motor. Could do some major damage to bearings etc. I would guess a bad head gasket.

 

How about the oil coolant line going into the bottom of the radiator springing a leak?

WheelBrokerAng

 

I didn't know that accords had oil coolers.

 

yep they do if car has an auto tranny,,, the lower part of the radiator is the tranny oil cooler, that's why you see 2 hoses going into radiator on cars with AT..

Cale,,,,,,first of all does car have AT ?? if so you need to determine if the oil in the coolant is from engine or tranny..........car ever ovrheat ??
have a shop do a leakage test , to determing if you got engine damage..,,,,,
,if it is engine oil , it could be a blown head gasket, warped head, cracked head, on the more severe note a cracked block,,

for your sake i just hope it is AT fluid in coolant

 

there is one sure way to find out what it is without taking then engine apart

take a sample of your coolant and a sample of your oil to have what is known as a SOS analisys done on it. If you cannot find a local shop to do it, go to your local caterpillar dealer and see if they will do it for you. I think they charge between $50 and 100 (depending upon where you are) but they will tell you without a doubt what is in your coolant and oil and then you can make an informed decision as to what to do. If your auto trans cooler cracked and you got coolant in your auto trans. kiss it good bye........

 

That would be the first thing I would test for. Seen a few cracked blocks.

 

I thought by oil cooler he meant an engine oil cooler. Usually if i refer to the trans oil cooler i jus say trans cooler.