tonight i went to go pick up my friend to go and treat ourselves with the wonderful food of wendys. I had let my car warm up for a couple of minutes, i scraped off the remaining ice on the windshield, got in and hit the road, just to start a wonderful experience. Before i get any further into my story, i should elaborate that it is about 10 degrees outside. About 2 miles down the road i notices that my battery light and my ebrake light where on, i began to worry. I arrived at my friends house and told him what was goin on, and i pulled out of his driveway everything began to dim slowly. i turned to my friend and said, "dude we're not going to wendy's" he looks back at me, with a very upset look on his face and says "its ok." i drop him off and head back home, and everything just goes down hill from here, by now my heat has turned off and my headlights have dimmed. My window began to freeze up and my headlights were almost totally off, luckily enough i was close enough home i only found myself driving down the road with my head out the window for just a little while, once again i will elaborate that it is 10 degrees. I pull into the driveway, and hear a plethora of sounds coming from my engine, i run inside and find a flashlight. I returned to the car, almost slipping on a patch of ice that was where my car previously sat before and lifted the hood. I peered down at the belts and didnt see the alternator belt. I also noticed the sound of my coolant bubbling and that power steering fluid has poured out of its reservoir. I next turned the oil cap, and looked to see what that looked like, and one of my worst fears, my oil has turned to the color of coffee... (the crappy kind not even starbucks). I shut the hood and with my head hanging i returned inside.

So my question is, why would the color of my oil change, just by the snapping of my alternator belt?

and sorry for the long story, i just wanted to make sure that i put in every aspect of the story so that if any other these factors could have added to the demise of my car, that you would be able to let me know. Thank You

 

well i told you to make sure its starbucks and not folgers! wheres socks he heard me say it too!

 

Sounds like you may have overheated also if you heard boiling coolant. If thats the case that color change could be the head gasket allowing mixture of coolant and oil from overheating.

 

oil and coolant mixing can have that appearance.

 

If you're looking in your oil cap, unless you see actual liquid in that color, you may just be looking at a metal bracket. If you can find a pic of the bottom of a valve cover with the metal peices attached, you will see that there is a metal plate directly underneath the oil cap, and it's like a beige color. If you were rushing and using a flashlight, you could easily mistake that for milky oil.

 

good point frozen, hadn't thought of that I was assuming he saw oil

 

thats what i figured coolant in the oil, and i am almost 100% positive that i saw oil on the oil cap and down in the chamber. ugh i hope i didnt blow my head gasket, that will 2 cars that need the head to be pulled off... awesome... wont know for sure until tomorrow though

 

Also, before I cleaned out my valve cover, it was filled with tons of milkly oil residue that has clogged up the pcv system and covered those plates. Pull your valve cover and check for sure.

 

i second that^ id actually check your dipstick first tho, because not only is that a metal plate there also the seal on the cap will allow some moisture past and cause a milky ring around there.

 

so what did you do for dinner? lmao.gif