The past weekend, I installed my blue spring upgrade. When I drained some coolant off, I noticed it was a brownish color.

After doing some searching on the forum, sounds like there might be some issues; however, I couldn't find anything that was similar to my situation.

The coolant appear to be brownish, but didn't appear to be "sludgy" at least what I drained from the radiator petcock.

The oil appears "normal", no creamy milk shake syndrome.

Never had any issues with overheating or coolant puke, and levels of both oil and coolant appear to be relatively normal.

The coolant system was flushed and refilled in March of 2010 by the local Ford dealer, approximately 25K miles ago.

The truck is an '07 F250 and total mileage is ~ 87K miles. I'm thinking I will take it to the dealer and let them check it out, but wanted to get some expert opinions on what it might be? According to the dealer, they can test the coolant to see if I have a problem with the oil cooler, but I wasn't sure if they really can or how reliable that test is.

Since it's still under the Powertrain warranty, I think any significant issues would be covered, but I don't want them to miss any obvious symptoms that may be indicative of a problem after the warranty period. Over the phone they indicated that the coolant should be flushed and changed every 30K miles ($119).

I've read up on the recommended change procedure that folks here are doing, and I'm tempted to do that and see if that "fixes" the issue, but for approximately the same $ amount, I'm thinking it might be better to have the dealer check it out and do their version of the coolant flush & fill.

Any suggestions on what this might be, specific things to ask the service dept about or the best course of action would be appreciated.

Thanks,

John

 

Mine was brown last year. Ended up being a blown oil cooler. Have it checked. Mine ran fine and the oil looked fine but had a blown oil cooler, egr cooler and head gaskets.

 

Thanks for the info!

John

 

Sir if you are still under warrenty don't hesitate to take it in and let the tech check it over. Hopefully its nothing, but if it is an oil cooler rupture or some other malfunction it will be repaired UNDER WARRENTY.

 

Not trying to discourage you, I just wanted to let you know mine ran fine also with the problems I ended up having. I took mine in for the very same symptom you are having.

 

No problem, I'm pretty sure (at least I hope) that this is a warranty repair. Do you know what they did to arrive at the diagnosis?

I'm just worried that I'll go in there, they'll change out the coolant and send me on my way without doing a thorough diagnosis.

Thanks,

John

 

Hows your oil leval???

untill you get it figured out dont drive it or start it for that matter

Does it look like oil or smell like diesel fuel

 

Do you see any oil or slim in the degasing tank this is where it should show up as it goes through the cooling system.
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