Hi Guys,

Haven't posted in years and i need your help.

5 weeks ago did my oil change as it was do, oil looked normal but old

3 weeks ago my engine suspisciously lost 1 litre of coolant . No visible leaks or anything, topped it off and drove away fine.

1 week ago I get an 'oil' low 1qt warning. Checked the engine bay for leaks, nothing visible. It was late at night , so I figured I'd google the secret menu and check my oil level tomorrow.

Next day I check my oil reading and it reads 0 litres and i get an engine code for faulty sensor.

So I dismiss the error as a bad sensor rather than a real engine problem.

4 days later my car overheats and I find oil in my coolant so I figure 'blown head gasket'

Go the a shop recommended by a friend (first time at this shop since I moved to a new city last year).

Guy says it's more likely an oil cooler than a head gasket. I agree with the diagnosis and let him work on the car (I'm not a noob , i didn't just hand over the keys)... but at the time he recommends also pulling the engine and replacing some front seals , which I thought was sketchy. He says it's been mixing coolant/ oil long enough that even if we replace the oil cooler , those seals will most likely have been blown.

I humor him (with high doubt) and let him change only hte oil cooler and flush the systems.

Calls me back today to say the oil cooler was blown, but that it's still mixing fluids. Says there are front seals to be replaced.

Now I've never taken apart an M271... but I have rebuilt older 90s engines (Toyotas and mitsubishi's) and I'm finding it very hard to understand where (other than the oil cooler and the headgasket) the engine is potentially mixing fluids.

Is it true that the M271 has front seals that can blow and mix fluids?
If so, is it true that the entire engine has to be pulled to replace them?

I don't have a car right now so I'm going to take a cab to go see it/him and talk this over. If you guys can help me out in the next 2 hours before I head out to see him I'd really appreciate it!!!!!!

 

The only oil cooler that could mix fluids is in the bottom of the radiator & that would mix coolant & transmission fluid. It's the transmission cooler.

Sounds as though you have a blown cylinder head gasket.

Please find someone that knows what they are talking about to work on this car or it's going to get expensive quickly.