Mayonnaise type goo in the cap of my water bottle

[nancy]

I have just noticed mayonnaise type goo in the cap of my water bottle and I am fearing the worst..

Even though my Land Rover Freelander is not overheating at all....but I did just add oil...it took 3 litres yesterday...after a month or so...I do a lot of mileage too.....(the car has done 77000 miles so far) no visible oil leaks.....

I just do not want to get stung for a huge amount if it is not the HG

 

 

[Beardy Face]

Caveat: I don't know Freelanders, and my mechanic experience was some years back on older vehicles.

It seems likely that HG is what any garage is likely to conclude, there aren't many ways on a typical vehicle for oil or combustion products to get into the coolant and cause that, and most of the others are even more expensive (cracks in head or engine block, or some other engine designs a cylinder liner moved) "stung" is when they say it's one of those... which they won't know without taking the head off which means a new gasket anyway.

We used to hold the probe from the exhaust gas analyzer in the coolant filler with the engine running, a high HC reading would be positive confirmation of HG or one of the other nastier failures (unlikely, unless someone ran it with plain water instead of anti-freeze or it overheated massively).  I believe there are chemical tests some places use now, which also work. something like http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CAR-VAN-MOTOR-COMBUSTION-LEAK-CO2-TESTER-KIT-HEAD-GASKET-TEST-BLOCK-Fluid-10ml/302160186385 which you could use yourself.

Maybe someone who actually knows Freelanders will have some input, it's possible there could be some other cause I don't know about, I was a "general mechanic" (all makes) but never actually looked under the lid on a Freelander.

[Tanis8472]

Petrol or diesel?