Oil In Water - 2009 Honda CRV 2.2 Diesel

[mozabar]

I've recently brought a 2009 Honda CRV. A few weeks after buying it I noticed that the heater wasnt heating up properly. On a low blower setting you could feel the heat coming out, but turning the blower up made the air come out cold. I took it to a Honda dealer who carried out a check and said that there was oil in the water and that this was likely causing or at least contributing to the heater not working properly. The car drives fine and doesn't over heat I have a 100 mile a day round trip to work and there have been no issues what so ever. Since buying the car I've done about 1500 miles, some local driving but most of it motorway miles.

Since the Honda dealer diagnosed the problem I am hesitant to drive the car in case it causes damage to the engine if it is a head gasket problem.


I always thought that it was normally the other way round, ie water in the oil.

So my questions are as follows

1. Is Oil in the Water the same as Water in the Oil?
2. If everything else appears fine (other than the heater not heating) what could have caused Oil to leak in to the water.

I'm also curious to know if anyone else has had a similar problem and what they did to fix the problem.


Thanks

Mo

[trickywoo]

mozabar said:

1. Is Oil in the Water the same as Water in the Oil?
2. If everything else appears fine (other than the heater not heating) what could have caused Oil to leak in to the water.

Firstly I'd get a second opinion. Its not hard to test, normally a garage will do a 'sniff test' of the water in the header tank for combustion products.

This will then confirm whether or not you have a head gasket (HG) or other cylinder head issue.

Oil in the water is the same as water in the oil. They are mainly going to mix if the HG has failed or you have a crack in the casting.

With the journey length you are doing you should have noticed other problems by now e.g. water level going down, oil level going up, over heating etc.

The fact you haven't may mean you have a heater matrix problem or better still just a control valve issue.

Either way it doesn't sound like the Honda garage have done you a great service so far and they would likely be the costliest option if anything does need to be fixed.

Book it into another garage and see what they say.

Edited by trickywoo on Wednesday 29th August 13:33

[Sheepshanks]

Remote possibility, as you just bought the car - there's scam where buyers put oil in the water when the seller isn't looking, then tell the seller the car is knackered and offer less for it.

This could have happened to your car. How much oil is there? Did you buy the car privately? The seller might have tried to clean it up but not got rid of all of it.

[trickywoo]

Sheepshanks said:

Remote possibility, as you just bought the car - there's scam where buyers put oil in the water when the seller isn't looking, then tell the seller the car is knackered and offer less for it.

This could have happened to your car. How much oil is there? Did you buy the car privately? The seller might have tried to clean it up but not got rid of all of it.

Good call. Could be.

[mozabar]

The car went back to the garage that I brought it from this morning and they have told me that it is the head gasket that is gone. They have provide a courtesy car while they get the head gasket on my car fixed. Looks like I wont get my car back until mid next week. Fortunately its not going to cost me a penny as it is covered under warranty.