2011 Fiat 500 Twinair with 32k miles.

I had the oil filter housing, on the back of the engine, changed a few weeks, after it broke and caused a massive coolant leak.

The garage seemed to have problems fitting it correctly, and I've had it back three times, to nip up the bolts, and finally use sealant.

In the meanwhile, I've thoroughly flushed the coolant and have been running it without antifreeze till this job was finished.

The distilled water was crystal clear, until sometime in the past two weeks, when the inside of the coolant bottle has gone brick red.

Having hopefully finally finished their job, the garage has told me there's another oil leak higher up, possibly the head gasket, though I've had a look with a mirror, and oil is deposited above the inlet manifold so hopefully the rocker cover.

The car's still dropping oil though, so my newly found leak is fairly serious, assuming they've successfully fixed the other leak.

I mention this in case the reddish colour in the coolant bottle is a sign of a blown head gasket.

I've got another persistent problem with four recurring faults which according to a diagnostic, are false readings and could point to a faulty uniair actuator.

Sorry for the long winded post, but has anyone else had a coolant bottle turn red inside, and found the cause?

And does anyone know the cost of having the head gasket done on a Twinair?

Cheers, Peter

I'm new to 500 ownership (1.2) and know nothing about the twinair but is this garage trusted? Don't like the idea that sealant has to be used as a final fix tbh. Surely an oil filter housing can't be that difficult to fix?

Anyway I'm not convinced it's a head gasket issue having had 2 x k series engines in the past! So:

• Is there mayo under the oil filler cap?
• Is the car running rough and misfiring?
• Steam in the exhaust?
• Coolant loss and despite the car heating on it's still blows cold?
• Cooling fan triggering for no real reason?

I can't account for the redness in the coolant but could be some residue left from the original OAT?

Hope you get it sorted soon ..

I don't think my garage has the most skilled mechanics, but they're very honest, and give me my car back when promised.

I'm very dubious about the use of sealant, too, though it is a plastic part, with a rubber seal in a channel.

And there's no other sign of a blown gasket.

The coolant water's a bit murky, but the oil filter housing that's been off, has oil and coolant channels, so that could account for it.

I love this car, and bought it for the engine, but I'll stick with conventional four cylinder motors in future.

Cheers.

Have you recently started using the heater? If you had "coolant" (i.e. not just neat water) in the heater matrix and started using it, then the coolant that was isolated there will have found its way back into the cooling circuit.

"Brick" red sounds a bit strange though. Normally coolant is "pink" .. but I have seen it used at high concentrations and it does look "brick" red. But if a litre or so that was in the heater matrix has just joined the neat water in the rest of the circuit, it would be quite diluted, so I doubt it would look brick red.

It doesn't sound like the head gasket. Oil is brown and when you mix it with water or coolant it turns a moccha (think Latte) coloured.

Can anyone else have stuck a load of coolant in the header tank; While the garage was doing some work, maybe?

Or is it rust? You've been running without coolant for a while so something in the cooling system made of steel (e.g. a pipe) might have corroded some... but as above, I'd expect the colour to be faint, not vivid.

Open the tank (when it's stone cold) and have a sniff of it (don't get any on your face, lips etc.). Does it smell sickly sweet or of "iron"?

If in doubt.. drain it out, via the radiator bottom hose. Refill the system with cold water, open the heater circuit and let it fast idle for a few miuntes.. then drain it again. Refill it with 50% coolant/water.. although since the heater circuit will have neat water in it now, I'd use a 60:40 mix to balance it out.

Don't run on neat water for an extended period.. apart from some coolant pipes, the head gasket core is made of steel mesh. If there's any ingress of water/coolant into the gasket layers, then you want it to not rust out the steel core.

Ralf S.

Brick red, RUST? No antifreeze equals no anti corrosion not sure if your block is iron but a possibility note the coolent flows through the heater matrix regardless of temp setting, there's no adjustable flow valve.

Thanks, guys.

I might not have described the colour very well, and all I can really say is that there's a red element to it.
It did occur to me that having no rust inhibitors might be a problem, but my garage kept messing up their repair, so I didn't want to waste good coolant.
The reddish deposit is in a band two inches, or so, high around the min and max marks, so I think whatever it is floated.
I stuck my finger in for a sample today, and it's sludgy bit not particularly oily, and looks more brown than red.
The red has been there for a few days, but the sludge could be from the garage changing the oil filter housing.
It could indeed be some trapped coolant, as the heater doesn't have a bleed nipple, but I'm pretty sure I ran the car with the heater on full for a while.
I probably did the most thorough flush ever, so it's a pity to have to do it again. I used a nifty vacuum pump to empty the system, as it always holds around two litres anyway when you drain it. I did this half a dozen times with de-ionised water, till it ran clear.

I've found an independent Fiat guy, who's fixed a few Twinairs, so hopefully next week, he'll sort it out, and not break the bank further.

Cheers, Peter