Hey guys, got a bit of a brain puzzler on my hands. So I'm driving a 2005 Bf falcon, and the other day it overheated on me. I stopped as soon as my warning light came on. I checked my overflow bottle and discovered extremely thick brown sludge in it, looks almost like a caramel thickshake. I immediately knew why it had overheated, question is how it got in there. I called racv, he didn't even check anything at all but the bottle and told me I'd done the head. Lube mobile told me the same thing. The thing is, I'm not losing any engine oil, there is no water or milky residue in the engine, no smoke blowing, the car runs perfectly fine, I flushed the brown sludge, and it has not overheated since. I have however been having transmission problems over the last month, I thought that I had the issue when the internal cooler splits and mixes the transmission oil with the coolant, but having taken it to a mechanic who thought the same thing, he had a look and was puzzled because it looks like the trans cooler was external, there is a single coil that runs in front of the radiator that looks like it is going to the trans, but could not see any other pipes connecting anything else to the radiator. Where is this oil coming from? Thanks in advance.

I'd wager that it's coming from your head, but to be sure you can take it to a radiator specialist and have them perform a coolant chemical test. It tests for the presence of exhaust gasses in your coolant. If any are present, you know your head is leaking. Costs around $30.

Just puzzled me because I have lost no oil at all from the engine, is that normal? And it runs perfectly fine. Is there a hidden trans cooler pipe that is underneath or something? The only issue I have had is gear slipping before this.

It will be the trans issue.
Take it to another mechanic.

that single coil cooler in front of your radiator is your power steering cooler.

I would be getting another mechanic to look at it..

The water cooler bit for the tranny oil lives near the starter motor.....even has it's own thermostat too.
As you can see in the pics, it's bolted to the side of the engine sump....it's made by KTM too.
It has hard plastic lines from the auto to the cooler.

 

 

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I forgot to mention, that having water mixed with the tranny fluid will fvck the auto.....it makes the clutch pack linings swell up.....which in turn won't let the clutch packs disengage properly....they will be dragging.

yeah you DON'T want ANY water in ya tranny .. mixing motor oil/coolants bad enuf

get a pressure test done asap AND check ya gearbox lines ta see if they do connect to ya radiator ... i like to have mine gearbox cooler separate to the radiator just incase it does leak between

There was a local FG here that had that cooling block give out and filled the trans with water... It was fully flushed as best you can without completely dismantling the trans and filter and such fitted to it and it still died a couple of months later...

Once it happens there seems to be no coming back... Hope your BF is still under warranty otherwise you're up for a bit more than just to replace that cooling block if the trans goes...

Cheers,
Tim

Correct me if im wrong but i thought only the BF ZFs onwards has the external Tranny cooler...

I.e 6 speed auto optioned models.

That was what I thought as well.

nope alot of the 4 speed auto BF's got the external (side of block) trans cooler