hey guys, so my car has been in storage for the last 4 months and while doing a quick check up i noticed my engine coolant had a brownish red color to it. The radiator is only a year and a half old and the coolant thats currently in there is only a year old. Just wondering what could cause this?
On another note about a year ago i had some tests done and a dealership had found that my heads were leaking a small amount of air into my coolant(i had these tests done because i wasnt getting any heat). They would have to drop the engine in order to fix it so they had given me an estimate of around $3500 to fix it. i couldnt afford it at the time so they refilled my coolant and i was on my way. its been over a year since then and i still have heat, i know the dealership was not trying to scam me because the place i had the tests done is a very reputable dealership so thats out of the question. Could this problem randomly resolve itself?
Also im pretty sure the heads leaking a small amount of air into the coolant isnt even a big issue but not sure how long long i should let my engine run this way or what other problems could arise from it.

Any knowledge/insight would be helpful since this has been bugging me for a long time.
Thanks!

My car is a 2005 Infiniti G35 coupe auto

 

hummm.
maybe there was dirt in your cooling system (on the engine walls and radiator hose walls)
and after siting for a while the water in the system condensed and made the dirt come off the walls into the coolant......?
only thing I can think of haha.
just before you drive it, drain that coolant out, fill it up with water, run car for 2-3 min, drain that wAter and fill with 50/50 antifreeze and water.

 

It would be possible that you did not actually have enough of an issue to be noticeable in the time you've driven/placed your car in storage. Bare in mind there are folks with oil consumption that don't notice it as the oil they burn isn't enough to cause a problem. Your situation could be the same, but I would put enough cash aside for new heads/engine rebuild depending on the damage.

 

thanks for the input guys.
a little bit of a side note when i replaced the rad a year and a half ago we had troubles trying to get air out of the system. we tryed 3 times to get it to fill and it just wouldnt, so after a couple months of testing and loosing heat i finally brought it to the dealership and they finally managed to fill the system for me. Then a few months later i lost heat again so i brought it back and thats when they determined the leaks in the heads.
im thinking i might just have to bring it back in the spring and get a full service and testing done, just kinda sucks the dealership charges huge bucks for everything lol

 

If the leak is small, u can try liquid gasket. I think thats what its called. U pour it into the radiator, run the motor and it seals up all the leaks everywhere in hoses, radiator, heads,... I would try that before doing a rebuild.

 

Don't know if it would be a good idea to put a "band aid" on a problem. Better off fixing it right the first time. Might even be better off finding a used motor.

 

I've looked into used motors and I'd be more comfortable just rebuilding mine rather than running into new problems with a motor that could have been abused every day lol

My main issue here is that I still have heat even after a year. If the heads were leaking air into the coolant then I should have no heat by now. This is what confuses me lol