The dreaded LIM problem

billytheman1188 · 02-13-2007, 09:08 AM

You had a few good questions in there, i would be interested in knowing if the engine life is shortened by this problem???? cause i did have the leak, then the guy tightened the bolts where the leak was, it stopped for a while, and now my car leaks A TINY bit, every few days, like it wont leak for a few days, then there might be a little puddle under the car.

but yea, does this affect the engine life? performance? and like he said, what else should be done after we get this fixed? is anything else affected or not?

IRONDOG442 · 02-13-2007, 10:04 AM

It depends on if you got oil in the antifreeze or antifreeze in the oil, of course watering down the oil in the car greatly lessens its viscosity or (resistance to flow). If I knew I had a LIM gasket failing that was putting antifreeze in my oil I would stop driving the car immediately. The lower ends of 60 degree v6s are strong but they were meant to be ran with oil between the bearings, not dexcool. I have also heard that over time a slow leak will cause detrimental damage to your camshaft and other internals inside the valley of the engine e.g. lifters. I am not sure there is a study on overall internal wear and tear or excess damamge regarding this problem but common sense tells you that this is definitely not a good thing. to just continue driving the car while a LIM seal is failing. What does the oil on the dipstick look like? Definitely change the oil observe the color and texture of it. Also when the car is fixed of course you want to change the oil thats in the crank case now.

knight03 · 02-13-2007, 10:46 AM

Thanks for the reply irondog.

It is coolant in the antifreeze, I'm trying to get the vehicle to the dealership today. (not sure how long this has been happening for becuase as I said I just got this car) Engine has been running fine. Oil on the dipstick looks okay, definitely not sludgy like the upper area of the engine block.

I realize the engine will need to be flushed and oil change performed, as well a coolant system flush and refill. I'm curious as to whether any sensors or other things (I don't know that much about engines) would have become contaminated from this problem. I'm thinking that if the pcv valve is coated in this stuff that it is likely to have allowed some contamination into the exhaust system (I maybe way off with that thinking).