The car in question is a 96 Mustang Cobra.

ARKEZIUS

MEMBER
1996 FORD MUSTANG
170,000 MILES

I'm a noob when it comes to these things so any help will be greatly appreciated. Oil somehow is leaking into my antifreeze reservoir. The car has been sitting out over winter. When I open up my overflow the antifreeze in it is brown, thick and gooey. I know I need to get it flushed out and put new anti freeaze in but I guess my question is, can I start my car like this or would it cause damage? What should I do?

Monday, March 26th, 2012 AT 9:39 PM

1 Reply

DRCRANKNWRENCH

MECHANIC
3,380 POSTS

The head gasket(s) are bad and need replacement. It probably was damaged from the anti-freeze not being changed.
With the mileage on it, you should also do the timing chains.
There is not other way to fix it and driving it will only cause more problems and lead to a complete engine re-build and that engine is expensive to rebuild.
For now, change the oil and anti-freeze and take it to a reputable repair shop near you and get an estimate. You can use the search engine on this site to find a repair facility NEAR you. Just search and look at links and ADs on the page for links.

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Monday, March 26th, 2012 AT 9:48 PM