1996 Volkswagen Polo Pricing and Specs

None of these symptoms are what you want to find. Any car mixing its coolant with its engine oil has some kind of internal failure (often a head gasket failure) and a car that is consuming oil at a fast rate is also probably suffering some kind of internal damage or wear. Have a mechanic perform a few basic tests on the engine (compression, leak-down and head-gasket) and proceed from there. But if it's as bad as it sounds, you could be looking for a new engine (or a new car).

These engines were known for being quite complex and perhaps not as durable as they should have been in some cases. They're also quite expensive to rebuild and may cost more to fix than the entire car is worth. At that point, you have some tough decisions to make.

Assuming you're looking at the coolant catch-bottle and not the windscreen-washer fluid bottle, this is probably a bad thing. Any time the car's engine coolant can mix with its oil or vice-versa, there's a chance that the cause is a failed head gasket or perhaps even something more serious like a split cylinder bore.

But don't just assume that any contamination in the coolant is engine oil. It could be something else from another source. Does the engine oil look milky on the dipstick? If it does, then that's almost certainly due to coolant being mixed with it, and that backs up the failed head gasket theory. The other thing I'd like to know is how fast the engine oil level is dropping. Some oil use is normal for a car's engine, so simply watching that level fall over a few thousand kilometres and presuming it's going into the coolant is a long shot to say the least. It sounds like you need to have the car's cooling system pressure tested and the engine compression tested. That's the best way to put and end to the guessing game.

By the way, is your car a South African-bult VW? From what I can gather only South Africa got a model called the Polo Vivo which featured a few country-specific features and details and was very well received by buyers in that part of the world.

Firstly, check that it's the coolant overflow bottle you're referring to and not the windscreen washer bottle; it sounds basic, but they can look similar from above.

If there is a milky looking fluid and it is in the radiator overflow bottle, then you potentially have a head gasket problem on your hands. The first thing to do is take the car to a workshop which can confirm or rule out the gasket drama, and take it from there. Most workshops will probably conduct what's called a TK test which checks the radiator's coolant for traces of the chemicals that are created during the engine's combustion process. In a normal engine, these chemicals can't reach the coolant, but if the head gasket has failed, the combustion and cooling systems can intermingle. When this happens, a murky, milky coolant is often the result.

The recent cold, wet weather across much of Australia has meant that many car owners are suddenly finding milky deposits under their engines' oil filler caps, too. This is also a classic symptom of a blown head gasket, but it can also be simple a build up of condensation in the engine thanks to the prevailing weather conditions. This is especially true if the vehicle is used only for short trips. A decent run at highway speeds will often be enough to get the engine hot enough to evaporate these harmless deposits.

But don't assume that this is the case, as a car that really does have a failed head gasket can easily overheat in such conditions and that can lead to complete engine failure. Have the car checked by a professional and you'll know how to proceed.