Water and Oil mix

[Marlven Mutepfa]

Hello all, 

I have a Toyota Vanguard 2007, bought it from Japan in November 2018,but i have recently find out that it has started to develop a cream oily like liquid  in the water system. I asked my machenic and he said it's mixing water and Oil and might need to replace the head gasket. 

Any advise on what could be the main problem before I let him do the job. 

[FROSTYBALLS]

The Vanguard is essentially a longer bodied Rav4. Moved to the Rav4 club for a better response.

Is yours petrol or diesel?

[_dct_]

Vanguard is petrol only with either 2.4 AZ or 3.5 GR engine. According to this, some 2AZ engines before 2007 are affected with an issue where head bolt threads going out can lead to head gasket failure. If yours indeed has a 2AZ engine it might be worth checking with a Toyota dealer to see if your engine is among this batch as it can be a borderline model?

Presumably a sniff test was done to determine it is head gasket? If so you will likely need to take the head off to find out the actual cause and if it is the problem above then recommended fix is threaded holes to be rebored and a new gasket.

[Mikeyjd]

Oil and water mixed can be a number of things. Head gasket, crack in cylinder head between water channels and piston bore etc. Are you losing much water?