Was changing a hose when I noticed oil in the coolant tank. There doesn't seem to be coolant in the engine, no milky oil or white smoke from the exhaust. Bad intake or head gaskets or both? 2001 intrigue with the 3.5L. 140,000 miles and runs well.

If you look at a lot of recovery tanks, especially on older cars, the recovery tanks look like crap....unless you have owned the car from day one, and seen that tank clean for years , and then suddenly get crappy, then you know something is amiss.....may not be oil....

If a used car, the previous history is unknown....maybe a coolant repair(i.e., water pump) was made and sealing pellets were used.....they will leave a slimy residue in the tank......or it there was a leak, dexcool crud on the underside of the radiator cap, can make it'* way into the reservoir......

It use to be 3years/100K on coolant, now it'* 5years/150K.....more often than not, you get a coolant flush, some shops just drain the radiator......some shops, in addition, will remove the plugs from the block......most shops will use a machine and pump out the coolant, and pump in the new.......in many cases, the fluid in the reservoir is never touched...never even drained........I use to remove the reservoir, dump it, and and using a baby bottle brush, I could bend it and get the residue out of the reservoir, to remove all the crud before refilling.......since I retired, shops don't like me when I bring the car in for service.......

Ok, thanks for your advice! I will keep a closer eye on things under the hood in regard to the cooling system. Thanks again!

I as well have used the baby bottle brush trick on coolant recovery tanks, works like a charm!