Mayo on underside of Oil cap

[cmdrfire]

If your head gasket has failed you won't have compression in one or more cylinders.
This is a picture of the milky deposits from my car this winter:



This is the first winter where I've noticed it; I think the unusual cold must be a causative factor.
The US forums have been reporting this for a few years now, nothing to worry about.

[Top Cat]

Is it me or does it look like a Ninja or SAS op is checking your oil. 

[Mako V12V]

And what strange milk you must drink because it looks yellowy to me!

[candy turbo]

If your head gasket has failed you won't have compression in one or more cylinders.
This is a picture of the milky deposits from my car this winter:



This is the first winter where I've noticed it; I think the unusual cold must be a causative factor.
The US forums have been reporting this for a few years now, nothing to worry about.

i dont get that much , only a trace

[cmdrfire]

Is it me or does it look like a Ninja or SAS op is checking your oil. 

  that's my full arctic circle getup :D

...and if my milk was that colour rest assured I wouldn't drink it!

[Gene Hunt]

Got a bit under mine.Only a 14 mile round trip to work & back & the temp gauge never even gets to half way at the moment.

[snapey]

Checked mine this afternoon and its pretty much similar, just a bit on the cap and housing. Nothing on the dip stick or sump so nothing to worry about 

The catch can is catching a fair whack of moisture so it's doing its job 

[Janner_Sy]

fitted the new MAF sensor today, and checked the oil level at the same time had a look at mine this afternoon,

the dipstick level was good, as was the colour of the oil on it.

checked the filler cap and was pretty horrified at what i saw.




Now this last month the car has only done 170 miles, the large majority of which have been very short journeys.
Iike dropping my wife to work ‘2 mile round trip’, then picking her up after another 4 hours. Both times the car starts off as cold, and will have just got up to temp by the time i get back home.

anyway i cleaned all the gunk off the filler cap and the inside of the filler pipe and went out for a 15 mile drive to keeping the revs above 3500rpm.

After the drive the gunk seems to be mostly gone from the lid, and seems a lot better in the filler pipe



I have a bit of paranoia now that it could be a head gasket, however the coolant level hasn’t dropped, and also my car is in for its second service (29K) on Wednesday.

I have noticed my MPG has been rubbish recently, I out it down to th e short journeys though.

Could this cause a problem. I dropped my filler cap a while back and the top cracked. As you can see in the top of the cap, there is a small hole there. Could that cause a problem maybe allowing moisture into the oil??

[Blade]

I to was a little bit horrified to see all that gunk but as others have said its not a problem, just a consequence of all this cold weather we are having of late.

[winrya]

As above mine has been the same through the last 3 winters - nothing to worry about, soon burns off when it gets warmer

[vRS Carl]

Mine has been like yours lately sy

but the Missus has only been doing short trips in it to and from work.

I get it every year and it's no different with the catch can despite the amount of water i empty every 1k miles or so.

I really wouldn't worry unless you start seeing coolant levels changing and dipstick oil starting to be gunky

Carl

[KRL]

VRSY, I would not be too worried, like you said the mayo is probably consequence of lots of short journeys, cold starts, cold weather and the engine not having a chance to warm up properly.

The reason the mayo forms is due to moisture getting into the engine.  When the engine is cold the moisture at the top of the engine around the oil cap does not get heated up enough to turn into vapor so it mixes with the oil hence causing the mayo effect.  Therefore that hole on the oil cap will not help so I would get a new cap if I were you.  Also consider getting a catch can as they really do filter most of the moisture out of the engine.

[Janner_Sy]

KRL, that is with the catch can as well.  i have a feeling that as the oil is 12k old now, its probably not helpinganyway.

cheers for the help guys, i have seen mayo on the filler cap before after short journeys etc, but never as thick as that

[Blade]

KRL, that is with the catch can as well.  i have a feeling that as the oil is 12k old now, its probably not helpinganyway.

cheers for the help guys, i have seen mayo on the filler cap before after short journeys etc, but never as thick as that

12k same oil - i change mine every 5k.

[chungster]

12k same oil - i change mine every 5k.

same here!