EG94dude

I posted this in The Car lounge yesterday and honda-tech has been awesome to me so I'm sharing my post here

/sand in vagina



Winter is here and I've noticed last winter on a bunch of forums this type of thread pops up at least once a week on pretty much all engine specific forums.

During the winter, it gets so cold that the oil vapors in your crankcase and condensates onto your oil cap. Most people see this when they go to change their oil or just take of the cap and panic thinking. It's nothing more than oil/water emulsion.

What it is:
What you are seeing is nothing more but oil sludge. It is the result of hot oil fumes condensing at the oil breather area near the oil cap and interacting with moisture from the air, mostly in cold weather.. The white-yellowish goo you see is oil condensation mixed with water vapors.

What causes it:
This yellow sludge, goo gunk, whatever you wanna call it, formes because:
1. You drove the engine frequently on short trips and it could not heat up long enough to burn off the water vapors.
2. The oil seals on the oil breather and the oil cap are shot (rarely).
3. You did not tighen the oil cap all the way
4. It's cold outside

How to fix/avoid this:
1. Replace both oil gaskets in the oil breather. One sits between the oil breather and the valve cover. The second gasket you must replace is the one on the oil cap. When these gaskets get heated, the rubber/silicone often burns and shrinks thus allowing for moist air to enter and interact with oil fumes
2. Avoid short trips
3. Switch to synthetic oil. Synthetics have better detergent qualities and will not sludge as much as the conventional motor oil

Hope this makes sense and

cliffnotes:
Milky residue is to be expected on your oil cap in cold weather. It is normal and NO FIX IS NEEDED because it is NOT a problem.

go on and be smart and safe










now with some great words




link here
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=4687094

Matt93eg

Sand in Vagina? LMFAO!!

Good post, informative.

supra-n-civic

blown head gasket hands down. dotn drive this car unless you want a spun bearing or catostrofic failiure. it may run fine for a while but its only causing invisible damage until one day soon . **** the bed. seriously blow head gasket. its the coolant mixing with your oil.

EG94dude

did you read the post? did you click the thread I linked to?

I acknowledge the fact that there is the small off chance it could be a headgasket but in the conditions I listed it is over 99% of the time just oil/water emulsion
1) winter
2) short distance driving

BryanM.

iTrader: (1)

It's common for VAG cars to have this problem. Not so much with Hondas.

I live in a cold climate and have never had this problem.


cliffs: VAG

Vindicator9000

Yep, this is true.

A lot of milky crap is symptom of a headgasket, but a little bit is normal as OP said.

Bwill9886

Jumping the gun a little bit aren't we?

I agree with the other posters that while it COULD be a symptom of a blown head gasket, it can more likely just be from the cold weather (as stated by the OP). You obviously would typically have other symptoms that go along with the failed HG that you could check.

EG94dude

indeed this is true

also I found this to be a common issue on other cars but it did seem like the VAG are more likely to do so, especially the VR6 and Mk1, mk2, mk3, mk4 ubiquitous 2.0L (non-turbo)

strategy400

I've seen this on air-cooled motors (VW)

92ehatch

see this all the time on all sorts of vehicles.

its normal as the op stated.

most the time when i see it, its people who drive their car 1 min to the store, then 1 min home, then 1 min to work, then 1 min back home.

short trips are the main cause

good informative post

Deetz

Hmmm, i'm 36 years old, owned 49 cars, 27 of them being Honda/Acura models, and not once had this happen to even one of my cars ever!!!! Even with winter beater i use for short trip to/from.
It's when i see posts like this for cars like VW's that i will never buy one, as well as them being known for many small electrical gremlins

ballisticej1

My civic is having this issue right now lol.

John M

i was just about to make a thread lol. I have a built gsr in my hatch and it is a fresh setup with around 9000 miles. i have noticed lately that the oilcap gets a tad milky and the hose from the valvecover to the intake has a tas of the same in it.

Now i dont feel as worried.
I do only drive my car 10 mins to work in the morning and 10 mins home in the afternoon. Thats about all the driving i do with this car.

Vindicator9000

yeah, I wouldn't say you should see a ton... When I pulled the valve cover off my d16y8 at 187K miles, I noticed a little bit of crap on the inside of the VC, but none on the valvetrain.

Corksil

bumpweasel has occurred for a little bit of crap on the inside of the valve cover.