Oil cap

[naylor1401]

Hi, when i checked my oil today, i noticed that when i lifted the cap off, there was like a thick residue on the inside of the cap, kind of like a browny coloured yoghurt if you will. Im just wondering what this could be? I have a 98 plate 1.2 Vauxhall Corsa Breeze.

Any Suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks

Pete

[logic]

Have you been putting a different type of oil in,?
ie, synthetic or semi synthetic, when maybe mineral oil was already in,?
If not look inside the coolant header tank to see if there is any yohurt in there, if there is ,suspect the cylinder head gasket,
If no to both just keep an eye on things for awhile till the cold weather has gone, then change the oil.
This used to be a common thing years ago, and was caused by cold air hitting a source of hot oil, although we used to call it sallad cream,
Let me know the result,
Good luck.

[cleggie]

common thing in cold damp weather especially on vauxhall.its caused by similiar to condensation.it usually occurs if the car is driven only short journeys and the engine cannot get hot enough to burn off the condensation.so you have to wipe it away and give it a good run.thats why it dont happen in summer.if it was head gasket gone you would notice a difference in expansion tank ie it would need keep topping up.search it on google and you will find many instances of this

[Toureman]

It's probably not a problem with the head gasket !

Vauxhalls engines seem to run a bit to cool unless you do a lot of long trips, this causes the mayonnaise sort of crud on the inside of the cap, do you do mainly short trips?

The Astra I had did it, blanking off a small bit of the radiator cured it.

[cleggie]

Toureman can you please explain a bit more re blanking off a bit of the radiator cos this might help me too

[Toureman]

Hi cleggie,

On my Astra I just slipped a thin strip of plywood down in front of the radiator, it stayed in place just because of the design of the radiator surround, the wood only covered about a quarter of the radiator, keep your eye on the temperature gauge if you do high a speed run and if you get stuck in traffic

[cleggie]

thanks toureman

[eastern]

Needs an "Italian Tune Up"!!